What are employers looking for? Skills, skills and more skills

It's been a few weeks but I'm back with some fantastic insights from LinkedIn's new Future of Talent Report 2021. We've all busy upskilling like Steph Curry in the offseason, right? Right?

Have you been making the most of your time during coronavirus lockdowns to take on new responsibilities and skills in your professional life and career? Are you now the Steph Curry of accounting or assistant managing? If so, it looks as if you've not got a leg up on the competition when it comes to your marketability if you're looking for a new gig, at least in Asia Pacific. Though I think these insights probably aren't exclusive just to Asia.

The Future of Talent Report 2021 looked to hit on trends that would help businesses and workers discover more avenues for growth and opportunity. 3,500 respondents across seven markets in the Asia Pacific region participated and the results are interesting to say the least.

No degree? No problem!

Well, maybe not no problem, but certainly less of a problem now for candidates than before the pandemic. One of the most interesting findings in the report is just how important skills are when it comes to organizations finding talent. Just take a look at this result:

What are companies looking for when hiring: 79% now look for skills while 21% still look for experience and education.

Skills are important. Now more so than ever for those looking for work. This is good news for those of us who have graduated from colleges not named Oxford or Stanford or without MBAs when going up against those with better paper certifications.

You don't need to be as good at your job as Steph Curry is at basketball, which is really, really good, but Curry as analogy for success based on skill is an apt one.

If you were a coach you wouldn't hire Curry because he went to Davidson College, you'd hire him because he can do this:

Do that. Well, not exactly that. You couldn't do that. Nobody but Curry can. But what you can do is emulate Curry in that he constantly worked to improve his skill set, always challenging himself and working at it. Now he breaks ankles and records. He's stupidly good at his job.

I've long held the belief that skills trump traditional experience in certain roles, particularly if those skills can be effectively demonstrated by a candidate during the interview process. I quite honestly would never care about the school somebody graduated from or the years of experience they had if they absolutely nailed a skills test or showed amazing potential.

Being curious about how a broad selection of LinkedIn members feel about skills versus traditional certifications or qualities, I put it to a poll .

It's still early hours into the poll, and there's a week left so you can go and vote after you're done reading if you'd like to influence the results.

What are LinkedIn members saying?

Here's some particularly insightful comments from my poll by a group of regionally diverse voices who might, or might not be, as big of fans of Steph Curry as I am.

But first one more Curry gif...

Skills.

"Traditional certificates sound like old knowledge. Unless it is law and medicine, most industries will need specialised skills and mindset." - Eric Sim , LinkedIn Top Voice, Lecturer and Investment Banker, Singapore

"Colleges are oversubscribed and companies are putting 'Degree Minimum' on most job ads, this is evidence and data-backed so for me (the answer) is both. It will evolve, just like crypto may eventually be used widely, but today it is both." - John Prout , Senior Business Manager at Hays, Ireland

"A candidate needs to show they can adapt and be flexible with any situation that comes. To have specific skills like IT, problem solving, even refreshing old qualities like communication and customer service. All skills are changing as well, I believe we all should keep learning and refreshing ourselves with what we already know and what we need to keep or get a job." - Narelle Watchman , Homeroom Teacher, Kuwait

"I think specialized skills may have more chance of landing a new job in 2021 and beyond given the quick revolution of technology and its use across all professions and industries. For non-technical roles (I.e. not IT related), rules and regulations around things like finance, etc. are only becoming more complicated, still requiring companies to hire those with specialized skills. I would imagine that Covid exacerbated this as companies and teams were forced to move to a virtual environment and new laws and bills were passed requiring high level guidance and advising to ensure compliance." - Eboni N. Moss , CPA, Owner at The Master Resource LLC, Florida, US

"Not everyone can afford to go to college/business school or want to study but are better at learning straight from the job. It’s one thing to ask for requirements when you work in Finance or Law where you 100% need certifications, and another if you work in the SaaS industry where you can start as a Support agent and work your way up to become a senior manager (hey, that’s me!)" - Samantha Semuhin , Senior Support Manager, France

"Certain skills are extremely high in demand now due to the pandemic and acceleration toward digitalisation and focus on leadership. These skills are probably absent in traditional certifications." - Chuen Chuen Yeo , PCC, Forbes Coach Council and Executive Coach, Singapore

"Specialized skills are worth nothing if you don’t have sound excellent practical skills particularly in Nursing in Aged Care." - Jan Boyle , Registered Nurse, Australia

Soft skills are valuable and transferrable skills are key

I've said it before and I'll say it again, soft skills and transferrable skills matter, and this survey has proven this out. The results showed that "64% of companies are open to hiring talent from other industries, so long as the candidates are able to carry over their skills to match the job requirements." The report says these kinds of skills provide an opportunity for companies to bring in fresh talent with new ideas.

?? What do you think? Which is more important for a job candidate to have, skills or traditional certifications? Let me know in the comments.

...one more nugget from the report

Another honestly pretty expected result from the report once again reinforces that the future of where we work is going to be flexible.

The ideal mix of physical and remote employees: 41% of employees working remotely and 59% of employees in the office.

If there were surveys on this mix before the pandemic (there's not much, I've looked) I'd bet you a trillion dollars the results would weigh much more heavily in the "employees in the office" category.

What about the split of remote work and in-office? The survey found the ideal is two days working from home and three days in the office.

Not surprising. This is what happens when some office workers go an entire year without having to wear pants (me). Two no-pants days, three pants days is a reasonable compromise.

The full report has more compelling insights including the positive impact of employer branding and employee engagement, diversity and equality taking the spotlight, and why more companies are hiring internally.

Coming soon...

• Next week I'll post the final results of the poll above and break out a new one for discussion.
• The last week of April we'll be releasing our first Top Companies lists for Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, so I'll be highlighting some of the unique, strong or otherwise interesting benefits some selected top companies on our lists are offering their employees.

?? Before you go, how are you augmenting or building out your skillset? Share in the comments and help inspire other LinkedIn members.