Do you know that sometimes, securing employment can be a skill? If you are of this school of thought that securing employment is a skill then it should be wise to seek to know how to improve your employability skills. To many, it boils down to credentials, abilities, connection, or even luck however while these things count most times in securing employment, having access to these abilities that facilitate employability is a skill that can be acquired, utilized, and improved.
How to Improve Your Employability Skills
In the labor market, connection, skills, credentials, and personality are all instruments of employability. As instruments of employability, one can get more effective in deploying them thereby leading to higher chances of securing employment. In this case, such abilities to access, manage, and deploy these instruments of employment become unique skills that many job seekers need to acquire.
11 Ways to Improve Your Employability Skills
Below is our outline of how to improve your employability skills, acquiring and deploring any of these skills or a combination would greatly improve your employability.
- Improve Your Network of People
- Acquire more in-demand skills
- Be team-oriented
- Update Your Knowledge
- Improve your Leadership Skill
- Reach effective and advanced communication
- Improve Values
- Be Solution-Oriented
- Be prepared to adapt to change
- Be intentional with time and other resource management
- Think Technology
Improve Your Network of People:
First on our list on how to improve your employability skills is your network. Who you know and who knows you enough is a very important factor for securing employment. The power of connection in improving employability cannot be overemphasized. To stand a better chance of getting employment, it is important to identify your target industry and deploy your skills to integrate yourself into such an industrial network. This can be achieved by improving your social skills and establishing healthy relationships across such target industries.
Acquire more in-demand skills:
Skills are the requisite for productivity. Every employer wants increased productivity and more effective operation. This can be guaranteed through the exhibition of effective skills. Every industrial sector has its skill demand. Identifying and acquiring on-demand skills within a target industry will positively impact your employability within such a target industry.
Be team-oriented:
Being an employee is teamwork. This is because to be employed by a company, means that there’s an entity or individual that you will be working for, under, or with. Such an individual becomes your teammate. Or we can look at it from the perspective of the employer.
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When an employer needs an extra hand, it is a team playground. This is because there’s a need for communication and the ability to work together. Even if it doesn’t require working together in the real sense of it, being able to translate your employer’s vision or objective into a business reality is another form of teamwork albeit in a different fashion.
Being an employee means being a team member. Unless it is a sole proprietorship and you are the owner, that means you are under self-employment but once you are being employed by another individual or firm, the employment itself is a call to teamwork.
Update Your Knowledge:
In many cases on how to improve your employability skills, continuous learning is the foundation of staying continually employable. To be continually employable, individuals need to update their knowledge constantly. Every now and then, models, business practices, and tools are getting outdated. When you stop improving your knowledge of recent innovations, practices, and development then your employability will start to decrease. To stay employable, update your knowledge.
Improve Your Leadership Skill:
Leadership is the art of taking charge and directing the affairs of a group. Effective leadership skills are often of great value in the labor market. Employers want individuals who can bring vision into the enterprise, apart from vision and directives, good leaders know how to give followers a sense of belonging and responsibility. Moving a conglomerate can take a single good leader among multitudes of other classes of human resources. This is why astute leadership is in high demand because leaders are good at deploying other human resources.
Reach effective and advanced communication:
We pride ourselves as the most refined of the social creatures. As humans, our most effective social skill is communication. To improve employability, one needs to be great at communication. Whether relating to customers or your employer, being able to convey your ideas and emotions effectively is a great skill demanded by several organizations.
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When we talk about communication, it goes beyond the basics. Yes, speaking fluently is great but other forms of communication are also important, this includes ideas or thoughts rendered through artistic or technical mediums. Such can include drawings with beyond the actual meaning. This form of extended communication can be useful in thought-provoking advertisements aimed to captivate targets beyond the ordinary.
Improve Values:
To increase your employability, one needs to be able to grow. Self-growth is one; however, not just that you have to grow but every other positive growth will be appreciated. Employers are looking for employees who will grow the company better than they met it. Having a track record of adding value to yourself and your organization is the best way to keep your job and in the case, you decide to leave someday, not only will there be firms waiting to hire you but the previous organization you have worked in will miss your absence.
Be Solution-Oriented:
A critical question that the CV answers is, Why should you get this Job? Which means how to improve your employability skills is one solution every jobseeker is keen on. As much as possible try to solve more problems than you create. Employment is mostly about problems and their solutions. You solve customers’ problems which in return solves your financial needs when you get paid. Now you may realize that the more problems you solve the more opportunities you get and the more opportunities you get the more employable you become. To be able to solve more problems, self-improvement is not out of the equation.
Be prepared to adapt to change:
The inevitability of change has been established. You have to be ready to adapt when you are faced with such change. You can be transferred to a different department, your supervisor may be changed or even the ownership of the establishment where you work may be transferred but does this have to deter you? In many situations it can be difficult to adjust to unexpected change however if you have trained your mind to expect change and prepare for adaptation, you will find it easier to navigate.
Adaptation is a primary trait of employability because to test your employability you are seeking new working grounds at which point such employment becomes an introduction to a new ground where you must adapt.
Be intentional with time and resources management:
It is important that while seeking to know how to improve Your Employability Skills, you must be effective in managing resources and time. The major driver of an organization is resource management. Personal time management and even organizational time management are also important. Achieving objectives within the right amount of time and resources is a very important step in improving employability.
Think Technology:
Today’s world is very much a technological invention. Nearly every job today requires at least basic use of technology. Employability in the current time is impacted a lot by potential employees’ ability to utilize technological devices, applications, tools, and models effectively. To become more employable, get techy.
Conclusion
Improving employability starts with self-improvement, overhauling your network, and maintaining a good track record. To be the master of the employability skill, always strive to give more than you take in any organization you find yourself. Maintain a great character and improve your connection along. Do this and you will be effective in maintaining your employment and gaining new ones if the need be.
Employability can also increase your chances of having additional part-time jobs thereby increasing your earnings. The reality is that if you become effective in utilizing the approach we have listed, you will accomplish tasks quicker and even more effectively leaving you with more time and resources for general improvement. Th 11 tips above are fundamental on how to improve your employability skills.