Transferable skills are those skills and abilities that are relevant and helpful professionally and other areas of life. They are also known as portable skills. Some of them include the following:

• Team work
• Leadership
• Personal motivation, time management and organization
• Listening
• Written and verbal communication
• Research and analytical skills
• Numeracy skills

As a recruiter, you often have the chance to hire people based on direct experience or transferable skills. While your choice may highly be informed by the nature and complexity of the job, you’ll find that transferable skills are more essential in most cases.

Without a doubt, hiring based on direct experience helps a lot when it comes to increasing your chances of getting a new employee who can be productive from the first day, but it also reduces the pool of potential applicants. You also more likely inadvertently favor less ambitious and motivated people who also demand higher salaries which may not be very economical or good for any business.

More applicants mean better chances of getting the right one

When you consider those with transferable skills, you increase the number of applicants and have a broader number to choose from. This makes it possible to focus on more general skills like teamwork, organization and communication, which might be just what you need for the role.

There are thousands of people who lack the industry-specific experience you want at any given time, and these people (mostly persons who are changing careers or recent graduates), are actually brilliant and talented, and have a lot of potential and hunger to learn and deliver.

As an employer, you want abilities and qualities that define the modern ideal employee. These soft skills are valuable across all industries, and yours is no exception.

My advice is, as long as an applicant can show their potential by demonstrating enough relevant transferable skills, you should consider them for the job.

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