What are Workforce Skills?

Workforce skills are the technical, interpersonal, and adaptable abilities people use to perform work effectively and help an organization meet its goals. They include what employees know, what they can do, and how they work with others when priorities, tools, and customer needs change.

The main types of workforce skills

Workforce skills are often grouped into three connected categories: technical skills, human skills, and transferable skills. The categories can overlap, and the right mix depends on the role.

Technical skills

Technical skills, sometimes called hard skills, are the practical and job-specific abilities needed to complete particular tasks. They are usually learned through education, training, certification, work experience, or hands-on practice.

Examples include:

• Using accounting, design, scheduling, or data-analysis software
• Operating machinery or specialized equipment
• Writing code or managing cybersecurity controls
• Performing clinical, laboratory, or skilled-trade procedures
• Applying industry methods, standards, or product knowledge
• Creating financial reports, forecasts, or project plans

A technical skill may be essential for getting hired, but it is rarely enough on its own. A data analyst, for example, needs to understand data tools and methods. They also need to explain findings to people who may not have a technical background.

Human skills

Human skills are the behaviors that help people communicate, collaborate, make decisions, and contribute reliably at work. They are sometimes called soft skills, though "human skills" can better reflect how important they are.

The U.S. Department of Labor identifies professionalism, oral and written communication, teamwork, collaboration, and critical thinking/problem-solving as important workplace skills. Its guidance notes that employers can view these skills as even more important to work readiness than basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. U.S. Department of Labor

Examples of human skills include:

• Listening carefully and communicating with clarity
• Giving and receiving useful feedback
• Working through disagreements constructively
• Managing time and meeting commitments
• Showing professionalism and accountability
• Solving problems with others rather than working in isolation
• Using sound judgment when information is incomplete

These skills matter in every setting, from customer service and healthcare to logistics, engineering, and leadership. They help technical expertise lead to useful results.

Transferable and adaptive skills

Transferable skills can move from one job, industry, or work environment to another. Adaptability is especially valuable because work does not stand still. Employees may need to learn a new system, take on a revised process, support a different customer group, or collaborate across functions.

Common transferable skills include organization, decision-making, learning agility, project coordination, research, and digital literacy. Adaptive skills include curiosity, resilience, comfort with change, and the ability to apply knowledge in a new situation.

Why workforce skills matter

For individuals, workforce skills support employability, confidence, advancement, and career mobility. A person who can learn new tools, work well with colleagues, and solve unfamiliar problems is better positioned when a role changes or a new opportunity appears.

For employers, workforce skills affect how well teams deliver work, serve customers, manage risk, and respond to change. Skills gaps can slow hiring and make it harder to update existing roles.

That challenge is clear in current employer data. SHRM reports that nearly 70% of organizations had difficulty filling full-time positions. It also found that 28% of organizations said filling full-time jobs required new skills, while 47% said existing roles had been updated with new skill requirements. SHRM connects AI-driven workforce transformation with an accelerating need for reskilling. SHRM

In other words, a skills gap is not always about a total lack of workers. It can arise when available experience, training, or capabilities do not match the work an organization now needs done.

Workforce skills in an AI-enabled workplace

AI and other digital tools are changing tasks across many fields. Some work can be automated or completed faster, while other work requires people to evaluate outputs, protect quality, make decisions, and communicate the result to customers or colleagues.

This does not mean every employee must become a technical specialist. It does mean many employees need enough digital fluency to understand the tools they use, recognize their limits, and apply human judgment. Skills such as critical thinking, process improvement, communication, and ethical decision-making become more valuable when technology speeds up routine work.

Deloitte reports that seven in 10 business leaders identify being fast and nimble as their primary competitive strategy for the next three years. Its research also describes AI as a tool that can help workers learn, adapt, and apply new skills in the flow of work. Deloitte Insights

The practical takeaway is simple: organizations should not treat training as a one-time event. They need systems that help employees build skills while work evolves.

How skills-based hiring fits in

Skills-based hiring focuses more directly on whether a candidate can perform the work than on using degrees, job titles, or a fixed career path as the only signals of readiness. Employers may assess relevant experience, work samples, certifications, demonstrated capabilities, or structured interviews.

This approach can widen the talent pool by recognizing people who built skills through military service, community college, apprenticeships, prior roles, independent learning, caregiving, or other experience. It can also make hiring requirements more specific: rather than seeking a vague "five years of experience," an employer can define the outcomes, tools, knowledge, and collaboration skills the job requires.

Still, skills-based hiring does not mean formal education has no value. A Forbes article on 2026 work trends reports expert expectations that employers will place more emphasis on skills than degrees, while also noting data that bachelor's degree holders earn approximately 68% more per week than people with only a high school diploma. Forbes

How candidates can show skills without relying on a degree

Since employers now weigh demonstrated ability more heavily, candidates need concrete ways to make skills visible. A few approaches work across most fields:

• Work samples or a portfolio. A finished project, writing sample, code repository, or design piece shows what someone can actually produce, not just what they studied.
• Structured interview responses. Employers often ask candidates to walk through a real situation and describe what they did and why. Preparing specific, detailed examples shows judgment and process, not just outcomes.
• Mapped competencies from non-traditional paths. Military service, apprenticeships, and community college programs often translate directly into workplace competencies. Naming those competencies clearly, rather than just listing the program, helps an employer see the connection.

The strongest hiring approach is usually not "skills versus education." It is a clear-eyed assessment of what the role requires, paired with fair ways for candidates to demonstrate they can do it.

How organizations can build a stronger skills strategy

A useful workforce-skills strategy connects business goals to real job demands. It should not begin and end with a generic list of desirable traits.

Consider these practical steps:

1. Define the work before defining the candidate. Break roles into the outcomes employees must deliver, the tasks involved, and the technical and human skills needed.
2. Identify current and future gaps. Compare available capabilities with planned technology, customer needs, growth plans, and operational changes.
3. Prioritize the skills that matter most. Not every gap needs the same response. Some can be addressed through training, coaching, redesigned workflows, internal mobility, or hiring.
4. Make learning part of the job. Give employees chances to practice new skills through projects, mentoring, job rotations, and feedback, not only through courses.
5. Assess skills consistently. Use structured interviews, work samples, job-relevant exercises, or clear performance criteria to reduce reliance on assumptions.
6. Review requirements regularly. Skills profiles should change when the work changes. Outdated job descriptions can lead to mismatched hiring and development decisions.

Organizations that need help identifying gaps or sourcing talent with the right mix of technical and human skills sometimes turn to workforce partners like TCWGlobal, which works with employers on talent solutions tied to changing skill requirements.

Building a workforce that can change with the work

Workforce skills combine technical expertise with the human judgment needed to apply it well. The mix that matters most will differ by role, but the underlying pattern holds across industries: expertise gets work started, and human and adaptive skills carry it through change.

A practical next step for any organization is to pick one open role and rewrite its requirements around outcomes and demonstrated ability rather than years of tenure. That single exercise often reveals where a skills gap actually sits.

Informational note: This article is provided for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not represent the advice or opinion of the website or organization on which it appears.