Skills to keep you employable

Skills to keep you employable during the Fourth Industrial Revolution

If you’re looking for a new job but not having any luck, it could be your communication, adaptability or digital proficiency that’s letting you down.

According to a survey of 951 employers by recruiting experts Hays, 77% said communication skills are and will continue to be important to them. This was followed by adaptability (66%), digital proficiency in new technology relevant to an individual’s job (64%), innovation (63%) and critical thinking (61%).

Further down the list were emotional intelligence (53%), technical skills (43%), self-learning (40%), data-based decision making (35%) and coding (6%).

Jason Walker, Managing Director of Hays in New Zealand, says these are the skills employers value most and building these needs to be a top priority for today’s professionals.

“As well as keeping up with the technical know-how relevant to your specific job, employers are looking to see evidence candidates can solve new problems and work with peers to exchange knowledge and ideas,” he said.

“That’s why it makes sense that communication and adaptability are at the top of the list. As technology drives more of our work tasks, employers look to their people to make gains through the way they engage and build relationships both internally and externally as well as how they collaborate and communicate to solve constantly evolving challenges and problems.

“It’s human nature to find change uncomfortable but to survive and thrive in the workforce of today and tomorrow we must not only learn to adapt to constant change but exploit it to build our careers,” he said.

For Hays’s insights on how to upskill, see Looking for a job? Three in four employers prioritise continuous learners

Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.

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For further information please contact Jason Walker, Managing Director of Hays in New Zealand, on jason.walker@hays.net.nz or +64 (0) 9 375 9424.

About Hays

Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in Asia Pacific and the UK and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 31 December 2017 the Group employed 10,800 staff operating from 256 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2017:

– the Group reported net fees of £954.6 million and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £211.5 million;

– the Group placed around 70,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 240,000 people into temporary assignments;

– 24% of Group net fees were generated in Asia Pacific, 49% in Continental Europe & RoW (CERoW) and 27% in the United Kingdom & Ireland;

– the temporary placement business represented 59% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 41% of net fees;

– Hays operates in the following markets: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mainland China, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA.

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