Since the start of the information age—and especially in the last decade—technology has permeated every aspect of our lives, including the business sector. As organizations embrace tech and more digital options, employees will need certain skills to keep up.
Prioritizing the right competencies can help employees stand out from the crowd, advance in their careers and grow with business technology. Below, the members of Forbes Business Council shared 14 critical skills to cultivate in the digital era.
1. Collaborating And Self-Managing
While having an old-school agenda and a pen is a great tool for managing your tasks, the myriad of digital self-management tools can be quite helpful. It is critical in today’s fast-paced world that each employee finds a way to manage his individual responsibilities and teamwork using advanced digital collaborative tools. These tools can help you plan, track and collaborate in a simple manner. – Mazen Khanafer, Shift Electronics
2. Building A Digital Toolbox
One critical digital skill employees should be cultivating is to try and experiment quickly with new digital tools as they become available. For example, it can be a new messaging app to communicate faster and better with team members, customers or partners. Or it can be a new task management platform to increase team productivity. If it works, it should be added to the employee’s toolbox. – Fabrice Testa, Maana Electric
3. Hiring And Managing A ‘New Wave’ Team
Leaders who aren’t at the forefront of digital trends, don’t embrace technology and don’t take time to hire employees who understand the new wave better than they do will be left behind. I love working with people who bring new ideas to the table and brainstorm strategies for the staff to stay engaged and also for our clients to feel connected to us. I always encourage my team to explore the web and learn. – Emily Blair, Emily Blair Media
4. Working Remotely As A Team
More than ever, the ability to work as a team is a critical skill for employees. Teamwork is the lynchpin for maximizing the digital tools now available for remote workers. Teamwork fosters higher productivity, higher morale and more innovative ideas. Because remote work requires additional effort to work with the team, it’s essential that employees cultivate this skill. – Cindy Brummer, Standard Beagle Studio
5. Managing The Email Inbox
The email inbox has been causing stress and making employees feel overwhelmed ever since it arrived. Often, employees feel chained to the email monster—feeding it continually and yet it is always hungry and always needing replies as even more emails arrive. As email is the center of our time management, we need to train them in the 4D approach to emails of delete, do, defer and delegate. – Darren A. Smith, Making Business Matter
6. Interacting With The Digital World
One critical skill to learn in the digital age is the basic ability to interact with the digital world. We do need some form of skills related to words, presentation and social media. Although it may seem like a lot to go for, it is mandatory to interact with the world around you. With Covid, we have been more homebound and we are doing our best to keep up. – Chander Mishra, Blue Ocean Capital LLC
7. Using Communication Platforms
Learn in-depth how to use communication platforms to interact clearly and efficiently, especially when working remotely. There are many apps and solutions in the market made for saving time and increasing productivity. Use them. Set aside one to two hours every month to be on top of new technology and use it to the fullest. – Hao Lam, Best in Class Education Center
8. Complex Problem Solving
As more organizations embrace technology in our digital-first world, employees must have strong problem-solving skills and a knack for utilizing digital tools. With many employees working remotely, successfully using FAQs, tutorials and virtual chats for research can increase productivity and allow employees to find solutions to problems quickly and independently. – Peggy Choi, Lynk
9. Fostering Digital Dexterity
The most important skill that employees should be cultivating is digital dexterity. The ability of employees to adapt to new technologies and integrate new possibilities into internal systems while meeting the ever-changing demands of clients and investors is perhaps the most essential skill in this digital era. Learning new technologies is essential; cultivating digital dexterity is substantial. – Loubna Noureddin, Mind Market LLC
10. Continuously Learning
Focus on continuous learning. Every specialist needs one’s own unique set of skills, while everyone should be open to new knowledge. If every employee in your organization is continuously learning and implementing new knowledge, it will make your company sustainable in any era. – Sergej Derzap, Amasty
11. Mastering The Basics
There are basic building blocks you must know before you can learn anything else, essentially the ABCs and 123s. Computers have a similar rule; learning a computer language, while not necessary for interfacing on a computer, allows you to manipulate, change and drive a computer with greater power than any other computer-related skill. This skill will set apart the future employee. – Rick Allen, Midwest Enviro Solutions
12. Adapting And Learning Quickly
The ability to adapt and learn new things quickly, hands down. With so much uncertainty around what the jobs of the future will look like, the only way to be ready is to teach your employees how to adapt and how to learn quickly. You can do this through job rotation, enlargement and enrichment, as well as specific skills training such as planning, coding and systems integration. – Kerry Siggins, StoneAge
13. Navigating User Interfaces
This is a difficult task as technology comes in many forms, but something common to all is a familiarity with user interfaces. These can include the back or forward button, icons that most likely lead to another screen or “hamburgers” for website navigation. There are commonalities that new technology builds off of, so a familiarity with basic user interfaces should make the adoption of new technology a smoother process. – Alex Argianas, Arginias & Associates
14. Referencing Information
Be self-sufficient when it comes to information. Since technological advances have united the vast majority of human knowledge into one central accessible resource (the internet), knowing how to reference that information in order to have a working knowledge of any topic is invaluable. Having this foundational skill equips any employee with the ability to stay competitive and adapt easily to future changes. – Udi Dorner, SetSchedule
This article was published on Forbes.com