It was recently reported that Malaysia’s unemployment situation continued to improve in November with 600,900 remaining jobless versus 602,000 the month before.

While there may be more opportunities for work, the hiring game has changed in recent times. Skills that used to be prioritised during interviews, such as the technical skills and experience found on a resumé, are not necessarily what employers are looking for anymore.

In this new year, it’s important to assess the skills that make you more employable. What trends are taking over, and how is this changing the way you work?

What are employers going to value most in the coming year, and how can you position yourself best to take advantage of this?

Here are four skills that individuals should have to make them desirable to hiring managers in this day and age.

1. Digital marketing and social media

Digital marketing uses technologies to reach and engage customers, often involving various online and offline channels such as search-engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing, emails, and savvy use of social media.

It extends beyond typical marketing roles to most other areas of an organisation – in human resources, for instance, for performance evaluation and employer branding.

Useful – perhaps even vital – digital skills to have include data analysis, content creation, SEO, search-engine marketing, communication, design and troubleshooting, and knowledge of customer-relationship management systems.

Meanwhile, social-media knowledge is essential for many careers in the current climate. Crucial as a marketing, sales or recruitment tool, many companies are hiring social-media specialists to help them reach their target audience, and engage with existing and potential customers and hires.

But social-media success is not easy and requires careful planning, execution, and measurement. Specialists must be strategic thinkers with creative minds who understand how the various platforms work in order to be effective.

In addition, they must be able to identify and analyse social-media trends and devise clever ways to utilise them.

2. Remote communication and collaboration

Related to the above, digital and other technologies enable new ways of working, where teams of employees are more connected and expected to be more collaborative.

During the pandemic, companies and workers everywhere were forced to rely on technology, drawing upon their soft skills, visual communication, and social-media savvy to collaborate effectively while working remotely.

Indeed, the pandemic has proven that remote communication and collaboration is a skill your team should master. It can be challenging when not everyone is in the same place or time zone but, when mastered, this skill allows employees to efficiently and productively engage with others, no matter where they are.

3. Customer centricity

Happy customers feel understood and catered to, and tend to stay loyal to a brand. Conversely, unhappy customers abandon brands – and, without customers, there is no business.

Therefore, putting the customer first and at the centre of everything you design and do is vital.

This is the definition of customer centricity, which requires those in your organisation to fully understand customers’ situations, perceptions, and expectations.

Gaining this understanding requires your employees to have several skills to display the behaviours needed. These include empathy and interest in challenges that arise; moving from a “problem” to “opportunity” lens; having humility to inspire collaboration; a view towards servant leadership – that is, the philosophy in which the goal of a leader is to serve; and a growth mindset.

Which leads to…

4. Growth mindset

Those with a growth mindset have a desire to conquer new challenges, even if persistence is required to succeed. They have an inner belief that they can achieve their goals, and this motivates them to work hard on unfamiliar projects.

It is important to recognise that people with a growth mindset seek out projects that are difficult to show their tenacity and resilience, as opposed to being indiscriminately (and selfishly) open to any and all opportunities in which they think they can succeed.

In an interview, highlighting a time where you were able to overcome a challenge that allowed you to grow will show this strength.

Conclusion

It is important to think of these skills as accelerators that will help you develop yourself further in your career.

Whether you are searching for a new role, getting back to work, or are a recent graduate, highlighting these to hiring managers will show that you are not only qualified for the role you are being interviewed for, but that you also have potential to grow and move on to greater leadership roles within the organisation.

This article first appeared in jobstore.com, an online job site that specialises in providing jobseekers with the latest job opportunities by matching talented individuals with reputable companies in Malaysia. Find your dream job with over 40,000 job vacancies in Malaysia.