Soft skills in the workplace are essential. Usually, soft skills are connected to an individual’s personality, disposition, and even intuition. Soft skills, unlike hard skills, can give employers insight into your personality, disposition, and even intuitiveness.

Even though soft skills are often difficult to screen for and measure, they can provide employers valuable insight into your potential to successfully work within various team dynamics and your ability to fit within a certain work culture. Highlighting your soft skills on your resume and demonstrating soft skills in the interview process can help set you apart from other candidates.

5 Essential Soft Skills in the Workplace

Communication

Effective communication includes more than simply your ability to speak — it describes your ability to know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. Communication also includes your body’s posturing, your ability to make and maintain eye contact, and your active listening skills.

Strong communication skills can enhance relationship-building, spotlight professional proficiency, and enhance collaboration between co-workers and management. Effectively expressing yourself in writing is an equally important aspect of communicating on the job as it ensures you’re presenting ideas, requests, and suggestions in hard and digital formats with clarity.

Problem-solving/critical thinking

Identifying problems and presenting solutions are everyday occurrences in the workplace. Problems can arise between co-workers or between an employee and client. In both situations, your ability to objectively observe and analyze various situations as a critical thinker is critical in the problem-solving process. Additional skills that can set you apart as a problem-solver include intuition, perception, assertiveness, and personal ethics.

Time management

Time management is all about working smarter. Organizing tasks and prioritizing activities are key in getting more done in less time. Your ability to manage your day reduces stress and improves your overall effectiveness. A key characteristic of time management includes having a goal-oriented mindset, which keeps you focused on smaller, separate tasks by constantly visualizing the end result.

Creativity

Creativity brings innovation and positive energy to a workplace. Creative thinking empowers you to work well both independently and with a team. Creativity can boost everything from customer retention to developing new opportunities for business growth. Highly creative individuals tend to rank strong in other aspects of emotional intelligence, such as problem-solving and adaptability.

Conflict resolution

When disagreements and misunderstandings fester, the entire atmosphere of a workplace can be affected. Having an aptitude for conflict resolution on the job means you possess the skills necessary to quickly and peacefully resolve disputes among teammates or between you and another colleague.

Negotiation and persuasion skills help facilitate conflict resolution on behalf of all involved. Your ability to demonstrate respect while participating in mediation is also an important soft skill that promotes relationship preservation.

Looking to stand out in that candidate pool?

By consistently demonstrating and developing your soft skills, you stay competitive across all industries and ensures you’re making a lasting impact on hiring managers.