Key Takeaways

Identifying key skills for success helps you enhance your abilities and maximize employee performance. Essential workplace skills include communication, collaboration, problem-solving and adaptability. Focus on developing both hard and soft skills to enhance employee effectiveness. Offer training programs to help employees improve their skills and advance their careers. Encourage continuous learning and skill development to foster a competitive, engaged workforce.

What skills for success do your employees need, and what should you look for in prospective employees during the hiring process? Understanding the important skills for success helps you hone your personal skills and coax the best out of your employees. When you have a strong workforce with these skills, they work well together as a team, interact better with clients and improve their performance.

Types of skills for success in the workplace

Every job requires certain technical skills specific to the position. An accountant needs to know how to create and interpret financial reports. Welders need to know how to safely use welding equipment. Nurses need to know how to insert an IV, administer medication and document patient information in medical records. Employees learn these skills through coursework and on-the-job training.

But employees also need soft skills for success. These are the behaviors or traits that the employee has that can be applied to any position. They help an employee work better with colleagues and build strong customer relationships.

Some of these important skills are things that you can’t really develop. If someone isn’t flexible or doesn’t have strong ethics, it’s difficult to teach that. At the very least, you can’t force employees to care about learning new things or take initiative at work.

However, other skills can be developed, especially if you have a willing workforce that wants to improve. You can train your employees on effective ways to communicate or time management skills, and employees can attend leadership seminars to develop leadership skills. Identifying important workplace skills and helping nurture them in your employees can improve their performance overall.

1. Verbal, nonverbal and written communication

The workplace requires constant communication, especially when employees are part of a team. Even when employees work independently, their performance often impacts other people at the office. Strong communication ensures all key people have the information they need to do their jobs correctly.

It’s also important for employees to share their ideas and opinions on work-related issues. This supports innovation and can raise red flags about projects, which could save you time and money.

Verbal, nonverbal and written communication skills work together to improve colleague interactions. You need employees who understand how to express their knowledge and opinions clearly. They also need to know how to actively listen to colleagues and consider that information, instead of ignoring it. 

Communication is also crucial when interacting with people outside the company. Employees need to understand how to explain things to clients and listen to them to give them the information they want. They need to handle delicate situations carefully to maintain client relationships. Some employees might speak in public as a representative of your company, so they need to know how to communicate clearly and represent you well.

2. Agility

You understand how quickly business can change. COVID-19 is a glaring example of how quickly businesses need to adapt when something unexpected happens. Having employees who are agile and adaptable makes those shifts easier to manage.

Even on a smaller scale, you need employees who are flexible and capable of adapting when needed. You need a marketing specialist who can go in a different direction when the marketing campaign they worked on for the last three months doesn’t go well, and you need managers who know how to respond quickly and adapt to an unexpected situation.

3. Teamwork and collaboration

You hire each employee for a specific role, but most businesses rely on teamwork and collaboration to succeed. The tasks one person works on can affect other employees with related jobs. Many tasks and projects are complex and involve many departments and employees. Knowing how to share ideas, listen to colleagues and solve problems together can improve collaboration to get optimal results.

4. Willingness to learn

Everyone can learn new tasks, but not everyone is willing to do it. Some people get stuck in their ways and believe their knowledge and skills are all that matter. They’re not concerned with developing new skills or challenging the knowledge they already have.

Technology and research mean that processes and best practices change frequently in most fields. Your company can stay competitive when you have employees who are willing to learn those new concepts and apply them to their work.

Having employees who are willing to stay current on technology in the field is particularly important. Apps, software and other tools can streamline your business processes and help you stay competitive in the market. You need employees who know how to use those technology tools and are willing to learn about new technology as it becomes available.

5. Problem-solving

No matter what the position is or what the responsibilities are, every employee will eventually face a problem or difficult situation at work. Some people shut down when this happens or wait for someone else to tell them what to do.

You want employees who rise up to those difficulties and work to overcome them. Someone with strong problem-solving skills analyzes the situation to find the best solutions. If they don’t know how to solve the problem themselves or the solutions they try don’t work, they get input from coworkers to figure out the situation.

Someone with strong problem-solving skills can keep workplace productivity high. They don’t immediately run to their supervisor to fix the issue, which takes time away from that person’s duties.

6. Initiative

Employees who take initiative keep the workplace moving. They don’t sit around and wait for instruction, which wastes valuable time. They jump in, do what needs to be done and ask questions when they need support. This increases overall productivity and can help solve issues before they become major problems.

7. Ethics

Ethical employees follow a moral code that helps them make the right decisions. They consider the impact of their decisions and make them for the good of the company or clients, not for selfish reasons. Unethical employees hurt relationships with their colleagues, clients and other stakeholders. They can hurt your reputation and cost you clients. Sometimes they cross the line into illegal territory, which can get your company in trouble with regulatory bodies.

8. Resilience

Being able to deal with setbacks isn’t easy for everyone. Some people feel defeated or believe something can’t be done if it fails once. Having resilience allows your employees to try again, perhaps from a different angle, when things don’t work the first time. They still believe in the overall goal and are determined to find ways to accomplish it.

9. Leadership

Leadership skills aren’t reserved for managers or those who want to become managers. Being able to motivate, delegate and teach can help any employee perform better. Having those leadership skills can come in handy while working with a team or taking charge of a project.

10. Negotiation

Strong negotiation skills aren’t just for managers and sales staff. Every employee handles negotiations in some way. A purchasing assistant might negotiate with suppliers to get better prices. Customer service representatives negotiate with customers to find a resolution when they’re upset about something. Employees negotiate with their team members when they don’t agree on an issue with a project. An employee with strong negotiation skills can help get the best deal for your business in many situations.

11. Time management

Time management skills are essential for productivity. If employees don’t use their time effectively, they might miss deadlines or prevent the rest of the team from getting their work done on time. Some elements of time management include:

• Prioritizing tasks
• Planning ahead
• Understanding how much time and effort a task requires
• Staying organized
• Scheduling tasks
• Having goals
• Using to-do lists

With strong time management skills, employees get more done during working hours. This keeps the business process flowing efficiently. Time management can also reduce stress since employees aren’t scrambling to finish things at the last minute.

12. Creativity

Innovative employees help your company grow, change and adapt. They create new solutions and help you develop new products and services that can help your company succeed. Innovation also helps set your company apart from others in the industry and can position you as an industry leader, which can grow your sales.

13. Accountability

Accountability is another one of the skills for success that every employee needs. When employees are accountable, they take responsibility for their actions, good and bad. Instead of blaming others for mistakes, they take ownership over their part in it. It also means that employees understand their responsibilities and take on things they know they can handle, and they follow through with commitments.

14. Empathy

Relationship building is crucial in business. Employees need to build relationships with one another and with clients. Empathy helps your employees develop relationships. Being empathetic allows employees to put themselves in someone else’s position. It can help them understand how to interact with colleagues. Empathy can also help employees provide the best support for clients or come up with new solutions that might help clients by understanding what they want and need.

15. Conflict resolution

Even with strong teamwork and communication skills, employees might find themselves facing conflict at work. People with strong conflict resolution skills understand how to navigate the situation without escalating it. This involves listening to the other side, considering the situation and coming up with solutions. Unresolved conflict can interrupt work, which hurts productivity. Resolving conflict helps maintain a positive work environment.

16. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a key skill for interacting successfully with others. Employees need confidence in their skills to take risks and make decisions at work. However, being overly confident or not aware of how others perceive you can become an issue. Employees also need to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they work best, to offer the best of themselves at work.

17. Stress management

Every job comes with some stress, so knowing how to manage stress in a healthy way is essential. An employee who doesn’t know how to manage stress can quickly become overwhelmed or feel burned out on the job. This can lead to high turnover, and it can impact the employee’s physical health. Taking breaks, prioritizing work and avoiding overcommitting yourself are examples of ways to prevent stress at work. Exercising, getting enough sleep, eating well and doing things you enjoy can help you reduce stress and deal with stressful situations outside of work hours.