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The 10 soft skills to make you employable

Whether you’re looking for your first job or taking a step up the career ladder, demonstrating the right soft skills on your CV will help you stand out from the competition. On the flip side, it doesn’t matter how many qualifications and hard skills you have if you lack in some of the core soft skills every employer expects.

Q: What is a soft skill?

We’ve all come across someone at work that is clearly very qualified for the role but often struggles to do a good job. The reason for this is that they have a low ability in a particular soft skill, which hinders their progress and prevents them from using their knowledge in the correct way.

A soft skill is a personal trait that enables you to function well whilst in the workplace. The skills and qualifications you’ve achieved need to be used in conjunction with your personal attributes. Unlike a hard or specific skill that could relate to using computer software, a soft skill relates to a more generic skill, like communication.

Of course, it's no good simply claiming to have these skills without any evidence. You need to show the employer you have acquired and used them through examples in your work history, education/training and hobbies/interests.

So to create new career opportunities and give yourself the best possible chance of an interview, here are the 10 soft skills you need to demonstrate on your CV to make you more employable:

"Using action verbs such as achieved, established, exceeded, supervised and surpassed, will help guide you towards showing an employer what you can do rather than simply telling them."

1. Communication

Communicating effectively in the workplace can take many different forms. It could be an internal email or even directly with a customer; a newsletter or article, or a video presentation you’ve created. No matter what style of communication applies to your chosen career, you obviously need to hold this soft skill to a high level.

If you fail to communicate your ideas and thoughts to a customer or co-worker in an efficient, professional and friendly manner, you will cause all sorts of problems for yourself and the company. Consider how you communicate to those around you and what affect that has on them. Do they feel positive afterwards or is your negative style creating issues? What’s the message you’re trying to convey? Are you easy to understand or often leave people confused?

How to show communication on your CV:

A good communicator can demonstrate this skill on their CV with examples of effective listening, negotiation, training and mentoring, lecturing / presenting, and written communication such as company newsletters or blog articles. Where possible, give an example of using the skill and any positive results that ensued. For example:

• Written communication: "I prepared the monthly internal and external company newsletters, and regularly blogged for the Company website. My articles received a total of 30,000 views in the past year and directly resulted in 250 new enquiries." (point to specific examples of impressive work if available)
• Listening: "I held focus groups, interviewing customers on their use of Product X. I compiled the results into User Stories which were prioritised and utilised to improve the software. Following these changes, the company saw a 15% increase in new subscriptions and a 55% decrease in lost subscriptions."
• Training: "I trained and mentored 3 juniors who had no prior experience for my team during my two years in this position. Collectively our team was the highest revenue achiever for 19 out of the 24 months."
• Presenting: "I regularly visited customers, typically presenting the product to board rooms of 10+. I closed 73% of my deals, compared to a team average of 50%."

2. Teamwork

There are very few jobs that require little or no interaction with a team member. So even if you’re a solo worker you still need to know how to work well in a team. The secret is to focus upon how the team can achieve its goal, and not how you can do it on your own. This approach is the first step to becoming a valuable team member.

This particular soft skill relies on other soft skills – communication, problem solving, time management, leadership, and so on. Working with others can often result in arguments and certain individuals putting their own interests above those of the teams. Your ability to integrate into a team and focus upon the end result will matter to the company, and your future. This is especially important if you are hoping to become a manager or supervisor.

How to show teamwork on your CV:

Give examples of where you have worked in a team, and where that has been successful. Give real results where possible. For example:

• "I worked in a team of 5 where each of us had a different role in the process. Without failed the team produced all work on time and to the clients' satifaction during my 18 months at the company."
• "My team worked on Software X for 2 years, taking it from conception to production. In its first year of trading, it beat the market leader in sales numbers and generated £1.2m turnover for the company."
• "My team had responsibility for organising the X exhibition for 3 years from 2016 - 2019. The event was fully subscribed in 2016 and over subscribed in 2018 / 19, with 50% of the exhibitors taking us up on the offer of booking 2 years ahead."

3. Leadership

If you are looking to climb the career ladder from worker to supervisor, you need to consider this particular soft skill. Being able to lead a team to success will again require lots of other skills to fall into place. You cannot assume that being a leader is just about being great at your current job and telling everyone how to do theirs. There is so much more to it!

Consider the other 9 soft skills and how you can achieve them all. You cannot lead a team successfully if you struggle at just one of the other skills. Everything needs to be developed over time, and your choices should reflect your passion for the team and company’s success – not just your own.

How to show leadership on your CV:

Don't just give examples of when you've led a team - mention the team's successes too, so that employers can see that your leadership was effective. Leadership success could be measured in many ways, such as increases in leads and sales, completion of a project on time and to budget, or even employee satisfaction / a reduction in staff turnover.

4. Lack of vanity

This soft skill covers the ability to spot your own mistakes and learn from them. You need to put ego to one side and acknowledge you’re not perfect. If you don’t, you will struggle to learn anything new and those around you will often become frustrated.

Take a step back now and again whilst at work and consider your own thoughts and actions. Don’t shift the blame to others when the mistake lies at your feet. Even if others did contribute to a mistake you should always take responsibility and accept what’s happened. Could you have done better? How can you do better next time?

How to show a lack of vanity on your CV:

Vanity is an excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements. It is a lack of humility and failure to acknowledge others' contributons. You can keep your CV vanity free by being honest and open about the part you played, by showing proper gratitude to those who helped you, and by showing that when things go wrong, you can let go. If someone made a lousy decision that set you back, don't give any hint that you're still dwelling on it or seek to apportion blame. Take the approach of, 'this happened, it was unfortunate - but I dealt with it like this', rather than 'X was to blame, and I still can't get over it.' In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

5. Intrinsic motivation

You shouldn’t have to rely on the company to motivate you to come to work. It’s great when they give out bonuses, pay rises and extra holidays, but is that really enough to achieve job satisfaction?

Your own self motivation is what the employer is looking for. Job satisfaction is not just about how much you get paid, but how much you enjoy the work you do. Coming to work everyday with low levels of motivation makes for an unproductive employee. It can also create mistakes and affect the rest of the team. Even if your results are slightly above average, your mood can have a negative impact on how others perform.

Are you highly motivated at work? If not, why not? Try to be the most positive in your team and infect those around you with your fantastic mood. Your motivation is the key to yours and the company’s success. Make yourself more employable by projecting that self-motivation on others and keep your levels of productivity high. If you still struggle to be motivated then you should consider if you’re in the right career. Try to hone in on what’s causing you issues and look for a fix.

How to show intrinsic motivation on your CV

To show that you're intrinsically motivated, you need to demonstrate a passion for the role and the industry. For example:

• Blog regularly about industry topics - include your website address on your CV.
• Follow influencers, share industry-relevant material and get involved in the discussion on Twitter and LinkedIn. Include your Twitter/LinkedIn addresses on your CV.
• Build a killer LinkedIn profile to complement your CV and use it to showcase your work.
• Join a professional organisation that helps further areas of your industry, or join an industry reference group and contribute to consultations.

6. Decision making

The decisions you make are very important to the company. Everyone will be given a certain level of responsibility and be allowed to make important decisions on a daily basis. Making the right ones is what this soft skill is all about.

The employer will place their faith in you and watch closely how you perform. Becoming more employable is about making decisions that are based on a few things:

• How it will affect the customer
• How it will affect the team
• How it will affect the company

One thing you will see missing from the above is – how it will affect you. This is because your decisions need to encompass everyone including yourself, and not just your own solo efforts.

When applying for a job you should include lots of examples on your CV of how your decision making turned into positive results. The employer wants to know that they can trust you to get the job done, and that you don’t have to be micro managed.

How to show decision making on your CV:

When it comes to showing decision making on your CV, you need to take cues from the job advert. Is the employer looking for someone who can make fast decisions under pressure, or ethical decisions? Do they want you to show initiative or are they looking for someone who can make tough decisions when the need arises? Try to give examples that match the type of decisions you'll be making. For example, if it's decisions under pressure, you could write on your CV:

• "Responsibility for making a large number of fast decisions on a daily basis. As a result, slashed cost per lead by 45% over 12 months."
• "Received commendation 4 times during appraisals from Senior Management Team for good decision making under pressure."
• "Was given GDPR as a project on short notice. My choice of solutions informed our customers and increased our data collection by 30%."
• "Handled complaint decisions for 18 months, driving resolution satisfaction from 81% to 97% without increasing refunds or costs."
• "Carried out a cost cutting audit during a financially difficult time. Decisions to switch various suppliers cut the company's costs by 11%."

In each case, the format for your CV is 'Made this decision, with this result'. It is no good simply showing that you can make decisions - you must also show that they were good ones!

7. Problem solving

An important soft skill is problem solving. Like most soft skills this is not something you can typically train for or gain a qualification in, and tends to be built up over years of experience. Some people are naturally great at solving problems, whilst some can struggle and need more help.

One of the fundamental requirements for this soft skill is a great understanding of the business and your role. In order to actively solve problems on a daily basis you would need to know your job and the company inside out. Dealing with issues is all about presenting yourself with lots of different options – most of which come from experience.

This soft skill is very much connected with having self-awareness and the ability to learn from mistakes. A similar problem can be dealt with in the future very quickly if you acknowledge you made a mistake and can prevent it from happening again.

How to show problem solving on your CV

Explain on your CV how you solved a problem and what positive results ensued. For example:

• "I worked on a volunteering project that was struggling to meet its fundraising target. My idea to hold a weekly coffee morning at the local community hall successfully covered the project's deficit."
• "Resolved the issue of hundreds of missed calls by implementing a new cloud hosted phone service in combination with an external call handling service to deal with routine enquiries, reducing lost calls to 0% and saving the cost of employing two more members of staff."

8. Negotiation

Have you ever come across a difficult situation at work that you’ve been able to resolve? This could be a disagreement with a customer, supplier or even a co-worker. Your ability to resolve a situation and leave all parties happy is what this soft skill is all about.

Negotiating a sale or contract may also be important, but we want to focus primarily on conflict resolution. Being a great problem solver or communicator doesn’t necessarily mean you can take control of a situation and resolve a conflict. A customer complaint could easily spiral out of control if you are unable to empathise and offer solutions quickly.

9. Flexibility/adaptability

To become an asset to your employer you should always remain flexible and open to change. If you are willing to accept that change is inevitable then you will be far better equipped to deal with this in the future.

Don’t be stubborn and stuck in your ways, and instead let your manager know that you are happy to take on additional responsibility. Be the person that everyone goes to for help and roll with the punches.

There will always be change within the workplace, and sometimes it can be huge. For example, you may be asked to work in another department, take on additional tasks, or even move to another branch. When faced with something new you should approach this positively and offer constructive feedback and solutions when appropriate.

10. Time management/organisation

Hitting deadlines consistently requires other soft skills to fall into place. Making appointments on time, keeping an accurate diary, or managing your tasks efficiently require good problem solving skills, good decision making, and much more.

Are you one of these people that are always late to meet a friend? Are you someone that struggles to meet deadlines and has to always stay late or ask for more time? Do you have a very untidy desk? This could cause you a lot of problems at work and needs to be addressed.

The employer wants to trust that you will meet all your objectives consistently and on time. You need to create a reliable reputation and avoid becoming untrustworthy. Are you the first person anyone asks for help? Or are you often avoided and left to your own routine?

Become a reliable and effective employee by holding yourself to strict time schedules. Keep an accurate diary or calendar and never leave things until the last minute. Opportunities for promotion will pass you by if you fail to organise your daily tasks to a high level. The employer will ask, ‘how can they organise a team if they can’t organise themselves?’