LinkedIn recently published its findings about skills-based hiring, comparing YOY figures.
Jobs are changing, even if you’re not changing jobs. And job descriptions are doing so at an increasing rate, accelerated by the pandemic. Upskilling is the key to staying relevant in your current role, or pivoting into a new role, and skills are front and center for all hiring managers searching for the right candidate. – Karen Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn.
“The labor market is still very much a job seeker’s market,” says Nick Bunker, economic research director at Indeed Inc. “Something dramatic will have to happen for this to change anytime soon.”
And executive recruiter Kurt VandeMotter says more than 60% of job vacancies are unadvertised. Simple math of open positions is estimated at 11 million (6MM advertised on LinkedIn plus those unadvertised) as of this writing.
Skills-based recruiting is emphasized unlike ever before.
According to many top recruiters, there is agreement about how “hard skills will get you the interview—soft skills will get you the job.” And for leaders who want to pivot into new verticals, employers will consider industry newcomers based upon their candidate’s skillset.
As professionals respond to solutions about the pandemic challenges, the need for soft skills is surging. It’s what we used to call “chemistry.”
Companies are realizing that skills-based hiring works: hiring leaders by leveraging skills data to find the right match are 60% more likely to find a successful hire than those not relying on skills.
The difference between hard and soft skills
Soft skills are the essential interpersonal skills that make or break our ability to get projects completed (servant leadership, emotional intelligence). If you’re a job seeker, look for soft skills learning modules; if employed, it could help to brush up on your soft skills to be current.
Hard skills are acquired through formal education, on-the-job expertise, university intensive course certifications or learning and development training programs – those professional skills which are used to perform your scope of responsibilities at your highest level.
High on any list as the most desired skill to have by 2022 is complex problem-solving ability —the capacity to solve the “new normal” business model, ill-defined problems in complex, pandemic-influenced challenges.
And now is when strong leaders are demonstrating their mental elasticity to solve problems we’ve never seen before, and to solve them in a pandemic landscape that’s getting more complex by the minute.
Your Take-Away
In an increasingly automated world, the essence of being human is becoming more important. Possessing and developing soft skills is valuable not only because of increased machine learning, but also because soft skills are transferable across industries if your career needs to pivot.
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Sources: Career FAQs, Bloomberg, Forbes NYC Council, LinkedIn
