The new list emphasizes balancing personal and interpersonal competencies.
Irrespective of where people are in their career right now — whether starting their career after college or a professional with a few years’ experience looking to secure a promotion — they need certain skills and competencies to succeed at their workplace. While there are many role-specific competencies required for their job function, there is a set of overarching workplace competencies people need to succeed. With the nature of work constantly evolving, especially with the pandemic bringing new changes, the set of skills and competencies to succeed, too, have changed. Some competencies necessary over the last few years may have taken a back seat, while a few new ones may have emerged.
PSI recently released the “Changing Success Criteria in the Reshaped World of Work†reportOpens a new window . The study collected more than 10,000 feedback assessments to identify the seven skills and competencies that were important over the last decade. The report further anticipates the key competencies required to succeed at the workplace over the next few years.
Also read: Empowering the Future Workforce, Part 1: Mapping the Skills Landscape
Top Competencies for the Previous Decade
The seven top competencies over the last decade were coaching and developing others, results focus, customer focus, teamwork, proactive communication, organizing and prioritizing, and interpersonal sensitivity.
Five out of the seven competencies reflect people-focus performance aspects. Only the ‘results focus’ and ‘organizing and prioritizing’ competencies relate to task-focused success factors. The strong focus on relational aspects is likely due to the substantial growth in cross-functional teams and collaboration witnessed over the last couple of decades.
However, the potential risks of over-collaboration have also been recognizedOpens a new window . This was particularly noted with the dramatic shift to remote working last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The detrimental effects of continuous back-to-back meetings and Zoom fatigue on personal well-being and productivity have also been noted.
7 Key Competencies for the Next Decade
Based on the job skill analysis done by the World Economic Forum in its The Future of Jobs Report 2020Opens a new window and emerging themes over the last year during the pandemic, PSI expects the following competencies paramount to succeed at the workplace over the coming decade.
1. Critical thinking
 According to WEF’s report, companies are increasingly seeking people with critical thinking and analysis competency. Managers will face complex and ambiguous problems. They should also be in a position to evaluate data and information from various sources, quickly identify what is necessary for making a decision, and objectively challenge assumptions and ideas. This is where critical thinking will be needed.
2. Learning agility
In a fast-changing work context, relying on strategies and tactics that have worked earlier will be less effective. Now, people will have to appraise their experiences and apply their learnings to new opportunities and situations to be effective objectively and critically.
3. Digital dexterity
Technology adoption and disruption are expected to continue at a breakneck speed. The increasing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and immersive technology is an example. Employees should be able to understand and leverage these technologies rapidly to achieve efficiencies and innovations.
Also read: To Close the Cybersecurity Skills Gap, Open up the Job Description
4. Building relationships
Jobs that cannot be automated will focus on areas where humans can perform better than machines, such as social skills and emotional intelligence (EI). Further, with remote work likely to remain for the foreseeable future, employees will have to be proactive in communicating and collaborating with others. Hence, they should be able to connect easily with others in both face-to-face and virtual environments and maintain effective relationships.
5. Embracing diversity
 Studies have shown that more diverse organizations perform better and achieve better results. Hence, professionals will have to actively include diverse individuals and perspectives to create ideas successfully and solve business challenges.
6. Resilience
Remote work has increasingly highlighted the importance of employee mental health and well-being. It has also highlighted the need for people to develop personal resilience. People will have to be able to cope with setbacks and bounce back from them effectively.
7. Adapting to changing skill requirements
The rise in digitalization and automation is changing organization structures, market needs, and job requirements. In such a scenario, employees will have to maintain a positive attitude toward changing skill requirements, activities, and organizational structures by embracing the change and appreciating the opportunities.
The new list places less emphasis on people-oriented competencies. However, the social aspects of work performance will remain important. To deal with the continuously changing work environment organizations are likely to see, people will need to learn to cope and adapt in different ways to be effective. This will require balancing various personal and interpersonal competencies.
The seven new workplace competencies also signify openness in how people think, connect with others, manage their own well-being, and harness digitalization. Together, these competencies provide a solid foundation for people and enable them to move from surviving to thriving at work.
Also read: Women Tend To Showcase Fewer Skills on Their Resumes Than Men, Finds Talenya Study
Parting Remarks
The global work environment will continue to evolve in the coming years, making it difficult to say what the future will bring. However, if employees show these seven competencies in the workplace in addition to their job-function-specific ones, they can be successful across a wide range of roles as we emerge from the pandemic. Businesses, too, should keep these competencies in mind when upgrading existing and hiring new talent to build a future-ready workforce.
Which of these skills are your organization focusing on? Do share with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , and TwitterOpens a new window .