Eight Career Skills You Need to Be Competitive in 2016

By J. Navarra

Jan 14, 2016 12:10 PM EST

Companies are looking for people who have a set of hard and soft skills that can adapt to the world's changing business climate.

If you're looking to get hired, here are eight career skills you need to learn this year:

The ability to manage a diverse environment - Stan Kimer, workplace consultant, explains that people from different generations have "different views, different motivations and different communication preferences." Managers now need different strategies, management and communication styles for each employee especially if there are four different age groups in one team.
Knowledge of other cultures - This gives you an edge and is one critical leadership skill which shows cultural agility. Being culturally agile means you're socially learning about opportunities to practice new culturally appropriate behaviors, experiment, make mistakes, get feedback and question your own findings.
A global mind-set is key - It's important to understand and know what political, societal and environmental impacts businesses can have across countries. The key is knowing how to sell, market and communicate in the global market.
Effective Conflict Resolution - It is important to be trained in conflict resolution or crisis management. Having this soft skill is a non-violent form of communication that is important when working with other people.
Willingness to learn - One doesn't like a know-it-all and face it - we don't know everything. You need to continuously learn in order to succeed in this changing market. And even the smallest skills might come in handy someday.
The ability to successfully outsource - Companies are now hiring outside talent - which is cost-effective. It starts with communicating what you want clearly and concisely and creating checkpoints with the freelancer is important, if you are managing a project that requires outsourcing.
Strong Communication Skills - Communicating a complex thought with other people in an effective manner is a skill critical in advancing your career.
Understands Analytics - It is important to know how to read and analyze. Analytics are important to any business which means understanding them can move you a step ahead in focusing on revenue, market projections and sales of products and services.

Some of these skills may be tough for some to learn, but there are local and online sources, workshops and materials you can search for in order to get better. Mostly, some of these skills can be learned by experience.