The business-critical skills your company can’t afford to lose

In any organization, some skills matter more than others. The ones that matter most are business-critical skills – those competencies that drive stability, performance, resilience and long-term growth.

If you’re wondering which skills to prioritize to move the needle inside your organization and get ahead in a world in which technologies evolve and industries transform rapidly, you’ve come to the right place.

What makes skills “business critical?”

Business-critical skills are those competencies that your company cannot exist without.

These include those skills that:

• Impact the bottom line directly.
• Ensure operational continuity each day.
• Help to differentiate a company from competitors.
• Are rare in the marketplace, taking years to develop and refine and often difficult to replace.
• Mitigate major risks.
• Align with the organization’s long-term strategy and goals.

Ask yourself:

If a skill disappeared tomorrow, would our business struggle? In other words, would losing this skill disrupt day-to-day operations and our ability to generate revenue?

Would replacing this skill consume significant time, money and resources?

Is this skill central to our long-term strategy and support our goals?

Does this skill support where our organization, industry and the broader world are headed in the future?

Does this skill give us a competitive advantage over others or make us stand out in a positive way?

Does this skill keep us in compliance? Would its loss contribute to legal issues or reputational hits?

If the answer is yes, then a skill is critical to your business.

Which skills are most “business critical?”

Many skills, particularly technical skills, vary by industry and specific role. What follows is a list of skills that apply broadly to many types of businesses. This list of skills includes evergreen as well as emerging competencies.

1. Strategic thinking. This is the ability to understand the market and the company’s position within it, as well as formulate goals and long-term plans, in alignment with mission, vision, values and culture, and determine how people and resources are allocated to guide the company in this direction and steward its growth.
2. Financial literacy. This is the ability to understand how money flows through the business and how to interpret financial data to budget, forecast, perform profit and loss analysis, and evaluate return on investment to make decisions that impact revenue.
3. Decision-making. Beyond financial decisions, this is the ability to evaluate information objectively, weigh risk and benefits, and make timely, effective decisions.
4. Analytical thinking, particularly around data. With more technology comes greater access to more data than ever before. Companies need people who can interpret this glut of information to diagnose problems, track metrics and identify trends, risks and opportunities. This helps to support leaders in making robust, evidence-based decisions.
5. Sales and revenue generation. This is all about knowing what drives revenue and being able to perform the activities that continue driving revenue, including sales, negotiation and building relationships with current and prospective customers and suppliers.
6. Communication. The ability to communicate clearly – and doing so regularly – is essential for achieving alignment, preventing misunderstandings, promoting transparency, building trust, avoiding conflict and enabling collaboration. Knowledge of different communication media and tools, as well as the most appropriate platform to use in a given situation, is also key.
7. Collaboration and relationship-building skills. Working well with others for the benefit of the business will always be important in contributing to a positive culture and a harmonious workplace that gets the best performance and productivity out of its employees.
8. Adaptability and resilience. There will always be change and uncertainty in the workplace and the larger world. Those who can react nimbly to any new situation will be valuable in helping businesses thrive and move ahead.
9. Emotional intelligence. EQ is the ability to understand the perspectives of other people while also having the capacity for self-reflection. This skill is vital for building relationships between leaders and employees, among peers on teams and with customers.
10. Servant leadership. This is the ability for leaders to understand and serve their employees’ needs well and act as a coach in the workplace, supporting them by getting them the tools and resources they need while removing obstacles, keeping the team on track and aligned, and encouraging the best performance from each employee. An incredibly important skill for today’s leaders, servant leadership is crucial for boosting morale, productivity and quality of work.
11. Creativity and innovation. This is the ability to step outside the box and consider problems and challenges from new perspectives, uncover previously unseen opportunities and identify solutions that move the business forward and bestow competitive advantages.
12. Skills tied to operations. This is where individual contributors who know their stuff really shine! Businesses depend on these people daily to get work done on time, according to quality and safety standards. These skills will look different depending on the individual business.
13. Knowledge of the institution and legacy systems. The people who have been around for awhile and understand how the organization has evolved and grown over time, as well as the context around previous decisions that were made and what missteps were taken along the way, are invaluable to businesses – particularly as leaders look to make changes or undergo more growth.
14. Niche skills. This refers to the people (or “purple squirrels,” more accurately) who possess expertise or skills that very few other workers in the marketplace have. These skills often require extensive education or training and are honed over years of experience, highly valuable to the business and very difficult to replace. These skills will look different depending on the individual business.
15. “New economy” skills. As the world has shifted toward widespread adoption of certain technologies, greater data capture, digital platforms and knowledge work, employees who have skills centered on artificial intelligence (AI), automation, data literacy and analysis, digital marketing and communications, remote collaboration technologies and cybersecurity, as examples, will help their business succeed.
16. Hybrid skills. Employees who combine skills – operational + creativity skills, technology expertise + communication skills or EQ + data analysis – are the real power players.

Why are businesses at risk of losing critical skills?

These are the common factors making businesses vulnerable to losing some of these skills:

• Retirement of tenured workers, who take their institutional knowledge and years of honed expertise with them out the door.
• Demographic shifts in the workplace, as different generations may prioritize or be stronger in certain skills over others.
• Turnover among the workforce.
• Fierce competition for top talent, which complicates recruiting and hiring.
• Industry and market disruptions.
• Rapid adoption of new technologies that are changing what business-critical skills even are. (Hello, AI!)
• Organizational growth – particularly rapid growth that can divert leaders’ focus elsewhere.

What is the cost of losing these skills?

When these skills are lost, negative impacts include:

• Dips in productivity.
• Widespread frustration in the workplace that affects morale and engagement.
• Knowledge silos or bottlenecks in instances where only a few people possess expertise or skills.
• Project delays and failures.
• Increased costs to train and hire new people.
• Lost innovation or competitive differentiation.
• Compliance issues.
• Diminished reputation.

How can businesses protect these skills?

Businesses can take the following steps to maintain business-critical skills.

1. Recruit candidates with certain skills in mind. Consider who will add the most value to your organization.
2. Institute knowledge-transfer programs. These could involve industry-specific learning opportunities, mentoring, cross-training, “stretch assignments” and ongoing employee training and development, including reskilling and upskilling employees.
3. Break down silos and reduce single points of failure. Try to avoid situations in which only one person has knowledge of a certain topic or carries out a process – other employees should be able to replicate what they do if the need arises. And all teams should be aware of what others are working on and how each group contributes to the organization.
4. Succession plan, working to identify future candidates in certain roles – particularly leadership.
5. Focus on the things that keep employees engaged, happy, productive and retained, including an effective people strategy and instilling a positive culture.

Frequently asked questions

Key takeaways

• Business-critical skills are the competencies that your business cannot do with.
• In the constantly changing working landscape, there are many evergreen and emerging competencies that are important for successful businesses to have.
• If these skills are lost, businesses face significant disruptions and challenges.
• The keys to maintaining critical skills are: recruit wisely, emphasize learning and development, reduce silos and points of failure, plan for the future and focus on retention and reducing turnover.

For more information about honing your employees’ knowledge and skills, download The ultimate people strategy playbook: Building a winning workforce.