The top 5 skills employers look for

July 1st, 2025
The Hirevue Team

The skills that matter most in the workplace are rapidly evolving as AI reshapes entire industries and individual roles. And both candidates and employers are leaning into a skill-based approach.

According to TestGorilla, “90% of candidates feel as though they're more likely to land their dream job with skills-based hiring.”

And Aptitude Research confirms this shift on the employer side, “Companies are moving away from assumptions based on resumes and job titles toward structured, directly validated skill assessments. 50% of companies stated their top frustration in the skills conversation is the difficulty in validating skills.”

Leaning into skills-based hiring is the way to offer a fairer experience but also ensure you’re validating skills, hiring qualified talent, and building a workforce that will last through tomorrow’s challenges.

Explore the 5 most valuable work-related skills employers look for across industries.

Skill #1: Adaptability + learning ability + agility

“Given the changing nature of work today, employers are looking for candidates who can adapt and be nimble as their responsibilities continuously evolve,” said Mike Hudy, Chief Science Officer at Hirevue.

The World Economic Forum predicts that “AI will disrupt 44% of workers' core skills within the next five years. As automation accelerates, the value of human judgment, contextual awareness, carbon intelligence, and ethical reasoning – all amplified by AI – will define the future of work.”

In a world where change is the only constant, the ability to pivot, learn quickly, and adopt new technologies is vital. Employers are seeking professionals who are not only open to change but also thrive in it.

  • Hirevue’s Agile Mindset Assessment evaluates 4 key types of agility: people, change, mental, and results. The assessment is designed to better predict performance and understand a high-potential candidate’s comfort with uncertainty and complexity. 

Skill #2: AI tool proficiency

AI isn’t just for engineers. Whether you’re in marketing, finance, or customer service, knowing how to work with AI is becoming a core part of modern roles. It’s about partnering with machines to make better decisions—not being replaced by them.

“Employers are looking for those who are comfortable with AI and comfortable with data, because this ability is becoming increasingly important to a greater percentage of roles.”

Interested to learn more about AI in hiring? Check out the AI in Hiring Hub.

Skill #3: Data literacy

Gone are the days when data was the sole domain of analysts. In 2025, everyone, from salespeople to project managers, is expected to understand how to read, interpret, and act on data. 

“Data fluency is the new digital fluency, so finding employees who embrace and use data tools is imperative for organizations that want to take their operations to the next level,” said Hudy. 

Beyond literacy, being comfortable with platforms that analyze and visualize data sets high performers apart. It’s about integrating insights into your daily decisions—empowering smarter decision-making.

Skill #4: Critical thinking

AI can summarize, and AI can predict. 

But it can’t truly think

“The uniquely human ability to assess, judge, and make nuanced decisions remains one of the most irreplaceable skills in any workplace. By definition, AI doesn’t think outside the box. It’s trained on what’s in the box, and humans can think outside of it,” Hudy said.

Contrary to the buzzy phrases of 2025, robots aren’t taking over the world—because humans still possess the ultimate dominating trait: the ability to think critically about issues, brainstorm topics, and collaborate with similar and different mindsets. 

Skill #5: Creative problem solving

Similarly, employers are increasingly prioritizing people who can imagine new solutions, approach problems from fresh angles, and bring originality to their work.

“AI is enhancing efficiency by automating routine tasks. It’s not replacing human ingenuity. It’s making more room for it.”

The beauty of AI is the combination of its efficiency with human thinking and action. AI will never replace human critical thinking or problem solving—it provides the data to amplify powerful action. 

Validating skills

But what’s next? How do you validate these skills and identify the candidates with the highest capability? 

Hirevue is an AI-driven suite of products for validating the skills that actually predict success. It’s no longer enough to look at just inferred or self-reported skills. Hirevue’s technology is designed to help you discover and validate the candidate skills and competencies that better predict performance. 

When you validate skills, you are directly measuring them rather than inferring from previous experience. And performance prediction is the idea that you are linking skills to qualify-of-hire metrics. 

  • Incorporating assessments into your hiring process will not only empower candidates to showcase their skills but will also help teams qualify top talent. We verify and validate the skills that drive success, giving talent teams the most predictive, powerful set of candidate insights.
    • Virtual Job Tryout: Immerse candidates in job-related tasks and help candidates better understand the role and assess their fit. Provide hiring teams with valuable insights into candidates’ abilities to perform the job.
    • Game-based assessment: These psychometric tests can be used as assessments for pre-hire decisions or internal mobility.
    • Technical assessments: Use coding challenges for screening candidates in the early part of the hiring process and even empower non-technical hiring teams to make smarter decisions
    • Language Proficiency Tests: Empower teams to effectively evaluate language proficiency at scale.
  • Our AI agents interact with candidates like a human would—think of it like a personal assistant. Remember, finding a job can be incredibly overwhelming, and while other chatbots match candidates based on job titles alone, ours can match the skills candidates have learned from past experiences and suggest roles they could fit. Then, our assessments and structured interviewing can take it a step further to validate those skills. 

Read more about 8 crucial recruitment metrics you should be tracking.

AI-driven skills-based hiring isn’t just the trendy term of today. It’s a roadmap for hiring quality talent with speed and at scale.

Ready to see it in action? Request a demo.

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