What Skills Is Your Current Employer Interested In? 7 Ways To Find Out

Picture this. You work for a company that provides the salary and perks you want, offers opportunities for promotion and learning, and values your worth as an employee. Despite all of that, you worry about:

• becoming complacent or even bored in your current role
• not having up-to-date skills and knowledge
• becoming less valuable as younger, freshly trained colleagues join the company

Whether you want to stay in your current job or move up within the business, one way to maintain your value as an employee is to keep an eye on what skills your employer is interested in. That might be skills that are in short supply now or skills that your employer wants to invest in to safeguard the company’s future.

So how do you find out what skills your employer is keen to see in their workforce?

Understand The Industry Demands

Start with the industry you work in, such as higher education, retail, or engineering. What skills are in demand within that industry? This demand might be caused by a skill shortage, for instance, cybersecurity expertise in the IT, telecommunications, and digital services industries. Or the demand may be caused by the creation of new skills as an industry adapts to future needs, such as green skills.

Identify the type of skills your industry demands both now and in the future.

Reflect On Your Role

Have a look at an up-to-date job description for your current role. You know the job inside and out because you’re doing it, but do you have all the skills mentioned in the job description? Remember, the job description is your employer’s wish list for the ideal employee in that role.

If you don’t have certain skills mentioned in the job description, would it be to your benefit to learn those skills? If you do have the listed skills, is it worth brushing up on those skills and improving them?

Putting the job description to one side, do you know of skills that would help you carry out your job better? That might be ‘better’ now or ‘better’ in the future as the role and company develop.

Talk To Your Manager

Ask your manager what additional skills they think would:

• improve your value as an employee
• benefit the role you work in
• benefit the company as a whole

Your manager should have a good understanding and overview of how your role fits into the company, the dynamics of your team and department, and any skill shortages in that area of the business.

Asking this question is a great way to open a conversation about your professional development.

What Are The Company’s Mission And Values?

Finding out what skills will help your career aren’t always specific to your job. Instead, they might be linked to your employer’s mission and values. You’ll generally find these on the company website. If not, then check your employee handbook or ask your HR department.

Read through the mission and values with an eye for keywords and phrases that indicate valued skills. For instance, you might find terms like:

• innovation
• creativity
• sustainability
• community
• customer service

Consider how these keywords and phrases indicate skills. Innovation points to problem solving and creative thinking. Community and customer service suggest good communication skills.

Professional Development Opportunities

Find out what professional development opportunities your employer offers. This might include in-house training sessions, online courses, workshops, or tuition reimbursement for external courses.

What do these opportunities have in common? For instance, is there a focus on collaboration, problem solving, or digital skills? That focus is a clear indicator of skills that your employer is keen to invest both time and money in.

Performance Review Feedback

Your performance review can provide plenty of information on what skills your employer is interested in. Take the opportunity to find out:

1. which of your skills your manager praises. Is it your communication skills or your problem solving?
2. which skills your manager thinks could be improved. Do you need to brush up on your ability to work in a team or your leadership skills?
3. which skills are in short supply in your team or department. Does the team need more collaboration skills? Does your department need a go-to person for digital know-how?

Don’t be afraid to simply ask what skills your manager thinks you could improve or learn.

Job Postings

The final way to find out which skills your employer wants to see in their workforce is to examine their job postings. These might be vacancies that are advertised externally, internal job postings, or promotion opportunities.

Examine the job adverts and descriptions for clues to the type of skills your employer is interested in.

Wrapping it up

There are plenty of ways to identify what skills your employer is interested in, from simply asking the question, to understanding industry demands, and finding a skill match for your employer’s mission and values.

What’s more, improving your skills is always to your advantage. It adds to your value as an employee and prospective candidate for promotion with your current employer. It identifies you as a proactive employee who has the best interests of the company in mind as well as actively seeking their own continuous development. It also makes sure that your skills and knowledge are up-to-date, should you decide to move to another company. There’s no downside to working on your professional development as long as the steps you take are relevant to your career goals.