The most important skills for Millennials at the workplace

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Social skills, or the ability to manage people have been listed as the most important skills to develop at the workplace, in a new study of recent graduates from the CEMS Master in International Management programme.

With the above soft skills voted for by 56% of respondents (aged between 24-27 years), they beat out other skills such as teachable hard skills (7%), technical job-specific skills (7%) and process skills such as critical thinking (12%).

The research suggests that rather than high levels of technical proficiency, exceptional people skills will help today's workforce navigate the uncharted territory governed by technological disruption.

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In another data point, 97% of respondents believe that technological advancement (including automation/AI) will have a positive or very positive impact on the future of business.

Roland Siegers, executive director of CEMS commented: “Technology will certainly mean that the human touch will be more important than ever in the workplace over the next few years. In terms of leadership, traditional ways of thinking about management – where technically qualified people are eventually promoted to management – are likely to become be a thing of the past.

“Instead, future leaders will need to develop a new set of people-centric skills. The most successful managers will be those who can invest in their community, skilfully develop employees to get the best out of them and cultivate highly effective teams with the ability to work seamlessly across borders.”

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