Workplace Skills are the vital skills we use to negotiate our relationships with the people we share a workspace with. These include managers, colleagues and clients, and anyone else you encounter in a professional environment. You might be the best salesperson in the world, but if you lack the human skills necessary to successfully work with others, then you might find it hard to hold down a job.

The shift to remote working meant that many of us had to adapt our skills to function in a digital environment by upskilling in certain new areas and refreshing existing skills to carry out our roles online. This has been crucial for many of us to be able to continue working from home.

However, it's equally important to make sure that you've also updated your Workplace Skills so that you have the required skill set to engage with others in a digital workplace. While remote working means you don't interact with anyone in person, Workplace Skills are still needed in online engagement. Sometimes, even a lighter touch is required when working with people via email or video call, as it's harder to gauge the mood of the other person.

6 key Workplace Skills you need for remote working

1. Leadership skills

Working from home has been a shift for all businesses and hasn't been an easy or a positive experience for all employees. Knowing how to manage and support others during this organisational change is vital to ensuring that your work runs as smoothly as possible.

2. Interpersonal skills

Managing your interpersonal relationships can be much trickier through a screen and often requires a deft touch. This course will help you successfully navigate all your remote workplace interactions.

3. Effective communication

Needless to say but online communication is a whole different ball game from face-to-face office interactions. As you're no longer sharing a physical workspace, it's particularly important you communicate clearly with colleagues when you get the chance for a video call, as you might be working in different time zones and might not get another opportunity that day to correct any misunderstandings. 

4. Understanding diversity and inclusivity 

For many workers, one novel aspect of working from home has meant online meetings with people from all over the world and exposure to new colleagues and clients from different cultures. This can be a real change of pace for some, so learning about Diversity in the Workplace is essential.

5. Professional soft skills

From adaptability to flexibility, from negotiation skills to networking, professional soft skills are as vital online as they are offline. Given that our social engagement time has been drastically cut down due to the pandemic, it's crucial to stay on top of these fundamental skills!

6. Workplace etiquette

If you only meet a client or new colleague online, then they can only base their opinion of you on that experience. Online professional etiquette can be very different from office etiquette, so to be a credit to yourself while working online, you should make sure you're up to speed on the correct manners of the digital workplace.