This year's key theme for development interviews: basic skills vs future skills

2/13/2025

Irja Rae, Figure Baltic partner

Clearly, the focus is increasingly shifting to skills as a new competitive advantage in the labour market. Should the skills to focus on be critical and necessary today, or looking to the future? Answers are provided by a recent Harvard Business Review article, "Learning Emerging Skills Doesn't Always Pay Off", which provides clear guidance and practical recommendations for employees and employers alike.

The emphasis: core skills, not future trends.

While the labour market is evolving rapidly and new skills are constantly being added, HBR stresses that focusing on core skills is five times more effective in improving employee performance than learning 'future skills' that have no immediate application.

Why less is more?

In our fast-paced world, which is changing almost daily, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to acquire as many new skills as possible in the hope that they will increase one's value in the labour market. However, often these skills may not be immediately applicable, and so initially remain rather theoretical knowledge, which may remain so as the dust settles. Herein lies an important distinction between basic skills and future skills.

• Basic skills: these are practical skills that are stable over time and support day-to-day work performance. For example, basic skills for an automation engineer include programming PLC controllers, troubleshooting and reading circuit diagrams. These skills are immediately applicable and provide a solid foundation on which to build further competence growth.
• Future Skills: These are skills that may only become useful in the longer term. For example, AI-based failure prediction will only become relevant once a company deploys the relevant systems.

Skills without practical application often remain abstract and do not really add value to the employee. In contrast, the development of basic skills yields immediate results and improves day-to-day performance.

How can we focus on what matters?

For employers and employees alike, it is important to take a strategic approach to skills development that takes into account the needs of both the organisation and the employee. I offer some practical suggestions:

• Prioritise skills. Make a list of the 10 key skills for each position that are currently the most important for the business. For example, in the case of an accountant, you could focus on financial reporting standards, budgeting and software experience.
• Explain the usefulness of the key skills. Employers should show employees how developing key skills will improve employee performance and create new career opportunities both within and outside the organisation. A clear link to employee benefits will increase people's motivation.
• Start small. I recommend starting training and skills development in smaller groups to assess results and adapt the approach before wider implementation.
• Learning new skills should be targeted and directly linked to critical business objectives. For example, training in the use of AI-based solutions is only justified if the corresponding technology is already implemented in the company. When employees focus on building a strong foundation, they will feel more confident in their jobs, their job performance will improve, and the employer will have the opportunity to deliver more value to its customers or partners. This approach also avoids wasting resources on skills whose usefulness and potential use are unclear at the moment or will only become apparent in the distant future.

Less is more

In skills development, it is not always quantity that matters, but quality. Strengthening basic skills is the most effective way for workers to remain competitive in the labour market and for employers to boost their performance by developing talent capital. Future skills are important, but their inclusion in the training curriculum needs to be targeted and well thought through. Without sufficient practice, a skill will not develop - at best, it will only develop theoretical knowledge.