This morning I set out to research the Top 10 skills employers needed in 2020. A simple task, I thought, as I took the first list I found, and it made perfect sense to me.
But a quick scan of Google presented me with numerous Top 10’s, Top 7’s, Top 15’s and suddenly I started to doubt my first assumption. I thought of Segal's Law, "A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."
My way forward was to check the level of consensus between ten reputable lists and rank them according to frequency. Interestingly, I found 20 different skill sets with not one single skill that appeared on every list!
Top 20 skills required for 2020 onwards
- Teamwork / Collaboration (9)
- Digital Literacy / Computer / Technical skills (9)
- Critical thinking and Problem solving (8)
- Communication (7)
- Interpersonal skills / Emotional Intelligence (7)
- Leadership / People Management (6)
- Organisation and time management (5)
- Cognitive flexibility (5)
- Analytical skills (4)
- Innovative thinking / Creativity (4)
- Negotiation and Persuasion (3)
- Perseverance and Motivation / Work ethic (3)
- Confidence / Positivity (2)
- Service orientation (2)
- Commercial Awareness and Business Acumen (1)
- Ability to work under pressure (1)
- Entrepreneurial skills (1)
- Managing ambiguity (1)
- Cultural understanding and diversity (1)
- Judgement and decision making (1)
The Top 5 came as no surprise. We work so much better as a team and if we cannot communicate, we will undoubtedly fail. Those with strong interpersonal skills can be taught and the best employers will ‘hire for attitude and train for skills’ to quote Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest Airlines.
In today’s screen-heavy world, digital literacy ranked very highly - No surprise there!
And of course, the ability to solve problems and think critically is essential in enabling business improvement and building engagement.
I was more intrigued by the lower end of the list.
Having been raised to put the customer first, the relatively low emphasis that employers put on Service orientation, Commercial awareness and Business acumen came as quite a surprise.
And in only one of the ten lists did ‘cultural understanding and diversity’ appear. For me, this would be top of the list in 2020.
If you didn’t know beforehand, you can’t always believe everything you read on the internet!
Apart from this article, of course! 😊
David Newland; QLD Operations Manager
