# The Workforce Skills List: Seven Skills and What They Look Like at Work Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/workforce-skills-list/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/workforce-skills-list.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 Workforce skills list: the 7 skills employers rank highest, from problem-solving to dependability, what each looks like at work and how to prove each one. ## Key facts - Title: The Workforce Skills List: Seven Skills and What They Look Like at Work - Category: Soft Skills at Work - Primary skill: Professional Behaviors - Related skills: Communication, Teamwork - Primary keyword: workforce skills list - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/workforce-skills-list/ ## What this page covers - Workforce skills list: the 7 skills employers rank highest, from problem-solving to dependability, what each looks like at work and how to prove each one. - Practical guidance for workforce skills list - How this topic connects to Professional Behaviors ## Detailed explanation A workforce skills list is the short set of skills employers rank highest when they hire: problem-solving, teamwork, communication, initiative, dependability, willingness to learn and adaptability. What makes the list useful is translating each label into everyday behavior you can practice, and into evidence you can point to. If you are close to graduating or new in your first job, a list like this can read like an exam you never got the syllabus for. It works better as a set of habits, and you are probably using some of them already. Every one of them can be learned, before your first day or during your first months. The difficulty is that the labels on their own say almost nothing about what to do differently on Monday morning, and that gap is where the useful work starts. ## The skills employers rank highest Two employer surveys give a clear picture of what sits at the top. In NACE's Job Outlook 2025, nearly 90% of employers said they look on a new graduate's résumé for evidence of problem-solving. The ability to work in a team followed at 81%, then written communication skills at 77% and initiative at 74%. A 2021 Harris Poll survey for Express Employment Professionals ranked willingness to learn and dependability highest, each at 81%, with communication and adaptability at 75%. In the same survey, 73% of companies said they value these kinds of skills more than ever before. Neither ranking is a permanent order. The NACE figures come from 237 employers surveyed between August and September 2024, and the order shifts with who is asked, in which year, and whether the question is about hiring new people or about employees already on the job. What holds steady is the core: working with others, communicating, being dependable, learning and taking initiative keep landing at or near the top. Build on that core rather than on the exact order of any one ranking. The other thing to know before you use the list is that its entries are categories, not instructions. "Communication" or "dependability" cannot be practiced as such, and an employer cannot check them as adjectives. What can be practiced, seen by a colleague and described in an interview is the specific behavior underneath each label. ## The workforce skills list: seven skills and what they look like at work Each entry below covers what employers see in the skill, what it looks like on an ordinary workday, and how you can show it. ### 1. Problem-solving Problem-solving is the attribute employers most often look for on a graduate's résumé, and the word they use is evidence. On the job, it looks less like a flash of brilliance and more like sound judgment: making the calls that are yours to make, getting a second opinion from someone experienced before a decision that matters, and recognizing when a question belongs with your manager instead. To show it, choose one moment when something stopped working, such as an order that arrived wrong at your part-time job or figures in your thesis that would not reconcile, and be ready to say what the problem was, what you tried, and what changed as a result. ### 2. Teamwork Teamwork came second in the NACE survey, with 81% of employers looking for it. Because every candidate claims to be a team player, the claim carries little weight on its own. Colleagues judge it by smaller things: whether you deliver your part on time, whether you share what you know instead of keeping it to yourself, and whether you give credit to the group. Your evidence is a result that depended on you, ideally including something you picked up outside your formal role because the team needed it. ### 3. Communication Communication ranks high in both surveys: 77% of NACE employers look for written communication skills, and 75% of respondents in the Harris Poll survey named communication. At work it comes down to habits: putting the main point in the first lines of an email, [writing a subject line](/knowledge/communication/business-email-writing/) that says what the message is about, replying on time, listening to understand before you answer, and taking sensitive topics to a conversation rather than a long thread. Much of this is never spelled out. If the unwritten side of workplace messages feels like a code nobody handed you, you are not the only one who has felt that. One of the young people we interviewed about starting work told us about it; what follows is our note of what she said, not her exact words: > 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. That hidden side is learnable like any other part of the skill, mostly by noticing how experienced colleagues write and asking when you are unsure. Show it with a piece of your own writing that got something done, and with a short, clear spoken account of a project you worked on. ### 4. Initiative Initiative was sought by 74% of employers in the NACE survey. For someone new, it starts with being willing to ask, since the worst answer is no, and with volunteering for the work that sets the agenda: preparing the first draft, organizing the meeting, writing up the notes. It works best on small things first, while you are still learning how the place runs. Your evidence is anything that happened because you started it, such as a study group you set up, or a fix you proposed at a part-time job and then carried out yourself. ### 5. Dependability Dependability shared the top spot in the Harris Poll survey, named by 81% of respondents. It is one of the clearest places where a candidate without job-specific experience can compete on equal terms, because it shows in plain conduct: arriving on time, doing what you said you would by when you said you would, and flagging early when you cannot. A part-time job you held for several years, a commitment you kept through exam season, or a reference who can vouch that you always turned up all speak to it. ### 6. Willingness to learn Willingness to learn also reached 81% in the Harris Poll survey, and like dependability it needs no previous job to demonstrate. Employers read it most clearly in how you [respond to correction](/knowledge/self-awareness/responding-to-feedback/). The useful sequence is to understand the feedback fully before reacting, add your own view where it helps, reflect on it, and then ask for specific advice on what to do differently next time. Show it with a concrete case: feedback you received on an assignment, a shift or an internship, and what you changed afterward. ### 7. Adaptability Adaptability was named by 75% of respondents in the Harris Poll survey. On a workday it means staying open to change: a new tool, a reshuffled team, a priority that moves in the middle of the week. The practical response is to ask what now matters most, re-plan your own work around it, and keep going without letting the change cost you days. Your evidence is a change you handled, with a specific account of what you did differently because of it. ## How to check yourself against the list A list is the same for everyone who reads it; your gaps are not. Go through the seven and, for each one, ask a single question: can I name a specific situation where I did this? Sort your answers into three groups: skills where an example comes to mind at once, skills where you have something but it is thin, and skills where nothing comes up yet. The third group is not a verdict on who you are. A skill with no example yet is a behavior you have not had the chance to practice, and a student job, a group project or the first months of work are exactly where it gets built. Your own memory is a patchy guide to all of this, though, so before you decide where to put your effort, [map your own skill gaps](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) with a structured check. That way the first skill you work on is the one that will make the biggest difference. ## Turning the list into evidence Employers look for evidence, and an adjective gives them nothing to check. "Detail-oriented team player" tells a recruiter almost nothing. "Rewrote the café's opening checklist so new staff could run a morning shift without asking" shows communication, initiative and teamwork in one line, and gives an interviewer something to ask about. For each skill in your first group, write one or two short accounts with three parts: the situation, what you did, and what changed. Compress the strongest into [résumé lines](/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/how-to-list-soft-skills-on-resume/), and keep the full version [ready for an interview](/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/job-skills-for-interview/), where a "tell me about a time when" question is how an employer tests whether a listed skill is real. The list does not stop mattering once you have the offer. In the first months of a job, the same seven are judged every day, mostly through small signals: whether you are on time, whether your emails are easy to act on, whether you follow up on what you promised. Those signals are where a reputation starts, and they are within your control from the first week. ## The everyday skills underneath the whole list Read back through the seven and the same behaviors keep surfacing. Dependability, adaptability and willingness to learn showed up at work as conduct: turning up, staying open, taking correction well. Problem-solving and initiative only count once someone understands what you did. And almost every piece of evidence above involved other people. **Professional Behaviors** is where the vaguest words on any list, such as professionalism and work ethic, become something you can practice: being punctual, showing respect and genuine interest in colleagues, expressing appreciation, staying open to change, and handling confidential information with care. Just as useful is knowing what to avoid: being passive in meetings, negative about every change, or arrogant about what you already know. For someone starting out, this is the baseline the rest of the list is judged against, and the first thing a new colleague notices. **Communication** is what makes the other entries visible. A fix nobody understands doesn't register as problem-solving, and an idea you can't put briefly rarely gets picked up. The skill is a set of habits rather than a personality: lead with the main point, keep it clear and short, listen properly before you respond, and choose a conversation over a message when the topic is sensitive. None of it depends on being outgoing, and each habit can be rehearsed this week. **Teamwork** turns the claim of being a team player into something colleagues can confirm. It rests on being excellent at your own part while asking where the team needs you, sharing knowledge and credit, keeping your commitments, and disagreeing about the work rather than the person. It also means committing to a decision once it is made, even one you argued against. Those are the moments colleagues remember, and the stories that make the claim credible. These three are visible from your very first week in a job, which makes it worth knowing where you stand on them before you start. The **free Job Skills Test** covers them alongside the other skills in a set of **twelve**, so you can [see your starting point](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) before day one and walk in knowing which of these habits are already working for you. Whatever it shows, each of these skills responds to practice. ## Seeing yourself in the list Look at the seven again with your last job or project in mind, and a few will probably have a name and a date attached already. If you have ever covered a colleague's shift and left a note saying exactly what was still open, you practiced dependability, communication and teamwork in a single afternoon. None of the seven is fixed where it stands today. Building them means changing a handful of habits, not your personality, and you decide which ones come first. As your work starts to affect more people, these habits decide more of how it lands, and the examples you collect now carry into the next application and the next role. The open question is where your own starting line is. ## Find out where you stand The Job Skills Test answers that in one sitting. It is a **free** self-assessment of twelve work skills, including communication, teamwork and professional behaviors, and it takes 7 minutes. You see which skills are already strong and which will make the biggest difference to your applications and your first months in a job. **[Get my skills profile](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/)** *Free, takes 7 minutes, results shown 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? Workforce skills list: the 7 skills employers rank highest, from problem-solving to dependability, what each looks like at work and how to prove each one. ### 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/workforce-skills-list/ Preferred summary: "Workforce skills list: the 7 skills employers rank highest, from problem-solving to dependability, what each looks like at work and how to prove each one." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.