What are soft skills?
Soft skills are the learnable attributes and behaviors that help individuals work effectively with others in the workplace. They include abilities such as communication, empathy, emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
Unlike technical or job-specific skills, soft skills are transferable across roles and industries and are used in nearly every type of work environment. In some contexts, they are also referred to as “durable skills” to emphasize their long-term and cross-role relevance.
What the data shows about soft skills
Indeed Hiring Lab’s research analyzed more than 3,000 individual skills across millions of US job postings. One key finding: business operations skills, which include customer service, people management, administrative coordination and HR competencies, appeared in nearly three-quarters of all job postings in Q4 2025.
These skills were requested more often than technology skills or any other skill category.
AI is not eliminating the need for human skill. It’s clarifying which human skills were essential all along.
The data shows that while technology continues to transform how tasks are performed, the fundamental why of business remains constant. Someone still has to manage the relationship and make the call.
5 essential soft skills to look for in candidates and employees
These five durable soft skills form the foundation beneath nearly every role. They are not personality traits. They are learnable, developable capabilities.
They may also show up differently depending on someone’s background, communication style, neurotype or access to resources.
1. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and respond to the experience of others. Empathy drives customer satisfaction, reduces conflict and is the foundation of effective management.
It looks different across cultures and communication styles, and that range is an asset, not a complication.
2. Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence (also known as “emotional quotient” or “EQ”) is the capacity to recognize, understand and manage emotions, your own and others’. High emotional intelligence often correlates with stronger job performance and better team dynamics.
It’s the skill that makes feedback land and difficult conversations more productive.
3. Emotional regulation
Emotional regulation is the ability to stay steady under pressure. In a period of rapid workplace change, employees who can manage stress, adapt quickly and remain productive when things go sideways are genuinely valuable.
This skill is not about suppressing emotions, but about responding to them in a way that supports effective work.
4. Communication
Effective communication is listening as much as talking. It includes knowing when to ask, when to clarify and when to step back. Strong communicators reduce misunderstanding, accelerate decisions and help teams function.
Recognize that communication styles vary. Directness, formality and pacing differ across cultures and individuals, and none of those differences make someone a weaker communicator.
5. Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the foundation beneath all the other soft skills. People who understand their own strengths, areas of improvement and impact on others are typically easier to develop, easier to manage and more likely to grow.
Self-awareness is what makes feedback usable.
Why AI makes soft skills more important, not less
As AI takes on more of the technical, repetitive and data-processing work, the skills that remain distinctly human become more important.
The work that is hardest to automate is the work that requires judgment, empathy and relationships, such as managing a difficult client conversation, building trust across a team and knowing when the data is right but the answer is still wrong.
Indeed Hiring Lab’s research reflects this shift in real time. Employers are not just looking for people who can operate tools. They are looking for people who can navigate the human side of work that no tool can replicate. Durable soft skills are not just a complement to AI readiness, they are the core of it.
Developing soft skills in the employees you already have
Hiring for durable soft skills is one part of the equation. Developing them in your existing workforce is a long-term investment in the people and capabilities that will carry your organization through ongoing transformation.
The future of work will require people who can adapt, and building that capacity now is how organizations can stay ahead.
A few approaches to consider:
Mentorship and peer learning
Soft skills develop through observation and practice, not just training modules. Pair people intentionally and make space for reflection. Consider starting a mentorship program or mentorship group.
Feedback culture
Self-awareness and emotional intelligence typically grow faster in environments where honest, constructive feedback is normalized and safe to receive.
Accessible development
Not everyone comes to these skills from the same starting point or with the same access to formal training. Consider building pathways that meet people where they are.
Recognize what you already have
Many employees have deep durable skill strengths that have gone unnamed and unrecognized. Skills-first thinking means looking at what people can actually do, not just what their resume says.
The workforce transformation already underway is not a reason to narrow your definition of talent. It’s a reason to broaden it, and to invest in the human skills that will carry your organization through whatever comes next.
