You don’t need to look too far to find the good and bad about the future of work.
With improvements in technology, increasing amounts of automation, and the impending impact of artificial intelligence, many people are painting a wrong perception of what the future trends might look like.
Yet the future of work doesn’t need to be filled with doom and gloom. While things such as automation and robotics are becoming more widespread and placing less of a focus on labour employment, this is nothing new, as the human workforce has greatly evolved over our long-lasting history.
While these rapid changes will lead to severe disruption in many industries, it also means opportunities will arise in new fields of work, where human interaction and soft-skills will become a key differential factor in the business world.
Why are soft skills so important?
The reason many corporations or hiring managers specifically value soft-skills so much, is because soft-skills are transferrable skills that can be implemented in any company position. These allow employees to become multi-disciplinary and very adaptable.
Let’s take a closer look at what skills could shape the future of work.
Critical Thinking
A skill many require today and one that will become more important in the future, critical thinking is a necessary component of problem solving. Its relevance relies on critically assessing any situation through reason rather than emotion. It’s important to begin adapting our mind to automation and robotic transformation, to have a solid grasp of analysing any situation and making the right decisions whether its operations or personnel related.
Critical thinking will always be a need in business operations, it’s a solid methodology in identifying issues along with possible solutions and can be applied to almost every facet of employment both small and large.
Problem Solving
This is a key human skill applied to countless forms of work and will remain relevant well into the future. It goes hand in hand with critical thinking, being the next logical step to take after analysing a problem.
As innovation continues to lead the way in future employment, there will be a stronger reliance on critical thinking and complex problem-solving skills to resolve newer issues that are inevitably created. Timing will also play a crucial role in problem solving, the most effective problem solvers in both timing and resources will be the key players every company will want.
Communication
Social intelligence is an often-overlooked skill but one that continues to rise in prominence as technology advances. In our digital age, it’s possible to instantly connect with millions of people around the word, placing more focus on key digital communication.
However, the pattern will be changing. As we become more and more introvert to personal real-life experiences, one fundamental competitive advantage of any person now or the future, will be their capability to engage well in offline communication. Whether you are pitching a product, leading a conference or motivating your workforce, having a strong set of interpersonal skills will allow you to gain that competitive advantage over others and especially, machinery.
Creativity
The main reason industries expand and evolve is through creativity. Creativity breeds innovation so is one of the most valuable skills a person can have, whether used today or long into the future.
As new technologies continue to develop, creative minds are required to help best apply and implement for consumers, making it a great skill to develop for selling products and services of the future.
Creativity is and will always be something in which we can differentiate ourselves to machinery. Our ability to invent new things and therefore foster innovation will always be on-demand in our personal and work environment.
Decision Making and Judgement
A business always plans a strategy based on data and analysis. The data collected is analysed to make appropriate decisions, but people are still needed to make the most important calls.
Therefore, the ability to understand and analyse data and make the right decisions based on the findings will become crucial in future companies as it is a skill that can be developed over time.
Check out one of our latest posts on the Future of Work, only this time, we look at it from a different context – the future trends in the workplace.
In collaboration with The H Factor HR experts.