The Top 5 Employee Skills to Focus on in 2021

Viren Kapadia February 8, 2021
The Top 5 Employee Skills to Focus on in 2021

Technology has changed the way we work, creating the need to nurture people-focused employee skills through employee learning and development.

In addition to this, 2020 has brought another major change in the workplace culture. Employers have found that remote working isn’t that bad, after all. On the contrary, work from home has had a positive effect on productivity and reduced recurring expenses both for employees and employers. Hence, many companies are sticking to remote work or more flexible work weeks.

This new workplace reality has changed once again the employee training and development landscape. Employee soft skills remain relevant, as always. But, reasonably, the focus shifts to workforce skills that facilitate remote work and build flexibility. Before you focus on skills to develop in 2021, you need to identify the skills gaps:

Skills Gap Analysis:

A skills gap analysis helps you identify training needs — for people, teams, and your business as a whole. It shows where your employees currently stand in terms of skills and knowledge, and where you’d like them to be in the future. With a skills gap analysis, you can uncover gaps in your teams, organize your training plans, and set career development goals.

The benefits of conducting a skills gap analysis:

  • Identify and fix training needs.
  • Use your training budget strategically.
  • Develop — and retain — your people.
  • Build strong teams for your future business need.
  • Plan your hiring strategy.

The steps of conducting a skills gap analysis:

  • Create a list of the skills you want to measure
  • Rate skills based on their importance
  • Evaluate employees against each skill
  • Identify skills gaps and set training priorities

The top 5 skills your workforce will need in 2021:

In a nutshell, these are the top 5 employee skills you should focus on in 2021:

  • Communication and collaboration
  • Time management
  • Curiosity and creativity
  • Critical thinking
  • Adaptability

Communication and collaboration:

Most applicants list “strong communication and collaboration employee skills” among their competencies in their Resumes. How real is that? Now, in 2021, that work from home has come into play, your team needs to further enhance these important skills to address the challenges that come from remote working.

The more diversity and talents within a team, the greater competencies this team has. If they know how to fasten everything together and work harmoniously, that is only needed. Communication and collaboration skills are multi-dimensional as it takes a lot of personal effort to build them. To work successfully as a team, employees need to know how to listen actively and communicate with firmness and empathy. By developing these skills, employees learn to respect each other and view their differences not as hurdles but as the blessings they truly are.

  • 1. Time Management:

    Another employee skill that has risen to importance as a courtesy of 2020, time management is crucial for remote and in-house teams alike. Since one employee failing to deliver in time can create a domino effect of confusion, stress, and further delays, time management skills are not to be looked down upon as elementary or a no-brainer.

    Time management skill has a massive impact on employee productivity and well-being. Employees who manage their time well and prioritize their tasks stay in control of their workload. This, in turn, helps them achieve a better work-life balance and leaves them under less stress

  • 2. Curiosity and creativity:

    When we hear creativity, we automatically think about things related to art and design. But finding a new solution to an old problem is also a sign of creativity. So is figuring out a way to distinguish your business from the competition.

    Creativity is the vision behind advanced technology and profitable business strategies. For your business to evolve, you need all the curious, creative minds you can get. You need employees with skills like these who are also not set in their ways but are always eager to learn and strive for improvement.

  • 3. Critical thinking

    From front office employees to department managers, everyone should be able to assess a situation and take the best course of action in response. This is where critical thinking comes in place, and why it’s one of the top employee skills.

    Employees with sharp critical thinking skills can examine several angles and avoid drawbacks that impulsive decision-makers fall into.

    Refining critical thinking skills sharpen the mind and equip employees with the ability to put reason first when faced with important decisions.

  • 4. Adaptability

    Adaptability has emerged as one of the best employee skills over the last years. The recent developments have given new significance to adaptability skills. Employees had to adapt overnight to manage the switchover to remote work and keep their cool in a time of deep uncertainty.

    Adaptability also encourages flexible thinking and open-mindedness. With work from home lifting the barriers of location and the workplace moving towards a culture of diversity and inclusion, adaptability is a key trait to sustain this new culture.

    The way you feel about any change, in the first place, determines how effective you can be in adverse conditions. Adaptive employees are less thrown off by change, so they’re able to cope with challenges with a heads-on approach and confidence.

    Employee skills training should be a high priority on your agenda this year. And to make sure your team is going to nail it, an LMS sounds like the best solution.

    GyrusAIM can help you with amazing online training courses that allow employees to learn at their own pace. GyrusAIM provides a unique set of features to allow trainers to design and plan effective blended learning programs. At GyrusAIM our modern, user-friendly LMS – can support up to two million learners. Cloud-based and fully responsive, it can be accessed on any device from anywhere with an internet connection. For more information on the features and future development, and how it can fit with your business needs, get in touch. It comes without saying that e-learning is the best way to manage professional development. Hence, most companies love investing in a business LMS to fulfill their employee and customer training needs. Right from multinational enterprises to medium and small scale businesses, an LMS has become an innovative business tool that saves them not just money, but time as well. So, if you are eagerly looking for a convenient online training solution for your employees, it’s time to get started with our GyrusAim business LMS.