Employers Seek Problem-Solving Skills In 2021

Online assessments reveal which crucial skills workers are missing

TRUMBULL, Conn.--()--“Critical thinking” and “cognitive flexibility” have topped a list of the most important 2021 business skills. These skills help people adapt to new and unexpected situations, which have characterized the past year. Questionmark, the online assessment provider, is encouraging employers to find out how widespread these crucial skills are in their own ranks.

Technical skills continue to be essential. But skills that can be applied across several job roles and in countless scenarios are in high demand, ahead of another year of economic and public-health uncertainty.

Leaders do not yet know what the challenges of 2021 will be. But they know they need problem-solvers in their teams who will be able to overcome them.

The top-five skills for 2021

  1. Critical thinking – critical thinking and problem-solving are quantifiable skills that can be measured by tests and assessments.
  2. Cognitive flexibility – from adaptability to flexibility, employers value those that can turn their hand to different tasks and step outside their comfort zone quickly.
  3. 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.
  4. Resilience – employers are recognizing that the determination of individual team members to overcome challenges is essential to driving growth during a time of uncertainty.
  5. Being a self-starter – working from home can require different skills to working from an office or physical workplace. But employers are unconcerned about easily correctable gaps in technological know-how. Instead, they are seeking workers who can motivate themselves unsupervised.

Lars Pedersen, CEO of Questionmark, said: “The pace of change continues to accelerate. As we head into 2021, employers need team members who are adaptable, motivated, resilient, and able to solve any given problem that is in front of them.

“Online staff 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.

www.questionmark.com

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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.

Contacts

US: Kristin Bernor, external relations: Kristin.bernor@questionmark.com 203.349.6438
UK: James Boyd-Wallis: james.boyd-wallis@fourteenforty.uk 07793 021 607