What are transferable skills and why do they matter?

In today’s disruptive world of work, job roles are evolving faster than ever. AI, automation, and digital transformation are reshaping what organisations need from their people. According to research by the World Economic Forum, organisations expect 39% of employees’ core skills to change within the next five years. For HR and People leaders, this raises a critical question: how can you build a workforce that can adapt to these changes, thrive, and deliver sustainable success?

The answer to this lies in transferable skills. These are capabilities that go beyond job-specific technical know-how skills such as critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and resilience. Unlike job-specific skills, which may quickly become outdated over time, transferable skills are relevant across job roles, functions, and industries. They provide a foundation for agility, enabling employees to adapt dynamically as business contexts shift and new challenges emerge.

So, what are transferable skills, why do they matter, and how can HR leaders embed them into hiring and talent strategies to drive sustainable success?

What is a transferable skill?

Transferable skills are learned abilities which are relevant and valuable for successful performance across different roles and functions. Unlike job-specific skills that can change quite rapidly such as coding, statistical analysis, or graphic design, transferable skills are broader and more enduring. They enable people to be personally and interpersonally effective in a range of different contexts.

Transferable skills underpin how someone thinks, interacts, and responds to challenges. They are heavily influenced by a person’s personality, cognitive ability, motivation, and values. Other common terms for them are soft skills or power skills, although personally I think the term transferable skills provides a much clearer positioning about their fundamental nature. They provide the foundation for success across a variety of roles, whether today or in the future.

Read more: How to implement skills-based hiring in 6 steps

Why are transferable skills important?

Transferable skills are important because job-specific skills can become outdated or obsolete quickly if business operating models or technologies change. Transferable skills such as resilience, problem solving, and building relationships enable employees to adapt, learn new skills, and thrive in changing environments.

Many organisations already recognise the vital importance of transferable skills. For example, according to the World Economic Forum, the top five core skills identified by employers are all transferable skills, as you can see from this list:

• Analytical thinking
• Resilience, flexibility, and agility
• Leadership and social influence
• Creative thinking
• Motivation and self-awareness

Employees who have strong transferable skills have the capability to contribute to organisational success beyond their core technical tasks. They show initiative, collaborate effectively, support other colleagues, and generate ideas for organisational improvement. Organisational psychologists call this contextual performance.

As new technologies emerge and roles evolve over time, transferable skills also provide stability for an organisation as employees are able to not only meet today’s needs, but can also adapt to tomorrow’s challenges.

The business case for transferable skills

For HR and People leaders, keeping transferable skills top of mind in hiring and talent development can activate several key benefits:

• Broadening talent pools: By considering transferable skills alongside job-specific skills, organisations can tap into a wider talent pool and identify hidden talent who can enhance their culture and contribute to wider organisational success through their contextual performance.
• Reducing bias and improving inclusion: Removing barriers that are tied to formal educational qualifications, such as specific degrees, creates fairer opportunities for underrepresented groups.
• Driving agility and future-readiness: With World Economic Forum reporting that nearly 40% of employees’ skills are anticipated to change in the next five years, reskilling and adapting to new role requirements is a necessity. Transferable skills provide this foundation, giving employees the capabilities to learn and adapt to new challenges and situations.
• Enabling internal mobility: Considering transferable skills, rather than just focusing on job-specific skills, makes it easier to redeploy talent across functions or locations. This supports succession planning while also providing more growth opportunities for individual talent.

Assessing and developing transferable skills

In hiring situations, the first place to start is of course to establish which transferable skills are important for the role and the organisation’s future needs. Organisations can then assess the observable demonstration of transferable skills through robust, scientific assessment methods, such as structured interviews, simulation exercises, or work sample assessments. These allow you to observe candidates’ behaviour in action or collect data about how they have demonstrated transferable skills in past roles. data about how they have demonstrated transferable skills in past roles.

While these techniques provide evidence of whether candidates can demonstrate specific transferable skills when required, it is also valuable in hiring to assess for skills foundations. Skills foundations indicate whether someone is likely to demonstrate the skill consistently over time. They are the underlying individual traits and characteristics that drive whether someone will be motivated and effective in mastering specific skills and acquiring new skills. These characteristics include their personality, emotional intelligence, cognitive capabilities, values, and psychometric assessments which can provide in-depth insight into these areas. The combination of observing the demonstration of transferable skills along with measuring skills foundations helps provide a comprehensive picture of someone’s current capability and future potential.

Unlike job-specific technical skills which can often be taught through structured training, transferable skills can take more time to acquire and develop. While targeted learning programmes can support this, transferable skills often depend on building self-awareness, reflection, and commitment to deliberate practice on an ongoing basis. This is because they can be deeply rooted in someone’s personality, motivation, cognition, and experience and require dedicated commitment to continuous growth and self-improvement. Ongoing development strategies –such as coaching and mentoring, stretch assignments, cross-functional projects, and regular 360-degree feedback – are therefore particularly useful for encouraging the self-insight and reflective learning required to enhance transferable skills.

How to embed transferable skills into talent strategy

Given their importance, transferable skills should be integrated systematically into every stage of the employee lifecycle. In order to do so, consider these key steps:

• Define skills clearly: Ensure your organisation has a common language and framework for transferable skills.
• Align skills to organisational goals: Map transferable skills to your strategic priorities and ensure you are looking for the skills that will drive organisational success in the hiring process.
• Assess transferable skills in the hiring process: Move beyond CVs, qualifications, and years of experience by using structured, scientific assessment methods to evaluate transferable skills alongside technical capabilities.
• Build development pathways: Create learning and development initiatives that strengthen key transferable skills across the workforce, using a variety of employee development modes and strategies.
• Mobilise talent through skills profiles: Use insights and data on transferable skills to mobilise your talent, feeding this into team structures, internal transfers, and cross-functional initiatives.

The strategic advantage of transferable skills

Focusing on transferable skills isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a critical requirement for organisations. Organisations that look beyond job-specific technical capabilities and prioritise these broader transferable skills can unlock a broader talent pool and gain a competitive edge. This approach will allow you to build a future-ready workforce that’s not only equipped for success today, but also ready to thrive in tomorrow’s challenges.

Why skills, why now?

• Discover how AI, automation, and evolving job roles are reshaping the talent landscape — and why 72% of organisations see the skills gap as a major challenge.

Debunking common myths

• Misconceptions about how to implement skills in your hiring strategy can lead to confusion. We look past the hype and focus on what is best for your organisation.

Making skills-based hiring work for your organisation

• Uncover the skills, and more importantly, the skills foundations that power work performance and lead to organisational success.

Six actionable steps to implement skills-based hiring

• From defining critical skills to assessing and mobilising talent, learn how to embed skills into your hiring process without starting from scratch.

Download Making skills-based hiring work to transition your skills-based hiring strategy from plan to practice.

^{*World Economic Forum (2025). The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Retrieved 11 April 2025 from: https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobsreport-2025}