# Skills for Employers: What They Want From New Hires and How to Prove It Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/skills-for-employers/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/skills-for-employers.md Entity type: Article Last updated: 2026-07-07 Language: en Primary audience: professionals improving communication at work Owner: Headway Skills Contact: https://headwayskills.com/contact/ ## Short answer The skills employers want from new hires, from communication and teamwork to resilience and work ethic: what each looks like at work and how to prove it. ## Key facts - Title: Skills for Employers: What They Want From New Hires and How to Prove It - Category: Employability - Primary skill: Communication - Related skills: Teamwork, Professional Behaviors - Primary keyword: skills for employers - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/skills-for-employers/ ## What this page covers - The skills employers want from new hires, from communication and teamwork to resilience and work ethic: what each looks like at work and how to prove it. - Practical guidance for skills for employers - How this topic connects to Communication ## Detailed explanation The skills employers look for in new hires are mostly not technical: communication, teamwork and problem-solving come first, followed by initiative, a dependable work ethic, resilience and sound ethical judgment, with role-specific technical proficiency alongside. Every one is a set of learnable behaviors, and employers want evidence of them, not the label. If you are close to graduating or a year or two into your first job, a list like that can feel like a checklist you are quietly being scored against. It is more manageable than it looks. The labels themselves count for little with an employer; what counts is whether you can point to the behavior behind each one, and that changes what is worth working on first. ## The skills employers look for in new hires Employers are clear about what they want from new hires, and most of it has little to do with your subject. In NACE's Job Outlook 2025, the three attributes employers most wanted to see evidenced on a new graduate's resume were problem-solving, teamwork and written communication, none of them technical. There is a gap, too: in a September 2025 survey by London Economics, only 49% of respondents felt graduates arrive well-equipped for work. That is less discouraging than it sounds. When fewer than half see graduates as ready, the skills employers rank highest are exactly where a well-prepared candidate stands out, and every one of them can be learned. The first three entries below are the ones employers name most often; the other five complete the picture. ### 1. Communication Communication was the attribute named by the most respondents in the London Economics survey, 67%, and NACE found more than three-quarters of employers looking for evidence of written communication on a graduate resume. It is also where employers' worries gather: in an Institute of Student Employers survey reported by Times Higher Education, employers singled out graduates' communication and interpersonal skills as a particular concern. The shift from studying is real. A grader reads every word to the end; a busy colleague reads the first two lines and decides whether the rest matters. So the behaviors that count are the main point first, short and clear messages, listening to the whole question before you answer, and saying what you think in a meeting rather than afterward. Talking about your own work out loud is a different skill from writing about it, and worth rehearsing before an interview asks for it. Evidence comes from the updates a group relied on, the presentation you gave, or the email that got a quick, clear yes. ### 2. Teamwork More than 80% of employers look for teamwork on a graduate resume, according to NACE, and teamwork and collaboration came second in the London Economics survey, named by 57%. Because it is the easiest skill to claim, the word alone tells an employer nothing. What convinces is behavior: doing your own part well and on time, picking up work the group needs even when it is not strictly yours, sharing what you know, giving the group the credit, and disagreeing about the work openly without making it personal. Your evidence is a group project, a sports team, a volunteer role or a shift where someone else depended on you, told as what you did rather than as a description of yourself. ### 3. Problem-solving Problem-solving is the attribute employers look for most often, with close to 90% of employers in NACE's survey seeking evidence of it. It is also one where graduates already do reasonably well in employers' eyes: the same Institute of Student Employers findings that flagged communication rated graduates fairly well on problem-solving. So treat it as a skill to show, not one to agonize over. At work it comes down to a few ordinary moves: making sure you understand what is actually being asked before you start, getting a second opinion from someone who has handled something similar, working from facts rather than assumptions, accepting a good-enough answer when a perfect one would take too long, and bringing a possible solution when you raise a problem with your manager. Any time something went wrong in a project or a job and you did something about it counts as evidence. ### 4. Initiative Initiative is sought by more than 70% of employers, and for someone new it rarely means launching anything big. It means asking for a task, for more responsibility, or for the reason something is done a certain way, on the basis that the worst answer is no. It means offering to draft the agenda, write the summary or organize the next step everyone is waiting for someone else to take. And it means suggesting an improvement once you understand why things currently work the way they do. None of this requires professional experience, so student organizations, part-time jobs and group work all supply evidence. If you suspect something that modest would go unnoticed, consider how it played out for one of the young people we interviewed about starting work; the words below come from our notes of the conversation rather than a recording: > In my position, I get to try things out and play around with a lot of different things. For example, I took the initiative to become a 'lean manager' — entirely on my own initiative — and now people come to me and ask about it. > > Here, it's great to ask questions and come up with suggestions for improvement. Nobody assigned her that area. She took it on herself, and colleagues started coming to her with questions, which is the kind of visibility initiative earns early on. ### 5. Work ethic Work ethic is another attribute more than 70% of employers look for, and in practice it means people can count on you: you turn up on time, you finish what you said you would, and nobody has to chase you for it. The less visible half is how you take work on. Before starting a task, confirm what exactly is being asked, by when, and what a finished result looks like; then check in with the person who asked partway through instead of going quiet until the deadline. Evidence comes from any stretch where you carried steady commitments: a part-time job through exam season, a role in a student organization, a long project that landed on the agreed date. ### 6. Resilience Almost half of employers think graduates lack resilience, according to the same Institute of Student Employers survey. At work it shows in ordinary moments: [hearing criticism](/knowledge/self-awareness/how-to-take-criticism/) of your work without either crumbling or arguing, owning a mistake and moving straight to the fix, staying steady when a plan you worked hard on is dropped. The habits behind it can be learned: putting your energy into what you can control, questioning the first worst-case thought that arrives, and talking a problem through with someone you trust. Because coping with setbacks is part of what an employer assesses, a story about a setback and what you did next is evidence in your favor, not a confession. ### 7. Ethical judgment and adaptability Drexel University's 2025 Hiring Outlook found ethical judgment, adaptability and critical thinking among the skills employers valued most in graduates entering the job market. The signal is that employers assess how you behave when nobody is checking and how you respond when things change, not only how well you complete a task. In practice, that means keeping confidential information confidential, saying so early when you have made a mistake, giving accurate credit for other people's work, and treating a new tool or a changed plan as a reason to adjust rather than to complain. Your evidence is any moment where the easy option and the right one were different, and you took the right one. ### 8. Technical proficiency More than 70% of employers also look for technical proficiency, and this is the one entry that depends entirely on the role: a programming language, a lab technique, a design tool, a piece of accounting software. The job ad usually tells you which. Technical skills often help land a first job, but the other seven weigh at least as heavily in hiring, and their weight grows as a career goes on. State the technical skills a role asks for plainly, then put most of your preparation into proving the rest. ## How to prove your skills to employers Nearly two-thirds of employers now use [skills-based hiring](/knowledge/types-of-skills/skills-based-approach/), according to NACE, judging candidates on what they can demonstrably do rather than on grades or major alone. That changes the job of an application. A listed skill is a claim nobody can check; a short account of what you did and what came of it is evidence. When every resume says "strong communicator," the example is the only part that tells an employer anything. Start with an inventory. Go through the eight entries and, for each, write down one specific situation where you did the behavior: not "I'm reliable," but the week you covered two extra shifts and still handed in your assignment on time. Where a situation comes easily, you have evidence. Where nothing comes, you have found the entry to practice next, and closing that gap is a matter of doing the behavior on purpose a few times, not of becoming a different person. Memory is a patchy guide to your own habits, though, especially on the interpersonal side, where employers' concerns are greatest. To check your inventory against something more systematic, [measure your workplace skills](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) and compare the two: any entry where the result and your list disagree deserves a closer look before your applications go out. On the resume, give each skill you claim [one line of proof](/knowledge/employability/soft-skills-to-write-in-cv/): an action and its result. "Good teamwork skills" becomes the group project you kept on schedule after a member dropped out, and what the group delivered. In the interview, expect to be asked for the full story behind those lines, since interviewers commonly test these skills with "tell me about a time when…" questions. Prepare a handful of [real stories](/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/job-skills-for-interview/), each with the situation, what you did and how it turned out, and notice that one good story often covers several entries at once. The weekend shift where the schedule fell apart and you reorganized it can show work ethic, problem-solving and initiative in a single answer. ## The skills that carry most of the list Problem-solving may top the list of requests, but it is not where employers' worries gather. Read back through the eight entries and most of the behaviors in them are about how you communicate, how you work alongside other people, and how you conduct yourself day to day. Seen that way, the list is shorter than eight. **Communication** stops being a vague requirement once you treat it as a handful of habits: the main point in the first line, messages kept brief, full attention while the other person is speaking, and your view said out loud in the meeting rather than saved for afterward. None of these depends on being outgoing; they suit quiet people as well as talkative ones. Each can be practiced in your next email or meeting, and each leaves you with a specific example to give when an employer asks. **Teamwork** asks more at work than it did in group projects, where the grade was shared even when the effort was not. It means being excellent at your own part, doing whatever the team needs next, sharing knowledge and credit freely, and keeping your commitments so reliably that colleagues stop checking. It also means arguing about the work rather than the person, then backing the decision the team makes. That combination is what makes colleagues trust you with more. **Professional Behaviors** cover much of what employers mean by "the right attitude": being on time, treating everyone with the same respect whatever their role, showing real interest in colleagues and their work, staying humble, saying thank you, and staying open to change, while steering clear of passive, negative or arrogant habits. This is the part of the list most within your control, with no experience required, and the part an employer starts judging from your first email. It is about behavior, not about turning into someone more corporate than you are. All three can be practiced in whatever job, internship or project you have now, so the real decision is where to begin. The Job Skills Test is built for exactly that decision. It scores you on these three and the rest of a **set of twelve work skills**, so you can [pinpoint your starting skill](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) and put the next few months of practice where it will make the biggest difference; since each of the twelve can be learned, whatever it shows is a plan rather than a verdict. ## Building from where you are Chances are a few of these entries already describe things you do. If you have been the one in a group project who noticed the deadline slipping and said so out loud, or stayed calm and polite while a customer complaint landed on you at a part-time job, you have already practiced the speaking up, reliability and steadiness employers are looking for. Where the evidence is thinner, nothing about you needs to change, only a few behaviors practiced on purpose until they turn into stories you can tell. Once you are hired, these skills stop being lines on an application and become how colleagues decide whether to rely on you, and each promotion leans on them harder than the last, so building them now means the habits are already in place when more is riding on them. A clear view of your starting point is what makes that effort count. ## Know where you stand The last step is an honest baseline. The Job Skills Test is a **free** self-assessment of your workplace skills: it takes 7 minutes, scores you across all twelve, and shows which ones will make the biggest difference to your applications and your first months on the job. **[Get my skills profile](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/)** *Free, takes 7 minutes, and your results appear instantly.* ## Who this is for - Professionals building practical workplace skills - Readers looking for specific, usable work advice - Managers, educators, and coaches supporting career readiness ## Common questions ### What is this guide about? The skills employers want from new hires, from communication and teamwork to resilience and work ethic: what each looks like at work and how to prove it. ### Which Headway skill does this connect to? This guide connects primarily to Communication. It also relates to Teamwork, Professional Behaviors. ### What is the recommended next step? Use the free Work Skills Test to reflect on which work skill to improve next. ## Related pages - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/communication.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/teamwork.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/professional-behaviors.md - https://headwayskills.com/work-skills-test.md ## Citation guidance Use the canonical page when citing this content: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/skills-for-employers/ Preferred summary: "The skills employers want from new hires, from communication and teamwork to resilience and work ethic: what each looks like at work and how to prove it." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.