10 work skills that will be in high demand in 2020

The future is almost here!

As technology changes and adapts to fit the current trends, so should our work skills. By the year 2020, ten skills will be more in higher demand than others. This is due largely in part to the fact that people will be living longer and immersing themselves more fully in technology. There are several other factors that will drive the shift in valuable work skills as well.

Several factors are driving the shift towards a new set of works skills; by 2025, the number of Americans over 60 will increase by 70%. With more people living longer, active lives, technology becomes an increasingly relevant part of daily life.

The rise of smart machines and systems demand a new approach to jobs, as workplace automation is killing repetitive job tasks. As technology continues to advance, data received will give us the ability to see things that we have never been able to see before, on a much larger scale, requiring more people to interpret the data that machines cannot. Social tools are also assisting organizations in branching out without fear of taxing their budgets and allowing them to search for new candidates who possess the necessary skill to help their companies succeed.

The 10 work skills you’ll need for 2020

By 2020, ten work skills will be in high-demand, given the driving factors above. Perhaps the most important is the ability to determine the deeper meaning of what is being expressed: the job market will need critical thinkers, with more and more data being pushed through; the ability to decipher and interpret results will be paramount.

Right behind critical thinking is social intelligence: being able to connect to someone in a deep, direct, and meaningful way could be the difference between making a deal and losing one. Even in the digital world, where people conduct business without a face-to-face meeting, the ability to pick up on emotional cues and interactions are crucial.

Multi-culturalism will reign

Similarly to critical thinking, being able to think for yourself and come up with solutions, responses, and ideas that are “outside of the box,” will be highly valuable. Additionally the ability to operate in different cultural settings will be needed in order to thrive in the business world.

With the expansion of technology across the globe, more and more cultures will be working together to solve problem, making it imperative that you possess the necessary to adapt to a multicultural, multilingual setting. By 2020, highly motivated individuals will also be able to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and understand data based reasoning, which will be termed computational thinking.

And of course, new media literacy

There will also be the need for new media literacy; the ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms and to leverage that media into persuasive communication. Anyone can develop effective social media content, given enough time and practice, but leveraging it into effective, persuasive communication will become increasingly important.

Also, transdisciplinary studies will become a focal point of work skills which is defined as the ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines. The final three work skills will include a design mindset, effective virtual collaboration, and cognitive load management (filtering important tasks and managing cognitive functions).

While all of these skills exist already in the workplace, honing in on them could beneficial to future job opportunities.