The skill superpower in the AI era? It’s not technical.

Charged with maintaining a competitive workforce, HR leaders might believe that the rapid rise of AI requires a narrow focus on employees’ technical skills. However,  despite the business advances AI adoption brings, it’s critical that employees don’t fall short on other human-centered, business-critical skills.

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These “soft skills,” like problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking are increasingly called “durable skills” in recognition of their value and longevity. Durable skills reflect key competencies that ensure employees can meaningfully engage with their work, peers, and managers, regardless of their specific occupation.

To Ty Beasley, the Chief Talent Officer at accounting firm RSM, durable skills are an essential complement to technical skills.

“You can have all the technical expertise you want, but it’s useless if you cannot communicate it in a way that we can digest it and understand it, if you cannot put it in a framework for us.”

Ty Beasley, Chief Talent Officer, RSM

Many workers are missing critical durable skills

The ultimate goal of investing in employees’ durable skills, at any organization, is mobility — both equipping your business with the skills it needs to grow and helping your employees move into new roles where they can add greater value to the company.

A growing body of research supports the business benefits of these kinds of skills investments. For example, a 2017 report from Deloitte Australia found that investing in employees’ soft skills could increase an individual firm’s revenue by $90,000 AUD.

Still, some employers are noticing a gap between the durable skills necessary for success at their organizations and the skills that entry-level workers are bringing in.

A 2021 paper found that many employers in the IT industry say their entry-level candidates have fewer durable skills than are required for the job. Meanwhile, 40% of employers in a survey of about 1,200 business leaders from 2023 said that recent college graduates are unprepared for the workforce, thanks largely to gaps in durable skills such as communication. 

Without these skills under their belts, new employees and job seekers will have trouble meeting expectations for the world of work where AI use is rising.

Technical understanding is rarely enough 

Some business leaders say that focusing on their workforce’s durable skills has a bigger and longer-term payoff for both employers and employees. For example, Guild’s Matthew J. Daniel wrote in CLO Magazine that technology-specific skills have a half-life of under 2.5 years, whereas the half-life of durable skills such as problem-solving or decision-making is greater than 7.5 years.

Recent trends in job postings also reflect an emphasis on durable skills. A 2021 analysis by America Succeeds and Emsi Burning Glass (now Lightcast) found that 7 of the 10 most requested skills for the 82 million US job postings they studied between 2019 and 2020 were durable skills. And according to recent LinkedIn research, communications tops the list of 2024’s most in-demand skills. 

Employers’ demand for adaptability — the ability to manage change effectively and to find relevant opportunities amid the change — has also grown more than demand for any other skill since last year.

Durable skills are “critical in positions where you are required to interact with and help solve problems for different groups of people,” said Amy Garefis, the Chief People Officer at employment marketplace ZipRecruiter. Garefis cited customer support and sales roles as examples of frontline positions in which “it’s essential to be able to listen to what stakeholders are telling you, adapt to the information you’re being given, and react with both professionalism and respect to resolve issues or make a sale.”

How to close the durable skills gap

Addressing these gaps requires investment and creativity from leaders to put their employees on the right path to gain the skills their businesses need to remain competitive and deliver in the areas where AI still lags behind.

1. Foster a learner's mindset in the workplace

In the case of RSM, investing in durable skills starts during the hiring process and continues in the form of ongoing learning and training for employees at all levels. Beasley said RSM looks for candidates who are what the company calls the “5 C’s”: caring, collaborative, curious, courageous, critical thinkers. Drawing on these traits, Beasley said, any employee at any level of the corporate hierarchy “can profoundly impact their clients and their colleagues if they embrace leading from where they are.”

RSM has also been focusing on crafting individualized learning experiences tailored to the specific employee’s learning goals. Last quarter, for example, new managers received training on communication and delegation.

2. Leaders must display their own durable skills growth

Another option for leaders is modeling the kinds of durable skills they hope to see in their workforce. To emphasize the importance of building relationships with colleagues, Aytekin Tank, the CEO of online-form-builder Jotform, wrote in Fast Company, “I never implement a new idea without asking for feedback.” Likewise, Tank wrote, he fosters a culture of transparency by proactively sharing challenges and even failures to build trust and demonstrate the fact that open communication is prioritized within the company.

Similarly, Garefis said that when ZipRecruiter leaders show excitement about working collaboratively to solve business problems, “the junior members of our team ‘grow up’ learning the importance of communication and creativity and rolling their sleeves up.”

The growth of AI in the workplace will only increase the demand for durable skills, and HR leaders have a prime opportunity to create an impact. With a combination of proactive upskilling for employees and conscious modeling of the skills they want to see, businesses can gain resiliency and better position themselves for the future of work.

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About Shana Lebowitz Gaynor

Shana Lebowitz Gaynor covers career development, leadership, human resources management, and workplace culture.