How to build the power skills every employee needs today

You may have heard the buzz about power skills. People often describe them as a rebranding of soft skills or human skills. But they're so much more than that. This new world of work we're all operating in requires a combination of specific soft and hard skills to be successful. Every employee, regardless of business function, should possess these power skills to succeed in this digital transformation age.

For many organisations, digital transformation happened in a hurry during lockdowns. Along with virtual working environments came the need for employees to be digitally savvy, better communicators and competent using a suite of collaboration tools, to name a few.

But according to a Salesforce 2022 digital skills study, just 25% of respondents labelled themselves "advanced in collaboration technology skills needed specifically for the workplace." Their responses imply that a large majority of workers still feel unprepared for jobs in the digital-first economy.

Organisations need to help employees upskill and feel confident that their power skills will help them operate effectively in this new work environment.

Historically, hiring managers emphasised employees' functional capabilities, referred to as hard skills, more than their interpersonal abilities, referred to as soft skills.

Hard skills encompass the skills candidates can demonstrate through previous roles, typically based on their resumes. These hard skills can be anything like coding, bookkeeping, graphic design and so much more.

And in today's digital, hybrid work environment, some hard skills are no longer just specialties for specific roles. In many cases, there is an expectation that employees across all functions of an organisation can analyse data to make strategic decisions.

And while these hard skills are necessary to do the job in most instances, many organisations have come to realise they can teach these skills to employees on the job and don't always have to prioritise them as much when hiring.

That's when organisations unearthed an emerging need for softer people skills, such as empathy in leadership, strategic thinking and problem-solving. And digital transformation has amplified that need. Teams had to learn to collaborate virtually, and even jobs that required employees to continue operating in person required expanded tech proficiency.

There's also an understanding that organisations are more attractive and enjoyable places to work if they're rich in soft skills. There are all kinds of benefits, like increased productivity, improved customer experience and loyalty, better job satisfaction and retention rates, and greater employee confidence and adaptability.

We've now entered the era of power skills, the powerful combination of critical functional skills and people skills.

Organisations aren't the only ones gravitating toward this new era of power skills. Employees across industries are increasingly seeking opportunities to develop their power skills. In the first half of 2022, Cornerstone saw more than 1 billion minutes of learning content consumed, with topics related to power skills leading the charge among learner interest.

Courses centered around power skills secured four of the top five most-registered courses during this timeframe, reinforcing the growing need for organisations to incorporate these skills to continue to grow their people and organisation.

Similarly, power skills also claimed leading spots when looking at top self-directed learning courses, top curation subjects and overall learning time. These courses featured topics surrounding productivity, emotional intelligence, teamwork and more.

This growing interest in power skills wasn't limited to just one region. At Cornerstone, learners' increased global interest in power skills topics. In EMEA, for example, the top course topics in the first half of 2022 included personal development, communication, productivity, execution and more.

Organisations that focus on upskilling employees' power skills have immediately impacted employees' daily function and their organisation as a whole. The power skills critical to the work environment today — and tomorrow — include:

Communication and teamwork

Leadership and management

Productivity and collaboration

Digital and data fluency

Personal development and wellness

As work continues to evolve, you could say that power skills are replacing the power suit as a linchpin of work. Power skills are a must to position your people to be successful in the future of work and grow with your organisation. And no one understands power skills better than Cornerstone.

If you want to take your organisation's skill building to the next level with critical power skills, check out Cornerstone Content Anytime. You can use these subscriptions to build the power skills you and your people need to succeed today and tomorrow.