Do You Have the 21st Century Skills?

Once upon a time, in the pre-digital age of dinosaurs and newspaper want ads, candidates for jobs would circle listings, make phone calls, set appointments, and then show up alongside other candidates competing for the same role. From personal experience, it was quite nerve-racking to sit alongside more polished and professional candidates while sweating out your time waiting to be called into the hiring office.

Today, however, the process of job hunting, although more comfortable, is far more complicated. The Pandemic helped to bridge some of the technology gaps between generations. Surprisingly, it has also started to identify a gap much more extensive and far more critical to businesses' success as they continue to compete over the internet globally. It is the need for skills that have become less valued in the technology revolution: people with experience and the skills of the 21st Century.

In the 21st Century, Job Hunting is Easier and Equally Horrifying.

Keywords, skills, and computer savvy ability mark the path of a dedicated job hunter today. Do you make it look graphically appealing or use plain text if their screening software can't read your PDF? Ah, if that were the only issue today, job hunting would undoubtedly be much more comfortable than sweating it out in a neatly pressed suit.

In 2021, most career-minded job hunters know that you need to express a certain amount of skills and abilities reflected under "requirements." You want to be sure all the proper keywords are in there, and if you should get a Zoom interview request, you know how to have adequate lighting and when to wear anti-glare glasses to look your best. But what about all the other skills that are increasingly necessary to compete?

Can your LinkedIn profile help you show off the "soft skills" making headlines for giving companies a competitive advantage in the digital economy? I did say "soft" skills and not "tech" skills. In the 21st Century, if you want to compete and thrive, you had better start looking for candidates who can think and act in a way that will put your business on top.

Current Top Soft Skill Needs

Here is a list of the most common soft skills that are going to take your company to the Fortune 500:

• Creativity—Originating ideas and solutions.
• Persuasion—Encouraging others to explore ideas, purchase solutions, or work on a project.
• Collaboration—Partnering with team members to produce positive results around objectives.
• Adaptability—Thriving in the face of change and uncertainty.
• Critical Thinking—Analyzing information objectively to make a reasoned judgment.

Companies today have competitors from around the world brought right to your customer base thanks to Google search. So product differentiation is much harder to achieve, but people, on the other hand, can be a game-changer.

What can and will set a business apart from the thousands of competitors online today are the people who are on the inside taking care of your customer's needs. That means, in the 21st Century, what you need are people who can problem-solve creatively. And that isn't anything like knowing all the latest in technology. Creativity is a "cognitive skill."

Cognitive skills are the core skills your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention.

These are skills that determine if you can work on a team and collaborate and problem-solve to understand a customer's needs at various points on their journey to brand loyalty. They usually involve some level of empathy and emotional intelligence. And today, in the 21st Century, that means you must be able to express all of this in a multitude of ways--but mainly, in the ways your customers demand it.

Where Have All The Problem-Solvers Gone?

There was a time (Yup, back in the dinosaur days) when companies hired across all age demographics. They had a perfect plan to build a team of problem-solving employees. Younger people with new ideas and abilities are seated alongside older, more experienced employees. It was a process called mentoring--and that looks very different today. You remember "old school" mentoring: when those with experience, who had fully developed cognitive skills and abilities, would take under their wing a younger worker, showing them the ropes and guiding them to rise through the ranks. Well, that plan ended with early retirement programs and a new workforce of people who think nothing of a few months at one company, then jumping over to another and another.

Removing older, more experienced workers became the rule across all industries. Don't know how to text fast or use Snapchat? Let's get someone in here who can tweet, please! Older, experienced workers became expensive too. Not just because they like having benefits, but because they are expecting some respect for their experience and talents just like prior generations. All of a sudden, technology over problem-solving became the most sought after skill.

As the workplace technology needs changed, the obvious way to cut costs and embrace the future was to dump all the older, outdated workers. You know what I am talking about, the job listings for a "Senior Manager with three years of experience" became the norm. Or better yet, one who is a recent college graduate is supervising the entire department.

Experiences Became More Important Than Experience

Technology-based customer experiences soared in demand while the personal satisfaction and one-star-customer reviews started to trickle in, eventually derailing many a good company at an alarming rate. Who doesn't love a personalized email reminding us to purchase that thing we were Googling last week? Invasive? Sure, but after years of no privacy, we kind of like the attention we get through the hundreds of emails that flood our Gmail accounts daily. Living in the digital age can be a bit isolating, and that was long before the Pandemic forced us into our homes!

The problem for business today is that they created a self-fulfilling prophecy: treating a younger, less experienced workforce like rock-stars (by calling them senior anything) is like feeding your toddler ice cream for breakfast. It won't take too long before all their teeth fall out from decay, and your business ends up with way too many one-star reviews to survive.

You Can Teach People Technology

Testing with your thumbs (so you type faster) is a learned skill. Spreadsheets? Learned. TikTok? Again, anyone can understand it. But what about customer service? You can teach someone how to be excellent at customer service, but it takes social skills, emotional intelligence, and the ability to solve complex problems independently. 

No APP or algorithm can replace real customer service skills.

Here is an excellent example of an excited, youthful workforce with no understanding of what the customer needs:

Last month I ordered a food-prep delivery service for a birthday present. The Paypal link updated the city and state of the delivery address (a standard tech issue), and the box, filled with four fresh, organic meals, was left sitting in the FedEx office for 48-hours since there was no street address is found. Since it was a gift, there was a delay in contacting them, but we located the box, and then I tried to figure out the next steps.

Through a series of phone calls and follow up emails to the company, their creative out-of-the-box customer service began to destroy their credibility and, ultimately, me as a customer.

1. The food was never delivered. This was established, and yet the emails from the customer service team apologizing for the problem and assuring me that everything was resolved proceeded to ask me if the "Parmesean chicken that was in the box was now my favorite!" Seriously?  I wrote them back. "You just apologized to me for the box NOT arriving. How could I possibly have tried the parmesan chicken?" In failing to edit out their pre-written replies, they looked uncaring (and not to mention less authentic!) Do you want to know their response to my outrage? Another heartfelt apology for their error followed by another set of pre-written customer service statements that had nothing to do with me or the original box delivery problem.
2. So I called again. Following the usual customer name, account number requests, another social skill deficit became obvious. "Oh wow," an excited young man said to me after he pulled up my account. "Lucky you! You have a HUGE credit with us!" Yup, over-zealous with extra emphasis on "huge." I calmly explained to Cameron that the huge credit was because I NEVER GOT THE BOX in the first place.

"Oh, right," Cameron said. "But still cool to have such a nice credit in your account."

I was speechless and wondered if this lack of understanding fell under emotional intelligence or just social intelligence. Was this the result of hiring for technical skills and not any ability to work with your customers?

Here is the problem, Cameron: Your customer is not happy because the gift box never arrived with your products. Now, however, she is even more frustrated that no one is actually listening to what she is saying. Instead of solving the problem, you made it worse by offering her a verbal emoji, #nowiamreallyannoyed

Your workforce needs to be able to think on their own. To understand problems--simple or complex--and then respond appropriately to the person on the other end in a language they know (and I am not talking about fluent English. I am referring to proper social responses based on the customer's needs!) It has been questioned whether or not all the helicoptering of the last parenting generation has made learning these things impossible!

In the post-pandemic landscape, basic digital skills are crucial. But...

But digital skills -at all levels- can be taught. That is what training is for--another thing left to the dinosaur workplace age. Solving customer problems takes a bit more experience and ability, and those abilities are not the things that the digital world is teaching.

As much I love a good emoji, intelligent conversation that contains an understanding and empathy for the problem will increase the LTV (customer lifetime value) of my business faster than your templated: "If you have any other concerns or questions, please feel free to Lettuce know by chat.." response. As cute as your content writer intended to be, I am sure they did not intend this response to go to the lady who never got her "lettuce" in the first place.

Finding a Job Post Covid is going to be a challenge. Not just for the job hunters, but for the companies that want to overcome all the challenges of a pandemic and the enormous gap created by removing people with experience and replacing them with people who only have digital skills and understanding.

The Workplace Solution For The 21st Century

I know that companies have empathetic leaders who value experience. As a result of all the chaos in 2020, we are finally talking about diverse workplaces. Perhaps we could expand on that definition and include in it, say, actual-time experiences, and not digitally relevant ones. Having ten thousand Twitter followers does not make you a better leader. It shows particular digital marketing skills, but it is not the talent needed to solve problems in the 21st Century. Just ask your customers!

Take a look at that list of skills again and think about how you can develop those skills in your current workforce. Is it possible to find someone who has worked in the industry longer than five years? How would that help? And if you are younger and want to really compete, it might be time to put your phone down and actually have a conversation with people out of your comfort zone. Just imagine all the skills you would learn when helping your mother figure out how to use the filters on Instagram!

#digitaldivide #workplaceskills

Maria Bereket is a passionate advocate for small business and for bridging the gap of the digital divide. Listen to her on LATalk talking about social media and jobs.