As the job market grows ever tighter, the ability to find the right candidate becomes that much harder. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Michigan, employers across the country are increasingly searching for qualified candidates to fill job vacancies.

In order to succeed in today’s uncertain and competitive work environment, potential applicants must demonstrate their ability to adapt to the specific needs of the company. Specifically, the study identifies four essential skills that employees must possess: cognition, motivation, action, and connection.

Skills for the future

These skills enable employees to meet project demands and respond to changes in the workplace, including technological advancements, economic shifts, and unexpected events like the pandemic or recession. In short, the study highlights the importance of employee skills in helping companies navigate turbulence and succeed in the face of challenges.

“To be nimble and adaptive, organizations now more than ever need their building blocks—the employees who are at the heart of the transformation process—to be adaptive,” the researcher explains.

Being able to adapt requires individuals to be responsive to change across multiple tasks, projects, collaborators, technologies, and time frames. This necessitates the use of a range of broad skills, which employers may overlook in favor of narrow experience and expertise relevant to specific tasks or roles.

To investigate this further, the author conducted two studies involving approximately 230 participants. Participants were asked to consider 24 different skills and to indicate their understanding of each skill and how they related to each other.

Using participants’ responses, the author developed a four-category framework that shed light on how individuals adapt and engage with organizations to accomplish their work. This framework provided a better understanding of the skills needed for adaptability.