# Skills in the Workplace: The Eight That Matter Beyond What You Studied Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-in-the-work-place/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-in-the-work-place.md Entity type: Article Last updated: 2026-07-07 Language: en Primary audience: professionals improving professional behaviors at work Owner: Headway Skills Contact: https://headwayskills.com/contact/ ## Short answer Skills in the workplace beyond technical knowledge: 8 skills employers look for, what each looks like day to day, and how to build the ones you lack. ## Key facts - Title: Skills in the Workplace: The Eight That Matter Beyond What You Studied - Category: Soft Skills at Work - Primary skill: Professional Behaviors - Related skills: Communication, Teamwork - Primary keyword: skills in the work place - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-in-the-work-place/ ## What this page covers - Skills in the workplace beyond technical knowledge: 8 skills employers look for, what each looks like day to day, and how to build the ones you lack. - Practical guidance for skills in the work place - How this topic connects to Professional Behaviors ## Detailed explanation The most important skills in the workplace are the ones that decide how you work with others and manage yourself: professional behaviors, communication, teamwork, decision-making, time management, working with your manager, initiative and self-awareness. Your technical knowledge opens the door; these skills decide how well you do once you are through it. If you are about to start your first job, or are a year or two into one, you may already sense that something other than grades decides who does well, without anyone having told you what it is. Much of it is never written down. All of it is learnable: each skill on this list is a set of behaviors you can practice, not a personality you either have or lack. What helps most is seeing what each one looks like on an ordinary workday, and that turns out to be quite specific. ## Why employers weigh these skills as heavily as what you studied When employers screen new graduates, the [nontechnical side of a résumé](/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/how-to-list-soft-skills-on-resume/) gets as much attention as the technical side. According to NACE's Job Outlook 2025, nearly 90% of employers look for evidence of problem-solving on a new graduate's résumé, more than 80% look for the ability to work in a team, and more than three-quarters look for written communication skills. More than 70% look for initiative and a strong work ethic, roughly the same share that looks for technical skills. The reason is straightforward. An employer is hiring someone to function in a working environment, not to sit an exam, and most of that list concerns how you deal with other people and how you manage yourself. Workplace skills come in two kinds. Technical skills belong to a particular job or field: accounting rules, a programming language, a clinical procedure. The other kind, the skills that govern how you work with people and handle yourself at work, travels with you across every industry, employer and role, and it does not go out of date. Education is built mostly around the first kind, so it is common to arrive at work with the second kind largely untaught. That is a gap in what you have been shown, not in what you are capable of, and it closes with practice. ## Eight skills in the workplace and what they look like day to day Each of the eight below is a skill you can practice. For each one, here is what it involves and where it shows up in a normal week. ### 1. Professional behaviors A good share of what colleagues expect from you is never spelled out: treating everyone with the same respect whatever their role, being on time, dressing for the job you do, speaking about absent colleagues as if they were in the room, keeping confidential information confidential, and knowing which topics stay out of the office. People judge these constantly, mostly without noticing they are doing it, and the judgments add up to a first impression long before anyone has assessed your actual work. The flip side matters just as much: staying passive in meetings, complaining about every change, or acting as if you already know better are the habits that use up goodwill fastest. A newcomer who is technically strong but unaware of these norms can be marked down as unprofessional without anyone saying why. The norms are visible, though, and that makes them learnable: watch how the colleagues people respect behave, and ask when you are unsure. ### 2. Communication At work, communication is less about public speaking and more about the dozens of small exchanges in a day. It means choosing a conversation for anything sensitive or complicated and writing when the other person needs time or a record, putting the main point first, keeping it clear and brief, giving full attention when someone is talking, and speaking up in meetings rather than saving your view for later. Almost every task passes through someone else, so an unclear message costs rework and misunderstandings that can sink otherwise good work. Written messages carry particular weight: they are often the only part of your work that people outside your team ever see, and written communication is the form employers single out when they screen graduates. Emails and chat also come with rules nobody writes down. One of the young people we interviewed about starting work described it to us, and the words below are our notes of what she said rather than her exact phrasing: > I had to find my own way of communicating — the professional way to communicate by email, including the internal communication systems, like chat. There's a big social aspect to it that can be hidden. Most of that hidden side comes down to calibration: matching the tone and pace of the people you write to, and checking with a colleague when you are unsure whether something belongs in a quick chat message or a proper email. ### 3. Teamwork Teamwork at work runs on different rules from group work at school. Success is measured by the shared result rather than by individual grades, so knowledge is meant to be shared, not guarded, and credit goes to the team. Trust comes from reliability: doing what you said you would, by when you said you would, and flagging early when you cannot. Disagreement is part of the job too, as long as it stays on the work rather than the person, and once the team has decided, you [commit to the decision](/knowledge/teamwork/disagree-and-commit/) even if you argued against it. More than 80% of employers look for this skill in new graduates, and the habit many people have to unlearn first is protecting their own piece of work as if it were still going to be graded on its own. ### 4. Decision-making Problem-solving, the attribute employers mention most often, mostly comes down to decision-making in daily work. That starts with knowing which calls are yours to make and which belong with your manager. Within your own area, it means getting a second opinion from someone experienced before a decision that matters, settling for a good-enough solution instead of chasing a perfect one, and watching for confirmation bias, the pull toward information that supports what you already think. A newcomer who knows when to decide and when to escalate gets trusted with bigger decisions sooner. ### 5. Time management At school, the syllabus sets the deadlines. At work, requests arrive from several people at once, and setting priorities becomes your job. Before you start on a task, clarify who is asking, what exactly they need, when it is due (a date, not "ASAP") and what counts as done. Then put the important ahead of the [merely urgent](/knowledge/time-management/time-management-urgent-important/). Once you have built some credibility, saying no, with a reason and ideally an alternative, becomes part of the skill as well, rather than a risk to your reputation. ### 6. Working with your manager Your manager is the person who assesses your work, which makes this relationship a skill in its own right. It starts with agreeing on what good performance looks like in your role, then keeping that conversation alive in regular one-on-ones. Ask for feedback rather than waiting for a review, and when you bring a problem, bring a proposed solution with it. When expectations are aligned, you stop spending energy guessing whether you are on track. ### 7. Initiative and influence More than 70% of employers look for initiative and a strong work ethic. In practice, initiative means being willing to ask, since the worst answer is no, and volunteering for the work that sets the direction: drafting the plan, organizing the meeting, writing the summary. Follow through on what you take on and deliver consistently, and over time you build a reputation. That reputation is what gives a junior employee a say in decisions [without any formal authority](/knowledge/influence/influence-without-authority/). Start small while you are still learning how the place works. ### 8. Self-awareness Self-awareness is knowing what you are naturally good at and using feedback to find the blind spots you cannot see yourself. Ask for feedback that is specific and points forward, such as what would make your next report better, rather than a general verdict, and make sure you understand it before you respond. This is the skill that tells you which of the other seven to work on first. ## How to tell which of these skills you already have Rating yourself is harder than it sounds, because a blind spot is by definition the thing you do not see. A few habits make the picture more honest. Start with evidence rather than impressions. For each of the eight, recall a recent moment from a job, an internship or a group project where that skill was tested, and be honest about how it went. Then look at how other people respond to you: what colleagues thank you for, what they come to you for, and which piece of feedback keeps coming back. Finally, ask one person who has seen you work, such as a manager, a shift lead or a project partner, which of the eight they would call your strength and which they would suggest you work on. Even then, your own view tends to flatter some skills and overlook others. The free Job Skills Test works as a second opinion here: it gives you [a structured outside view](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) of where your skills stand, including gaps you would not have spotted from the inside. Whatever it turns up, a gap is only a skill you have not practiced yet. ## How to build the skills you are missing Pick one or two to start with, not all eight. Trying to change everything at once usually means nothing changes. Turn each one into a specific behavior you can repeat. "Communicate better" gives you nothing to do on Monday; "lead every email with the main point" does. "Manage my time" becomes "confirm the deadline and what counts as done whenever I accept a task." Then practice where you already are, because a student job, an internship, a group project and a first role all count. These skills are built by doing them, not by reading about them. After a few weeks, go back to the person you asked for feedback and ask whether they have noticed a difference. Adjust, then add the next behavior. None of this requires you to change your personality. You are changing specific habits, and you remain yourself while you do it. ## The three skills the rest of the list depends on Look back over the eight and a pattern appears. A sound decision nobody understood, a deadline met by someone who came across as dismissive, a good idea raised in a tone that put people off: most of what goes wrong at work goes wrong at the point where your work meets other people. Three skills sit right at that point. **Professional Behaviors** is the baseline every other skill is read against. A sharp analysis delivered with visible impatience lands as arrogance, and a missed meeting can undo a week of good work. The skill is about making the unwritten expectations visible to yourself so you can meet them on purpose, and it asks for respectful, considerate conduct rather than a different personality. You can stay recognizably yourself and still get these signals right. **Communication** is how the rest becomes visible. A good decision, a well-set priority or an act of initiative only counts once someone has understood it. For someone new, that mostly means ordinary habits: the main point first, the right channel for the message, full attention when listening. None of it depends on being outgoing or a confident speaker, and each habit can be practiced in your next email or meeting. **Teamwork** is where the others get tested, because it is where people depend on you. It turns "team player" from a label into things colleagues can see: commitments kept, knowledge shared, disagreement aimed at the work rather than the person, and loyalty to a decision once it is made. It is about being a reliable member of a team, not running one, and it includes speaking up when you disagree. The **free Job Skills Test** [shows how these three score](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) for you today, and since it covers **twelve work skills in all**, the other five on this list are measured as well. A low result marks a behavior to start practicing this week, not a limit on where you can go. ## Where you might already see yourself Hold the eight up against your last shift, internship or group project, and some will probably match things you did without calling them skills. If you have ever warned a teammate early that you would miss a deadline and offered what you could deliver instead, you used time management, communication and teamwork in a single message. The entries that match nothing yet are not a verdict on you. They are behaviors you have not had a reason to practice, and you decide which to start with, without having to become someone else. The more people your work reaches, the more its reception rests on these skills rather than on what you know, so choosing the right one to work on early makes that shift work in your favor. That choice is easier with a clear picture of where you start. ## Get your starting point You can have that picture before the end of the day. The Job Skills Test is a **free** self-assessment of your work skills: in 7 minutes it shows where you stand across all twelve, including the eight in this article, and which ones would make the biggest difference as you start out or settle into work. **[Get my skills profile](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/)** *Free, takes 7 minutes, and you see your results 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? Skills in the workplace beyond technical knowledge: 8 skills employers look for, what each looks like day to day, and how to build the ones you lack. ### Which Headway skill does this connect to? This guide connects primarily to Professional Behaviors. It also relates to Communication, Teamwork. ### 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/soft-skills-at-work.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/professional-behaviors.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/communication.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/teamwork.md - https://headwayskills.com/work-skills-test.md ## Citation guidance Use the canonical page when citing this content: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-in-the-work-place/ Preferred summary: "Skills in the workplace beyond technical knowledge: 8 skills employers look for, what each looks like day to day, and how to build the ones you lack." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.