Soft skills: key skills

Each generation of workers currently has different areas of opportunity in terms of developing skills that are in high demand in the labor market, mainly in the area of ​​soft skills.

The constant transformation in business processes demands a series of new skills in the workforce to adapt to changes, especially those that are the product of automation and digitization. Each generation of workers shares a series of characteristics and, in this sense, there are areas of opportunity in the development of skills for each group.

According to an analysis by Assess, there are at least five soft skills each generation must develop to stay competitive in the marketplace. This list is based on the lags that each group of workers presents in the skills of high demand.

By level of importance, the areas of opportunity in terms of soft skills for each profile are:

Centennials (25 years or younger)

1. Customer orientation
2. Integrity
3. Effective communication
4. Achievement orientation
5. Teamwork

Millennials (26 – 41 years old)

1. emotional intelligence
2. Optimism
3. resilience
4. Openness and flexibility to change
5. Facilitative leadership

Generation X (42 – 57 years old)

1. emotional intelligence
2. Remote work ability
3. Proactivity
4. Facilitative leadership
5. Conflict management

Baby Boomers (over 58)

1. emotional intelligence
2. Opening to change
3. resilience
4. Remote work ability
5. Problem resolution

According to the firm Page Resourcing, the most in-demand soft skills throughout 2022 will be agility, adaptability, resilience, collaboration, and growth mindset.

These skills are increasingly valued by companies because they allow people to adapt to new environments, transition to new jobs in the face of technological advances, solve difficult problems and have more creativity and innovation, among other aspects.

According to Indeed, the increased emphasis on soft skills is one of the strong trends for this year. Aspects such as empathy, leadership, negotiation and self-management will be positioned even more as highly valued skills, especially in a context of greater labor flexibility.

Why generation skills?

Each generation has specific skills that become strengths, but given the constant transformations in the market, each age group lags behind in high-demand skills.

In the case of centennials and millennials, being the youngest, their perspective on the world of work is usually different from that of the rest of the generations. This workforce is changing organizational culture by seeking greater flexibility at work. They are characterized by having extensive digital capabilities, which makes them creative and innovative.

However, although both groups have digital skills, they have an area of ​​opportunity in skills that allow them to lead changing and constantly evolving business environments.

Meanwhile, Gen X workers tend to have a vision of change because they have had a more marked transition to the digital world throughout their careers. However, in a remote work environment, the need for this group to develop skills that allow them to achieve leadership in contexts of uncertainty, in remote work and greater capacity to resolve conflicts has become evident.

For baby boomers, the current world of work represents a 180-degree change. This generation has had to quickly adapt to the changes brought about by digitization and it is likely that they have never undergone a transformation process as fast as they are today. Therefore, the importance of developing emotional intelligence, openness to change or resilience, because they are skills that will allow them to transition to digital environments without affecting their performance or retraining to adapt to new dynamics.

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