5 Skills Business Graduates Should Hone to Increase Employability

Students aspire for higher education and advanced training to build highly marketable skills and enjoy organizational significance. Some professionals pursue college degrees and additional training to harness in-demand skills. Others seek apprenticeships and traineeships to evolve with industry-specific trends and build relevant experience. 

Each aspirant reserves the right to hone skills they wish to command and develop to pursue their career goals. However, is higher education, training, and skill-building enough to enjoy success? More importantly, are these the only skills businesses seek in graduates and professionals? 

 

Higher Education & Advanced Training 

Few alternatives offer the same significance and marketability as higher education and advanced training. Young professionals and business graduates continue the pursuit of education to build highly marketable skills. Industries are rapidly evolving and innovating, creating scores of challenges for firms and corporations. Businesses need innovative and in-demand skills for talent acquisition and early trend adoption. 

Without talent acquisition, companies cannot keep up with the pace of technology adoption and industry-relevant trends. However, the recruitment and selection process emphasizes the significance of applicants with higher education and advanced skills. 

Suppose you’re serving in the PR or internal communication department for over five years. In that case, pursuing an online communication degree can make you an ideal candidate for promotion and increased responsibility. Higher education comes with student debt and schedule management challenges. But these challenges are minuscule when compared with the career advancement potential of advanced online degrees and specializations. 

Keep reading to determine the skills that increase marketability. 

 

1. Problem-Solving Abilities 

Are you a problem-solver, or do you look up to your superiors and managers for problem-solving assistance? Not all employees have the determination, understanding, and skills to solve problems and address challenges. Businesses face issues and challenges in every domain with every passing second. 

Some employees feel overwhelmed by problems and end up halting processes until the issues are resolved. Others bring in sharp problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities to address hurdles with innovative solutions. Naturally, companies gravitate towards hiring professionals with masterful skills to handle challenges without halting productivity. 

 

2. Critical Thinking 

The emphasis on critical thinking is a burgeoning recruitment trend that stresses the retention of analytically sharp employees. Modern-day businesses want to hire business graduates with excellent thinking skills to promote efficient decision-making and planning. 

In an age of automation, businesses don’t need employees to crunch numbers, prepare ledgers or perform mundane tasks. Companies are no longer wasting human intelligence on tedious and everyday tasks, which are now manageable through automation tools. Employees with critical thinking skills serve organizations by analyzing data-driven insights, evidence, and patterns. 

These critical thinkers examine consumer experiences and interactions to identify trends that favor their company. They draw analysis and conclusions from data sets to guide executive decision-making and solve problems that thwart profitability. 

 

3. Collaborative Thinking

The need for collaborative thinking and strong teamwork is higher than ever in the aftermath of the transition to work-from-home models. Companies and business leaders strive to hire collaborative and team-oriented graduates to minimize their project management challenges. 

Businesses have to spend considerably on team management tools to chase down employees and maintain accountability with performance metrics. Naturally, business leaders wish to eliminate this challenge of chasing their employees by hiring collaborative professionals. Team-oriented professionals are more likely to align their professional growth and ambitions with the company’s vision. 

These professionals are likely to work towards mutually beneficial goals instead of monopolizing teams with their vision. Collaboration and teamwork are vital skills relevant across all industries, including hospitality, healthcare, energy, marketing, or social work. Companies strive to hire graduates with impressive collaborative and teamwork experience. 

Therefore, graduates should consider signing up for college committees, student publications, volunteer programs, teamwork projects, and other collaborative activities. A resume that reflects you as a reliable, cooperative, and creative team player is bound to impress recruiters. 

 

4. Professionalism & Discipline 

Interestingly, recruiters and business leaders value multiple skills that are not taught through course textbooks and classroom experiences. These skills demand real-world exposure and character building. For instance, discipline and professionalism are choices that we make and values we cultivate, not something we learn in institutes. 

A strong and dedicated worth ethic is a quality that trumps all challenges and lack of resources for students and young professionals. For instance, work ethic inspires professionals to combine the pressure of their work routine with the stress of advanced training. Similarly, a strong work ethic ensures timely project completion, making a professional a reliable employee. 

No skill, training, or higher education can serve as an alternative for a strong work ethic, professionalism, and discipline. These three powerful qualities combine to define the professional integrity and worth of a young graduate and employee. Corporate leaders associate great value with discipline and professionalism. 

However, this value isn’t limited to project completion or profitability metrics. But instead, it also reflects on the workplace culture that a business is striving to create. HR recruiters and executives do not want to hire non-professionals who disrupt the workplace environment with offensive or discriminatory practices. 

 

5. Effective Communication 

Are you a loud and confident public speaker who takes joy in addressing large crowds on topics that inspire your passions? Or perhaps, you consider yourself an introvert who finds solace in written expressions for voicing your thoughts and opinions? 

Graduates and young professionals enter the workplace with unique communication styles and preferences. In a workplace, communication is the key to coordination, collaboration, project management, deadline management, and client satisfaction. Employees that compromise the communication chain compromise a company’s ability to meet its project targets for productivity and profitability. 

Therefore, business leaders hire digitally savvy and effective communicators who can comply with modern practices. Communication skills are a significant ingredient in the employability mix to support a professional’s ambitions for career advancement. Now that organizations worldwide are exploring the benefits of remote work models, the demand for communication skills is higher than ever. 

Luckily, graduates can improve their communication skills by building knowledge and enhancing their conversational skills. Contrary to what most believe, this endeavor doesn’t require speaking as much as it involves reading, listening, and learning. Embracing new ideas, concepts, creativity, and innovation will make you an excellent and animated conversationalist. 

 

Conclusion 

Technical skills and organizational values are easy to develop through on-the-job training. However, cultivating leadership skills is a far more challenging process that requires character-building and personal growth. Students and aspirants are encouraged to build corporate exposure and find learning experiences through internships and volunteering. Real-world exposure proves instrumental in cultivating leadership skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking.