The Growing Importance of Transferable Skills in Recruitment

Experience can be valuable and there are certainly jobs where specialist knowledge is essential, but there are plenty of skills that can be carried from one role or industry into another. Those skills are also becoming increasingly important as careers become less predictable and businesses look for people who can adapt.

Here we look at why transferable skills are playing a larger part in recruitment, and explain how the strongest candidate isn’t always the most obvious one.

Experience Doesn’t Always Tell the Whole Story

Two candidates may have similar backgrounds but very different abilities. One may have spent years going through the same routine without taking on much more responsibility, while another with less direct experience may have developed skills or client management or leadership, or became adept at problem-solving or communication.

A candidate also doesn’t necessarily need to come from the same industry to understand how to deal with people, manage a busy workload, or take responsibility for their own performance. The environment may be new, but the skills they have built over the years can still be highly relevant.

The Best Candidate May Come from an Unexpected Background

It makes sense to seek out candidates within a particular sector for a role in that same sector, but there can also be strong candidates working in related fields who bring many of the same abilities. Different backgrounds can bring different perspectives which enhance a team’s combined capabilities.

Someone from sales may have years of experience building client relationships and winning business, while a person from hospitality may be used to dealing with difficult customers and working under pressure. Looking beyond the obvious can give employers access to candidates they might otherwise have overlooked.

Communication Can Be Taken Almost Anywhere

When someone has worked in fields like estate agency, recruitment, customer service, administration, or professional services, they have likely spent years speaking with clients, dealing with colleagues, managing expectations, and handling difficult conversations. These kinds of skills don’t suddenly disappear if they move into a new industry.

A candidate may need to learn a new system or gain a better understanding of a different industry, but the ability to communicate clearly can provide a strong foundation for future success.

Adaptability Has Become More Important

Career paths can develop in all sorts of ways, such as someone beginning their career in sales but then moving into management, or maybe an administrator takes on more and more project work and eventually moves into operations.

Such adaptability is becoming increasingly valuable because employers need people who can learn, respond to change, and take on new responsibilities when the opportunity arises.

Soft Skills Can Have a Lasting Impact

A candidate either has experience using a particular system or they don’t. Maybe they have a qualification or knowledge of a specific process, or they don’t. These skills are easy to identify immediately, but soft skills are less obvious.

The likes of communication, resilience, judgement, and the ability to work well with other people can be harder to measure, yet it’s often these very skills that influence how someone performs over the long-term.

Motivation Can Also Be a Transferable Strength

Valuable motivation can be a desire to move into a new industry, or to breakthrough a ceiling reached in their existing role. Or maybe they feel that the experience they’ve gained could be applied elsewhere. These motivations don’t automatically make someone the right person for a role, but it can make for an interesting conversation.

A candidate who is prepared to learn and has clear reasons for making a career move may bring a level of motivation that isn’t always found in someone who has spent years doing exactly the same job.

Interviews Need to Look Beyond Job Titles

Rather than only asking candidates about their previous responsibilities, employers should explore how they approached particular situations. How did they deal with a difficult client, or what happened when they had to learn something unfamiliar. Answers to these kinds of questions can reveal far more than a list of job titles.

A candidate might not have worked in the exact role being advertised, but their experience could show clear evidence of the exact skills that will serve them well in the new role.

Specialist Recruiters Can Recognise the Connections

One advantage of working with a specialist recruiter is their understanding of the roles and people within a particular market. Recruiters recognise which qualities tend to lead to success and understand the technical requirements of a role, but they can also see where a candidate’s wider experience may be relevant.

The candidate from an unexpected background won’t always be suitable, and specialist knowledge shouldn’t be ignored when it is genuinely needed. However, there are plenty of occasions where transferable skills can bridge the gap and create an opportunity that benefits both the candidate and employer.