Transferable Skills That Companies Want: Definition & Example

What Are Transferable Skills That Companies Want: Definition & Examples: A transferable skill is defined as a specific skill that can be used across a range of roles; that you learn and keep throughout your lifetime, inherently specialized, with an understanding of an individual role.

How To Develop Transferable Skills:

a. First, use the skills in a realistic job: So how do you develop these skills? As part of a job, of course. When someone looks for a job and doesn’t do a bit of reading beforehand, they might not be thinking about what skills they will need in their role, but then again, it’s not like someone is going to interview you and ask you to explain what you learned in your degree or other qualification.

However, if you go to work and try to use skills that are irrelevant to your job, you could end up putting yourself at risk. So, if you want to learn transferable skills, be sure that these are applicable in your job, and not just something you’ve picked up while you’re on your summer holiday, or sat in the pub all day.

b. Determine what makes your job different: This is the key to developing transferable skills. If you’re planning to be an insurance sales representative, for example, think about how your skills will be transferable to your job, and which are most important.

This is so you know what you should be learning, rather than just attempting to stick something on your CV and hoping it works out. What you are looking for is an example of an industry in which the skills you are looking for exist. And you can get this from other people who are working in these fields, whether you just ask, or go to places where people in your industry go to find employment.

Once you have an idea of what skills are required in your industry, you can look for examples of people who are doing the job successfully. If you’re not sure which skills to focus on, make a list of the skills your industry needs, and give yourself time to look at the skills of others in your industry. And take advantage of the internet and other websites to look for inspiration.

If you’re thinking about changing your career, you might find an alternative career that shows examples of transferable skills that are not readily available within your current profession.

So once you’ve identified the skills you’ll need to learn to make your job successful, you’ll want to decide what kind of person you need to be successful. And if you want to stay relevant to your job, you’ll also want to maintain a good attitude to work, and try to keep a positive attitude.

c. Develop some resilience: As well as looking at other people’s work, develop some of your resilience too. This means thinking about when the going gets tough, or when you might lose your temper and then knowing how to respond maturely.

Often people think they just need to ‘push through’ to the end, but actually, this can leave you irritable and can put you off the kind of people who are best to work with. Being able to control your emotions helps you to get through the hard times, and build resilience. 

So, as well as continuing to develop your transferable skills, also think about ways you can improve your emotional resilience.

Good transferable skills help you to cope with life’s ups and downs and even help you to achieve your goals. And if your transferable skills make your job more successful, they will pay off for you too.

What Are Transferable Skills In Corporate World? 

The question for all employers is, what do we mean by transferable skills in the workplace?

The desire for change is a constant, but it can be very hard to understand how it can be achieved without a clear picture of where you want to be and the processes and tools necessary to help you get there. 

This brings me to a question that has been causing some confusion recently: how do you create a transferable skill and then encourage it?

a. Are all skills transferable? The truth is that most of what we do in the workplace will remain very much transferrable. In many cases, what is transferrable can be broken down further into skill sets, which are individual skills which are not immediately applicable to anyone industry or role, but can be applied in a different industry. These skills then become suitable for transferable skills.

If a specialist skill is applied in the wrong industry or role, it becomes unsuitable. So, for example, a new entrant into the business may be skilled in research and development but has little understanding of the business process behind it. 

So, what skills would a business offer to suit such a specialist? Understanding both the process of development and how it is applied to different industries can make a great deal of difference to the candidate's success.

Transferrable skills are different from competencies, or those which are derived from formal education. Competencies have a level of required competency and skill that a candidate must reach before entering the role, but they are not so transferrable. 

Competencies are also often limited to the functions or requirements of the role, and if a job is very much a continuation of a pre-existing business process, it becomes difficult to develop transferrable skills.

b. What does it take a skill to be a transferable skill? Firstly, it is necessary to be confident of your abilities and show self-confidence when networking. However, you must be aware that your views and beliefs will also influence whether you will be a transferrable skill in a given situation, so rather than just thinking about what you can offer, you must be aware of how you may affect others, and work to be able to accept their input and adapt your approach.

It's also important to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses and use them to your advantage. For example, in a leadership role, you might be great at the big picture but might struggle with the details of the day-to-day business. Instead of simply trying to understand the process and problems faced by the business, which is often the case with new leaders, consider your strengths and weaknesses and how you can help to overcome them.

The next step is to look at how your role contributes to the business and how you can use transferrable skills to deliver real benefits to the company. Most often this will be done through the data that you need, which your role makes available to you. For example, a developer can use transferrable skills to make better decisions based on data, instead of instinct.

The key is to make your actions transparent and demonstrate that you know how to use data to improve a process while demonstrating that you are not blinded by emotion and cannot make decisions without analysing the data.

In addition, seek advice from others who are in a similar position. This can be invaluable as you have direct experience of the challenge facing the company and can share your insight and ideas with others to help them.

The idea behind the recommendation is that employees who are confident and transferrable will be good ambassadors for your organization, as they will talk positively about the roles that your business has to offer and encourage others to explore opportunities. 

The reality is that people want to work for organizations that recognise and reward their talents and skills, so if you can show how your work makes a real difference to the business, this will help to retain valuable staff.

Types Of Transferable Skills Required For Various Job Roles? Trying to persuade that your skills and experience are unique is important, but equally important is to be aware of the different ways you can demonstrate them. As we think about how we demonstrate our capabilities to potential new employers, we should acknowledge that there are a variety of ways in which a strong transferable skillset can be identified and expressed.

a. Strategic performance skills: The traditional view of corporate transferable skills was focused on a particular role in an organization. A sales executive is described as having strategic sales skills, while the head of marketing is described as being a skilled marketer.

Here the most prized skills are those that allow someone to strategise how to achieve a particular outcome for an organization. For example, those in sales are typically expected to understand the customer and what they want. Being a great marketer is important, but equally, the ability to make the right strategic choices as well.

Similarly, in an executive role, the skills needed might be people management, communications, or negotiations. 

However, in a strategic role, the focus is not only on being a manager, but also an operator who can help the company achieve its long-term objectives.

As such, these strategic skills are the very qualities that are required to deliver better customer service, ensure the company's costs are as low as possible and maximise revenue.

b. Analytical skills: This term, analytical skills, is often mentioned about work capability assessments, often as part of the rationale for assessing someone's mental health and ability to work.

The thinking behind this approach is that by testing individuals against a 'standard' of mental health, their situation can be understood more clearly. That in turn might help them access a suitable workplace environment, but it is not a very productive way of thinking about skills development, although perhaps the psychological equivalent.

Instead of thinking about analytical skills in this way, the focus should be on identifying any degree of uncertainty or complexity in an individual's thought process. Or, to put it another way, what a given decision or a decision-making process will entail.

In this regard, it might be useful to think of analysis as the examination of uncertainty and complexity.

The decision-making process is another important component. In an analysis-based analysis of a decision-making process, you will be assessing the level of complexity of the decision-making process, the depth and scope of issues involved, and the ability of the individuals involved to appraise and explain their thinking.

c. Technological skills: With the ever-increasing need for technological skills to drive change in a digital world, companies are required to employ a mix of analytical and technical skills in their workforce.

Ideally, it would be ideal to have a mix of both, but typically, a greater proportion of tech skills are required in some parts of the organization. 

In a traditional company, where it is common to have an entire business unit concerned with traditional skills, an employee may be made redundant before they have received the necessary training or developed the necessary skills to fulfil the requirements of the role.

Similarly, where technology skills are increasingly required in a particular role, it may be necessary to recruit an additional member of staff to deliver those skills and the competencies demanded by the organization.

d. Information literacy: This skill refers to the ability to analyse and interpret information to give sound, consistent and objective information. In other words, it is the ability to make rational choices based on readily available information.

In an environment where business leaders are increasingly viewed through the lens of being accessible and 'cool', this capability will be vital.

While it would be overly ambitious to assume that all employees will necessarily possess this skill, at a minimum, those working in roles requiring greater levels of information processing should.

Investing in these skills is not only necessary for effective learning and development. It also creates a more effective and productive workforce which will ultimately deliver a better business outcome.

Also Read:

a. Soft Skills Meaning, Importance & Training List

b. What is Non Verbal Communication

c. Consumer Behaviour Theory In Marketing

d. Digital Marketing Tools For Small Businesses

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