What do employers look for?

Jul 19, 2021

Employers look for a lot more than just those hard skills you need for your particular job that you learn through your degree or training. Being a part of a workplace also requires soft skills such as good communication, teamwork skills and emotional intelligence . For example, working at a cafe not only requires you to make coffees and use the cash register - but you need to have good people skills to keep customers happy, great communication skills and flexibility to make your employer happy and teamwork skills to make working with others easy. 

All these skills that you will need not only in the workplace but in your everyday life can be easily attained through work experience, volunteering, being a part of team sports and other clubs and especially through having a part time role.

Below are some important soft skills that will help you exceed through the interview process and also help you succeed in your job! 

 

Communication skills

To excel in the workforce and especially hospitality you need to be able to communicate with your employer, your colleagues and customers. Communication allows you to understand and be understood by others. In order to achieve good communication involves actively listening, adapting your communication for your audience (ie your employer vs colleague vs friend vs customer), friendliness, confidence and most importantly respect. 

See this Indeed article on communication on what communication requires and how to improve your communication skills. 

 

Time management

Meeting deadlines and staying efficient are important to companies in every industry. That makes time management a valuable skill for employees who are often doing multiple things at once. Especially working in hospitality, you need to be able to manage the craziness of rush hour, weathers that serving coffees for those on their way to work, or serving burgers for saturday night dinner, every business has quieter days and busy days you need to be able to manage and be flexible with. 
Time management also means being on time for everything. Make sure that for your interview, first day and every shift you are arriving on time. 

 

Teamwork 

The importance of teamwork cannot be overstated. Teamwork is crucial to making the workplace flow and be efficient, while also making the work more enjoyable for you 0 of you easily get on with your work colleagues, you may even make some more friends! Every position in every industry relates to other roles and requires teamwork. Not only will this help you on group projects in school, in sporting teams but continually throughout your lifetime in the workforce. 

 

Emotional intelligence 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand both your own emotions and the emotions of those around you. This is especially helpful in the workplace, where teams work together to keep companies functioning successfully. If teamwork is a vital component of a successful company, then emotional intelligence is the glue that makes all that collaboration possible.

 

Initiative 

Employers are always on the lookout for hard-working employees who take initiative and are proactive about finding new ways to help the company do its work. Employees with initiative don’t just wait around for their boss to assign them tasks. They’re self-motivated and driven to do whatever they can to improve their company from their current position.
As you might guess, employees with this kind of inner drive can add huge value to a company. It may be a good idea to share with your interviewer an instance where you brought initiative to your previous organization to demonstrate that you have experience with this soft skill.

 

Being continuously committed to improving your softer skills will help you immensely in the workplace, getting future employment and also help you in your day to day life and long term career.