A list of the top-five skills workers will need as the global economy recovers has been unveiled by Questionmark, the online assessment provider.
After a year of an uncertain economic outlook, economists predict that the global economy is on the brink of a boom. Thanks to a combination of government stimulus and “pent up” consumer spending, economists predict that $4 trillion will be released into the United States (US) economy as restrictions are lifted.1 Strong growth is also forecast across the United Kingdom (UK),2 the Eurozone,3 and Australia.4
But despite the surge of optimism, the future remains unclear. It is not yet known how consumer habits will have changed because of the pandemic and whether the trend toward e-commerce will become a long-term reality.
As such, employers are prioritizing the development of skills that enable workers to respond quickly to a range of different challenges and obstacles.
The top-five essential skills as the economy reopens
-
Critical thinking – critical thinking and problem-solving are quantifiable skills that can be measured by tests and assessments.
-
Cognitive flexibility – from adaptability to flexibility, employers value those that can turn their hand to different tasks and step outside their comfort zone quickly.
-
Being comfortable with ambiguity – workers that require absolute clarity around what the medium term will look like may struggle with the ever-changing business environment. Effective workers will accept the future is unclear and work with it.
-
Resilience – employers are recognizing that the determination of individual team members to overcome challenges is essential to driving growth during a time of uncertainty.
- Being a self-starter – many workers will wish to continue working from home. But this can require different skills to working from an office or physical workplace. Employers need workers who can motivate themselves unsupervised.
Lars Pedersen, CEO of Questionmark, said: “As the global economy begins to surge, employers need team members who are adaptable, motivated, resilient, and able to solve any given problem that is in front of them.
“Measuring the skills of workers with online assessments can give employers the information they need to identify these essential skills in the workforce. Employers can then use this information to make better decisions on training, recruitment and promotions.”
Online staff assessments give employers real and reliable information that helps them make better people-related decisions.
By assessing the current skills of the workforce, managers can deliver meaningful training. They can make better decisions on recruitment and promotions.
The Questionmark enterprise-grade platform makes assessment content easy to create and adapt. The platform automatically marks papers and instantly compiles results. It is easy to spot trends and patterns. When the stakes are high, a range of anti-cheating measures are available.
Questionmark Thinking Skills by Cambridge Assessment helps employers measure the critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities of staff and potential recruits. It helps employers identify high-potential team members and candidates.
Ends
Notes to editors
About Questionmark
Questionmark unlocks performance through reliable and secure online assessments.
Questionmark provides a secure enterprise-grade assessment platform and professional services to leading organizations around the world, delivered with care and unequalled expertise. Its full-service online assessment tool and professional services help customers to improve their performance and meet their compliance requirements. Questionmark enables organizations to unlock their potential by delivering assessments which are valid, reliable, fair and defensible.
Questionmark offers secure powerful integration with other LMS, LRS and proctoring services making it easy to bring everything together in one place. Questionmark’s cloud-based assessment management platform offers rapid deployment, scalability for high-volume test delivery, 24/7 support, and the peace-of-mind of secure, audited U.S., Australian and European-based data centers.
2https://home.kpmg/uk/en/home/insights/2018/09/uk-economic-outlook.html
4https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-economy-poll-idUSKBN29Q07B
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210330005604/en/