In a recent study, 13.3 percent of businesses surveyed by the ONS reported experiencing a shortage of workers.
Since then, to improve the situation, companies have had to reform the skills that they prioritise from applicants to ensure positions are being filled by the best candidates.
Search data also suggests that Brits are looking for more guidance than ever before when it comes to their CV, on TikTok #ukcvtips has over 90k views [92,500] and Google searches for ‘CV Tips’ have spiked 89 percent in the last month.
Early career website, RateMyPlacement, analysed internal data from 2017 to March 2023 to reveal the most commonly cited skills required within jobs on their website. The result revealed that communication skills as the most important, required for 45% of job adverts.
This was followed by organisational skills at 36 percent and innovation in third place at 29 percent.
Top in-demand skills:
| Skill | No. of mentions | % of job adverts |
| Communication | 4,244 | 45% |
| Organisational skills | 3,373 | 36% |
| Being innovative | 2,702 | 29% |
| Analysis skills | 2,271 | 24% |
| Good initiative | 2,004 | 21% |
| Confidence | 1,115 | 12% |
| Problem solving | 966 | 10% |
| Leadership skills | 958 | 10% |
| Creativity | 863 | 9% |
| Motivation | 610 | 6% |
Career expert and RateMyPlacement co-founder, Oliver Sidwell, shares tips on improving transferable skills and how to put these skills on your CV:
“Making an effort to consolidate your soft skills is becoming more and more incremental to future career prospects as we become a more remote, digital workforce and as industries become more people-orientated. It’s also these traits that are transferable from industries, positions and roles, making individuals more well-rounded and much more attractive to employers.
“If you really want to set yourself out from the crowd you should focus your CV on those skills that employers are hunting for but may struggle to find. Skills like the ability to deal with conflict, manage up and negotiate are those proverbial needles in the haystack that employers are searching for. The best way to develop transferable skills is to get yourself some work experience, part-time work, or volunteer in the industry you most want to work in in the future so you can provide real-world examples on your CV.
“By doing this you’ll be appealing to the majority of employers who believe graduates with work experience under their belts have the required soft skills to be successful.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
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