Undoubtedly, you’ve heard of the “skills gap” also known as the “talent gap”. This gap represents the deficiencies in the skills needed to be a successful employee versus the available skills in the applicant or candidate pool.
Employers have determined that their desired qualifications are not being met by the current labor force. Since every position is different so are the needs of every employer, and this makes it very hard to figure out which are the top skills that are in demand right now.
When asked, which skills are in demand right now, most of us would probably say technology skills.
According to the World Economic Forum, cloud computing, web architecture, development framework, middleware and integration software, user interface design, information security, and mobile development are the hottest skills to have.
An article by Megan Elliot on Money & Career Cheat Sheet also supports the theory that technology is the top in-demand skill for 2017. This articles also includes Java development, big data, algorithm design, storage systems and management among the hottest skills.
Citing technology and the “Internet of Things” or (IoT) for short, is a safe bet when it comes to futuristic predictions. However, human resource professionals see lots of people with awesome technical skills, but questionable soft skills.
Soft skills are emerging as the most in-demand skills right now.
Soft skills include interpersonal, communication, analytical, presentation, and deductive reasoning skills. But anyone in a management role will agree that it is becoming harder and harder to communicate with employees. Part of the reason is because technology has changed the way we communicate with each other. For instance, texting is more popular than email, in fact, people hate email. Fastcodesign.com published an article titled, “How Email Became The Most Reviled Communication Experience Ever”, which chronicles the fall of email’s popularity.
Social media platform’s emojis and memes have also altered the way we communicate with each other and that has infiltrated the workplace. The bottom line is now employees have weaker soft skills than ever before, thus making communicating much more difficult. When communication is stifled, conflict arises. Poor soft skills can affect your career projection, salary, and compensation. Even our leaders need to have good soft skills; if not, it could have an effect on retaining top performers.
Here are a few more reasons why soft skills are just as important as tech skills:
Technology skills are hot, and will always be useful in the ever-changing job market; however, soft skills are important and declining, which puts them in higher demand right now. We believe that assessments play a huge role in determining the top job skills necessary for your company.
Tell us which skills you feel are the most useful to employers in the comments below.
3 Comments
Let’s start by admitting that the first skills we need are technical. Let’s suppose we have a job which requires German language skills, and data warehouse development. Do you hire a person fluent in German, or a person fluent in Oracle and PL/SQL? I believe German can wait, and in this case, you can offer language and communication training. But, of course, it all depends on the job requirements and priorities.
There’s always been this challenge to find good technical people who are also good communicators. We can’t always find them; however, there is one thing we can do as a company to nurture these skills, and that is monthly team-building meetings. It might be expensive, but it is so worth it for the spirit of a productive team.
Cloud, web, frameworks – that’s the reality we live in and we can’t avoid it. The only thing we can do is to mix teams with people from different educational backgrounds. Multi-disciplinary teams that can cover both soft and technical skills are the way to go. That’s why the role of a business analyst becomes more and more important in an IT team.