10 Digital Skills Recruiters Measure Your Digital Quotient With

Digitization has taken over even the most analog sectors, especially with the spread of COVID-19, according to experts consulted by Business Insider Spain.

The pandemic shot up teleworking by up to 36% in the second half of the year, according to the findings of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) —although there is still no consistent data on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected teleworking in Spain —.

The new InfoJobs report on the State of the labor market in Spain reflects that in the generalization of current technologies and the development of new ones —such as quantum computing— it is going to be essential to reinforce the digital mentality and support continuous learning.

"These changes, motivated by the lack of profiles, have allowed thousands of people to retrain and upskill in digital skills," says Mónica Pérez Callejo, Director of Communications for the platform, who ensures that companies are recruiting based on skills and previous experience and not so much based on formal academic training.

"They carry out their own technical tests and complement possible gaps that candidates may have with training. In the short term, this solution is partially responding to the needs of the labor market, but we need new educational policies," she acknowledges.

"We are facing a new labor market in which new digital professions are emerging, such as the person in charge of digital products, data director or data scientist, which already imply that digital qualification", agrees María Barceló Llauger, director of the Executive Master's Degree in Digital Business at ESADE Madrid in a report shared with Business Insider Spain, who has proposed a new Digital Competence Model to measure the Digital Coefficient —an alternative to the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens 2.0 of the European Union or the Digital Competence Model, by the RocaSalvatella team of 2014-.

It is based on 10 competencies, divided between soft skills (soft skills, in its translation) and digital knowledge, which are evaluated from 1 to 5 and can be applied both to an organization and to a specific professional, according to LLauger.

However, InfoJobs experts encourage companies to define their own model that responds to the needs of the organization.

"A model that includes a diagnostic matrix to measure skills and whose results allow the development of tailored reskilling and upskilling plans," exemplifies the expert —agreeing with Pérez Callejo—.

Some of these new professions have crept into the rankings of positions with more opportunities or better paid in Spain. And they even tend to incorporate recent graduates or people with little previous experience into the labor market —one of the strictest requirements still maintained by companies in the country—.

"The access notes already guarantee that these people have minimum skills. And that they then follow fairly strict training processes for the development of skills that they acquire over the years of study. To the nurses, doctors, engineers... no one requires 5 years of experience when entering the job market. A manager or a lawyer, yes", exemplifies Bosch.

In fact, in an interview with Business Insider Spain, the senior executive director of PageGroup, Miguel Portillo, has pointed out that in the technology sector there is often such a war for talent in practically new professions that there are no candidates with the required experience.

These are the 10 digital skills with which recruiters could measure your digital coefficient, according to Llauger.

Content and information management

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Llauger agrees with RocaSalvatella that information management is one of the main strengths that any digital profile must promote.

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Content and information management is based on the ability to search, obtain, evaluate, organize and share information in a 100% digital context. Especially considering that fake news can be the order of the day and that not every source is reliable to support a business decision, for example.

Communication in digital environments

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"Communication skills are very, very important because everything is online. It is not the same to communicate asynchronously, for example, when there is only one communication channel or through the written channel," Aurora Pulido told Business Insider Spain. , professional development coach and LinkedIn strategies.

Communicate, relate and collaborate efficiently with tools and in digital environments is a maxim in the generalization of technologies.

"The seller can propose a Zoom meeting to the customer where they can show their products in the midst of contexts such as the pandemic. But the seller is no longer just turning the pages of a catalog. You need a seller who controls how it is presented and looks at the camera and how he exposes the documentation", describes Fede Martrat, managing partner of ActitudPro and academic collaborator of ESADE in Commercial Excellence, to Business Insider Spain.

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In construction, a sector that has grown by 24% at the beginning of the year, video calls have already replaced continuous voice calls.

"The director or site manager calls you directly via WhatsApp," José Luis Bosch, director of the OBS Business School Human Resources Management master's degree, told Business Insider Spain.

Digital strategy or digital business

"Everything that has to do with audio and video production, mobile application development, UX design, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing, growth mindset and customer service has grown a lot," he acknowledges. Polished.

Understanding the digital phenomenon and incorporating it into the strategic orientation of your organization's projects, part of these technologies, is what many of the companies that have included or accelerated their technological projects are looking for, according to one of the PageGroup reports consulted by Business Insider Spain.

This year, another 37% of companies in Spain plan to incorporate digital specialists this year, a percentage that increases to 60% in the next 2 years, according to InfoJobs data.

Collaboration and team management

Rocasalvatella also insists that one of the basic skills is to work, collaborate and cooperate in digital environments.

According to Bosch, until now it was assumed that teamwork was collaborative. But it was very limited before the pandemic.

"Now you really share your entire desktop, you do a presentation and a lot of the work with the rest," he highlights.

"Being able to even switch to screen sharing, without the camera on and everyone can work on the same document while it is being shared. Meetings are no longer the first thing. You gain team management, time management and even speaking time , efficiency is gained", exemplifies Bosch.

Digital leadership and critical thinking

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"Companies also need employees to adapt, to be open to change and to handle it fairly well, depending on their role within the company," Pulido certifies.

To do this, candidates must be prepared to lead and coordinate work teams distributed in networks and in digital environments. But, above all, be open to innovation —as you will see below—.

"Candidates are expected to be authentic, that they know how to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. We are not looking for a robot, but a person to fill a job," exemplifies Patricia de Diego, Human Resources technician.

Innovation, transformation and creativity

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Along these same lines, companies are betting on candidates who are capable of performing the same function both in person and remotely and both individually and collaboratively, according to Bosch.

"Not only do I have digital skills, but I can use them in the office or during teleworking. Because from teleworking we are going to move to flexible work," she argues.

"The ability to adapt is the order of the day. You have to have a technical and digital profile. I have clients who ask me for employee proposals by fax. That, today, cannot be. If you do not have a technological sensitivity , you're going to be left out," José Castellanos, managing director of Page Personnel, told Business Insider Spain in a previous interview about jobs that don't require any experience to be hired immediately.

Learning in the digital environment

According to Bosch's indications, very specific skills are now being requested, the workforce that was already there is being retained or, in some way, it is being tried to continue.

In this scenario, the reskilling or upskilling that Pérez Callejo and Llauger commented on previously takes center stage. As well as the ability to manage learning autonomously, know and use digital resources, maintain and participate in learning communities.

Programming languages, for example, can be learned on your own or by taking short courses where they teach you the basics.

"However, if you really want to succeed in this branch, the first thing you should have is curiosity and the desire to update your knowledge with the latest technologies," Nilton Navarro, social media manager at InfoJobs, exemplified in a previous interview.

Understanding and solving problems in the digital context

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Regarding the understanding and resolution of digital problems, the EU model contemplates solving technical problems, identifying technological needs and responses, being creative based on the use of technological tools and identifying gaps in digital competence.

"That he knows how to adapt to change, as required by the pandemic that has transformed the way and the workplace," summarizes de Diego.

According to Pulido, in this same line, time flexibility is being assessed, in order to provide support to teams in different time zones.

"More than previous experience and skills, in positions like this, availability is important. In the case of warehouse workers, they needed people at night. From 00:00 am to 6:00 am If you can do it, perfect," agrees Castellanos.

Some of these skills can be assessed during the interview itself, without the need for tests or evaluation tools.

"Technology can fail. There, the ability to react also shows the ability to manage the technology. For example, open email immediately and report the problem," says Bosch.

Basic skills in digital technologies

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"Today, for all departments in a company, these digital skills are like literacy in the 1960s. You can't work without it," says Martrat.

The skills related to basic skills in digital technologies are more aimed at companies that already have these resources or want to hire specialists.

According to Martrat, one of the ways to check these skills, beyond what the candidate shares on his resume, is by asking him to describe what they know how to do with each of those applications they know.

For example, in a financial department, accounting programs or in a commercial department, a CRM.

In order to personalize the model, they recommend finding out which skills and knowledge should be a priority for professionals and what new challenges the need for recycling and acquiring new skills is assuming, which is called reskilling and upskilling —which, as Pérez Callejo and Llauger have mentioned —.

Advanced skills in digital technologies —in artificial intelligence or blockchain, for example—

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"Should I invest in Blockchain technology? How do I get profitability from my data? What Machine Learning applications are useful for my business? What should I learn to have a future in the labor market? These are some questions that in recent years they become directors, directors or professionals of companies of different sizes and sectors", exemplifies Llauger.

Some of the new technologies mentioned are also the ones that have grown the most in the last year, according to Publido.

But, in line with the basic skills in digital technologies, the advanced skills are much more focused on specific professional profiles. Not every candidate has to have advanced studies in Blockchain or Machine Learning, for example.