Effective communication is crucial for the success of any industry or business. Companies that prioritize strong communication skills among their employees and leaders tend to excel in areas such as internal collaboration, customer satisfaction, motivation, responsiveness, and teamwork, which ultimately drives them towards achieving their goals. As a business owner, Hiring Manager, or recruiter, it is natural to want to hire employees who possess the best communication skills, and the first step towards achieving this goal is to ensure communication skills form part of your job description qualifications and skills.

When writing a job description, it is essential to consider both verbal and nonverbal communication skills, as well as their potential impact on technology in this thriving digital age with remote working. While traditional communication skills such as spelling and grammar are still crucial, they are now applied across a range of communication platforms, including email, instant messaging, and video conferencing. Applications like Grammarly can help maintain accuracy, but it's important to take into account the communication setting or technology when defining the specific skills needed for the job. Therefore, we recommend prospective employers include both the top communication skills and the specific settings or technologies they will be used in when writing a job description.

In this blog, we delve into:

• What are communication skills?
• Most crucial communication skills
• All verbal communication and non-verbal communication skills

What are Communication Skills?

The ability to relay or receive information is known as communication skills. It's crucial to remember that communication is a two-way process, and both parties must participate to avoid misunderstandings. Exceptional employees can transmit information effectively through written or verbal communication and receive information by actively listening or reading body language.

Communication skills are often considered as soft skills, people skills, or interpersonal skills, and including them in a job description is crucial. This ensures that Hiring Managers attract high-quality candidates, which can lead to more effective job interviews with job seekers.

Most Crucial Communication Skills

Strong communication skills are crucial for workplace success when recruiting employees. But what exactly are the most important communication skills? We have identified and categorized the most sought-after communication skills as follows:

Active Listening skills

Active listening skills are vital for roles like customer service (ensuring that customers feel heard) and sales (listening for opportunities and needs). Active listening is also an essential communication skill for interacting with managers and colleagues.

Being a good listener involves paying attention to the other person's point of view to understand them better. You can include active listening as a requirement in your job description and assess it during the candidate's job interview. Do they maintain eye contact and respond appropriately to your interview questions?

Clarity

Clarity is how effectively a person can convey information and share ideas. It is an excellent skill to include in the job description's skills section and easy to assess during a job interview. Does the applicant use jargon, provide complicated answers to simple questions, and answer questions completely, or do you need to ask for further information?

Confidence

Confidence is not limited to verbal communication, nonverbal communication, or visual communication. This important skill can be demonstrated through tone of voice, a well-written resume or cover letter, or lack thereof if the person stumbles over their words. It is necessary to persuade customers, make sales, and communicate effectively with colleagues.

Honesty and Transparency

Honesty and transparency are essential components of good communication, especially when working in a team setting or partaking in a team meeting. Potential employers should seek out job applicants who can demonstrate their ability to take responsibility for their actions and mistakes.

Nonverbal Communication Skills and Body Language

The ability to read nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, eye contact, and gestures can be incredibly valuable in many roles. Candidates who possess strong emotional intelligence skills can effectively interpret these cues and respond appropriately.

Openness and Approachability

Good communicators are open-minded and approachable, which helps them build strong relationships with colleagues and clients alike. Including this trait in job descriptions can help attract candidates who are ready to collaborate and display empathy.

Presentation Skills and Public Speaking

The ability to present ideas clearly and persuasively is a valuable skill for any job. Employers should seek out candidates who can demonstrate strong presentation skills, as they may be valuable assets for leading teams or driving company growth.

Respectful Communication Skills

Respectful communication skills are vital for fostering a cohesive team and satisfying customers. This involves actively listening to a person's message, initiating conversations, responding appropriately, and using tone of voice to convey respect.

Verbal Communication Skills

Excellent verbal communication skills are a must-have for any job. They are necessary for building rapport, providing good customer service, promoting teamwork, and more. Whether you are hiring a restaurant server or a teacher, it is difficult to excel without this essential skill.

Written Communication Skills

Good communication skills include strong writing abilities. Almost every job requires some form of writing, from completing reports to responding to customer emails. Writing skills are also a critical soft skill for job descriptions of copywriters, journalists, and marketing professionals.

All Verbal Communication and Non-Verbal Communication Skills

The following is a list of core communication skills that employers may want to include in their job descriptions. However, depending on the role, work environment, customer type, or team makeup, there may be other communication skills that are more relevant and should be included.

• Active listening
• Assertiveness
• Awareness
• Body language
• Caring
• Charisma
• Coaching
• Comforting
• Compassion
• Confidence
• Constructive criticism
• Constructive feedback
• Consulting
• Conversation
• Counseling
• Creativity
• Cultural awareness
• Curiosity
• Customer service
• Diplomacy
• Dynamic
• Emotional intelligence
• Empathy
• Encouraging
• Eye contact patterns
• Facilitating
• Flexibility
• Focus
• Friendliness
• Giving feedback
• Honesty
• Humor
• Influence
• Informing
• Inquiring
• Inspirational
• Instructing
• Interviewing
• Investigating
• Kindness
• Leadership skills
• Lightheartedness
• Maintaining eye contact
• Mediation
• Mentoring
• Mindfulness
• Motivational
• Negotiation
• Networking
• Nonverbal communication skills
• Open-mindedness
• Openness
• Oral communication skills
• Patience
• Paying attention
• Personable
• Persuasion
• Planning
• Politeness
• Political awareness
• Positive attitude
• Positive reinforcement
• Positivity
• Presentable
• Presentation skills
• Public speaking
• Questioning
• Rapport
• Receiving feedback
• Reflection
• Relatability
• Relationship building/build relationships
• Relationship management
• Researching
• Respectfulness
• Self-motivation
• Self-reflection
• Sensitivity
• Social skills
• Speaking
• Sympathy
• Tact
• Tactful
• Tactfulness
• Team working
• Tolerance
• Tone of voice
• Trustfulness
• Truthfulness
• Understanding
• Verbal communication
• Visual communication
• Written communication skills

It's important to note that this is not an exhaustive list and employers may want to add other communication skills that are relevant to their specific needs and the employee’s career success.

Good Communication Skills FAQs

Here we answer your questions on the most important communication skills on your resume and cover letter or for Hiring Managers in job interviews and writing a job description.