Do you have your sights set on a promotion in 2024? In the past, workers have been taught that honing tangible technical skills is the best way to set themselves apart from the competition.
However, as machines are steadily picking up the technical skills that only humans performed in the past, soft or human skills are becoming increasingly important.
In fact, recent data points to soft skills as the most impactful lever when trying to get a promotion, with workers who possess a well-rounded set of hard and soft skills getting promoted 8% faster than those who only have hard skills.
Perish the thought
While proficiency in Python or the ability to train chatbots isn’t going anywhere, technical skills quickly become obsolete and IBM estimates that hard “perishable” skills have a short shelf life of around two and a half years before they become obsolete.
Soft skills on the other hand are more durable and while you could argue that the ability to communicate or lead a team doesn’t have a shelf life and only gets more refined over time, IBM research highlights that soft skills should be revised and reinvigorated every seven and a half years.
So, what are the most impactful soft skills that can pave the path to faster promotion?
Organisational skills, teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and leadership round out the top five, and those who have updated their soft skills on a regular yearly basis have achieved a promotion 11% faster than those who didn’t adopt a continuous learning mindset.
Practice makes perfect
If the organisation you work for offers learning and development (L&D) opportunities on-site, availing of them is a no-brainer.
However, if there is a lack of structured L&D, there are still a number of ways you can hone your soft skills at work.
For starters, identify the skills you want to develop and talk to your manager about how you can develop these skills while also completing your day-to-day responsibilities.
For example, could leading a team meeting or presenting a new idea help you with your communication skills? Or perhaps teaming up with another staffer could help you develop your teamwork skills.
Alternatively, there are lots of online resources you can avail of outside of work such as Pluralsight , Absorb and The Open University.
And if your upskilling still isn’t doing the trick, it could be time to start thinking about a new, more senior opportunity.
If that is the case, head to the UKTN Job Board where you can find thousands of roles in companies actively recruiting, such as the three below.
Senior power platform developer, ClearCourse, London
ClearCourse is hiring a senior power platform developer to work with a fast-growing software company and work within a dynamic team made up of developers, solution architects, engineers, business analysts, functional consultants and Scrum masters.
You will be responsible for the delivery of software in Agile sprints, perform code reviews and take care to think about performance, security and maintainability.
Find out more about this role here.
Engineering manager – consumer, Coinbase, remote
Coinbase is looking for an experienced engineering manager to join its consumer product team.
The engineers within the consumer product group strive to make the Coinbase retail app the easiest-to-use and fastest experience for accessing the crypto and its suite of products includes the Coinbase app, advance trade and staking.
The ideal applicant will never tire of learning and will have the ambition to be a future pro in bleeding-edge tech like DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and Web 3.0.
Interested? Apply here.
Senior PHP developer, Street Group, Manchester
Street Group, one of the fastest-growing PropTech companies in the UK, is seeking a senior PHP developer to join its team in Manchester.
As part of a small cross-functional team, you will work alongside designers, product owners and engineers to identify, prioritise and solve problems iteratively.
If you love autonomy, are naturally curious, and want to have a genuine impact within a growing company this could be the perfect move for you.
Want to know more? See the full job description here.
Accelerate your career progression today via the UKTN Job Board
This article is part of a paid partnership with careers marketplace Jobbio to share the most exciting UK tech jobs with UKTN readers.
The post FYI: soft skills are linked to faster promotions appeared first on UKTN.
