The 2018 Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum

Over the next decade, Critical Thinking and complex problem-solving abilities will continue to increase in their relevance as both a core employability and key life skill.

The 2018 Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum has highlighted the pervasive impact that technology will continue to have on the global employment market. We are in the middle of a fourth economic revolution, with machines and algorithms altering the traditional parameters associated with how humans will be expected to perform if they are going to thrive in the workplace of the present and the future. Indeed, a separate report by Dell has found that 85% of roles that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet.

Whilst initially daunting, once considered, this presents an opportunity for business to consider which skills will be most in demand in the coming years. The WEF report identifies analytical thinking, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving as some of the skills which will be of most use within the workplace. There is a trend towards an era of self-directed learning and decision making, which reflects the challenge now laid out for the modern organisation of recruiting people possessing these competencies, upskilling existing employees and ensuring effective technology adoption.

Being able to attract and employ people with the required analytical and critical thinking skillsets will soon become regarded as the holy grail within recruitment. Finding people able to look at a situation from multiple perspectives and make quick and logical decisions, whilst separating facts from opinions, prejudice and assumptions will greatly improve an organisation’s chances of success. These traits are commonly found in people with good to advanced levels of critical thinking ability.