Chairman & Founder, Learning proximity. Evan has over 15 years of experience putting students first as an entrepreneur in digital education.
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In today’s competitive job market, it is essential to have employees with the skills to thrive alongside rapid technological advancements, evolving customer preferences and industry uncertainties.
As an industry leader, one of my top priorities is to attract the candidates that best fit my team, clients and vision. While education and experience are critical, my company’s recruiting team has focused in recent years on revealing which potential candidates will be the most sustainable.
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Durable versus perishable skills
Sustainable skills involve a combination of how a person uses what they know in life and how they can apply this knowledge in the workplace. Sustainable skills include critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity, as well as character skills such as fortitude, growth mindset and leadership. A survey of 80 million job openings found these skills to be the most important most requested.
unlike transient skillssustainable skills are considered non-static because they develop over time and can be used in any industry or work environment.
Ephemeral skills are considered specialized and related to specific industries, platforms, organizations, policies and/or procedures. These skills are highly job-specific and training is provided on-the-job.
Attraction and development of sustainable skills
With these types of skills in high demand, I believe that in order to attract employees with sustainable skills, we need to create a work culture that values and promotes continuous learning and development. One way to achieve this, of course, is by offering competitive compensation and benefits.
More important, however, is screening for things like critical thinking skills, the ability to communicate effectively with others, and a growth mindset. These are just some of those sustainable skills that I believe a company should highlight in a candidate’s application.
Diagnostic tool for the culture index
My company uses a culture index diagnostic tool. This gives us a “cheat sheet” that identifies how different people are built to perform, which allows our leadership team to identify the key traits we believe will make a person successful in a role and then match the candidates to these positions so that they have the best chance of succeeding.
I recommend building an index based on the criteria that matter most to your company and its various roles. I’ve found this tool to be extremely helpful in building leadership teams and identifying strengths and opportunities for growth and sustainable skills development. However, attracting employees with sustainable skills is only part of the solution.
Internal training and team building
In addition to attracting the right people with these skills, there should also be internal opportunities to develop sustainable skills, such as leadership and development programs, mentorship programs and on-the-job training.
Organizational leaders must ensure that current employees have the opportunity to develop these skills internally. One way to achieve this is by offering continuous professional development opportunities. These can be online courses and workshops.
There should also be sufficient opportunities for organizational relationships/team building. For example, my company recently introduced a VTO or paid volunteer allowance. Employees get five additional paid days off to volunteer individually or with their teams in their community. I see this as a way to connect with our community and create learning opportunities for our employees outside the company. Every month we highlight an employee’s VTO experience to motivate employees to participate in the use of the policy.
Sustainable skills and corporate culture
We also need to be inclusive and encouraging in teaching and refining sustainable skills within the organization. This means creating an environment where employees are comfortable taking risks and making mistakes, as long as they learn from them. They also need to feel they can ask questions honestly; it’s all about creating an environment that fosters support.
As leaders, we can make this easier by sharing and celebrating successes, providing constructive feedback, and recognizing employees who take initiative and are committed to continuous improvement.
In addition, organizations must tailor training and development programs to the skills needed to be successful in the future. This means identifying the skills that are in high demand and providing our employees with the necessary training and development opportunities to acquire them.
Attracting employees with sustainable skills and helping current employees develop these skills internally is essential to the long-term success of any organization. As a leader, it is our responsibility to create a work culture that values continuous learning and development, offers opportunities for growth, and aligns programming with the skills needed to succeed in the future.
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