Skills-based hiring is leading the way as one of the newest talent acquisition trends for 2024. For years, employers and job-seekers alike have been discussing ways in which the candidate experience can be improved, and the talent pool diversified, through focusing on skills rather than the bias traditionally associated with job and educational history.

Now at last, that vision is finally becoming a reality, thanks to the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence within the workforce and particularly generative AI tools assisting the recruitment process. Speaking to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Frederick Scott, vice president of talent strategy and inclusion said:

"In 2024, the technology is finally starting to catch up, and generative AI will unlock companies’ abilities for skills-based hiring, especially for early-in-career talent.”

What does this mean to you as a prospective candidate?

If you are on the hunt for a new role, either to expand your career to the next level or simply for a fresh change due to needing a different work environment, you need to ensure now more than ever before, that you showcase your most important skills at key points throughout your resume. Employers are paying close attention to your skills, so finding creative ways to display them is where the majority of your effort should be concentrated.

But what are the core skills employers need you to include in your resume? According to research and reports from the World Economic Forum, FlexJobs, and LinkedIn, here are a few:

1. Communication

Employers need hires who have solid all-around communication skills. This includes communication at the interpersonal level, as well as other aspects such as presentation skills, being professional in your manner, and representing the values of the company when composing emails, or when engaged in other forms of correspondence.

This skill is so critical that LinkedIn reported communication skills as being the number one skill for 2024. It was the common denominator in job adverts and the profiles of those who had been headhunted on LinkedIn over the past year, as per LinkedIn research.

2. Teamwork

Employers are looking for evidence of how well you'll fit in with their company culture. Depending on the role, some jobs may require you to have stronger teamwork skills than others, so you must make this clear throughout your resume. At the end of the day, you will need to engage and collaborate with co-workers at some point, so how well you can succeed within a team setting is critical to your career success.

3. Leadership

Leadership skills are one of the core skill sets that you need to prove to employers, whether or not you plan on taking on a leadership-oriented role. This is because more and more employers are becoming aware that employees possessing leadership qualities are needed for organizations to successfully get ahead and remain star players in the competition.

Having leadership skills means taking responsibility for your actions, owning your mistakes, taking initiative, and jumping in where needed to tackle problems.

4. Problem-Solving

Can you demonstrate evidence of where you've put your creativity to work and developed a solution? What were its tangible results within your role, team, project, or department? The ultimate reason why a new employer would hire you is because you are the solution to their problem. If you can show that you think outside of the box and are innovative and unafraid of exploring untapped areas, you're a star candidate.

5. Self-Motivation

How quickly do you quit? Do you have what it takes to face a challenge head-on and keep pushing forward? Employers are looking for candidates like you, who can demonstrate determination in the face of obstacles, and have the drive and will to succeed because this leads to higher output and performance.

How To Include Skills In Your Resume

Now that you know what skills are needed, where do you place them, and how do you incorporate these skills?

Here are a couple examples of areas within your resume that are most likely to benefit from adding these skills:

First, always include a skills highlights section near the top of your resume, and use this to list your core competencies, relevant to the job role, in bullet points. Try to ensure that you include the above skills, as well as those that are mentioned in the person specification of the job advert.

Another good way to include these skills in your resume is to show them in practice and include them naturally in sections such as your professional profile or your work experience section. When approaching each section, ask yourself, how can I highlight that I possess XYZ skill in this particular role?

For example, you might decide to include a bullet point in your work experience section, that speaks to how you demonstrated problem-solving ability, by saying: "Formulated strategies which increased overall performance, leading to the team exceeding target by 140% in my first month and over 200% in the second month."

Using numbers as above helps to quantify your skills and strengthen the impression that you are confident with them and can provide value to your new employer.

As employers adapt to the needs of the current job climate and begin preparing their systems, policies, and technology for skills-based hiring, what are you doing? How will you prepare yourself—and your resume—for the skills trend?