10 Underrated Skills That Can Help You Earn More in Any Job

Once upon a time, you could be good at one thing and build a career around that. Now, employers tend to favor workers with a versatile skill set. In fact, the concept of skills-based hiring is becoming more prevalent across all industries, to the point that some employers see a candidate with multiple skills as valuable as those with a four-year degree. Why is that?

For one reason, highly skilled workers are 45% more likely to stay at one company, according to a survey by Built In. That's a huge win in an era when businesses struggle with low employee retention. So, which skills can you pick up to make yourself more valuable and earn extra income?

Here are 10 often-overlooked abilities that can help you earn more, regardless of your profession.

Everybody writes emails, text messages, and chats every day. But have you ever been confused about what people are trying to say? If so, you're not alone. Not everyone can communicate clearly with written words.

When you write concisely and clearly, it reduces misunderstandings and projects professionalism — qualities employers everywhere appreciate.

Managers are often bogged down with administrative work, leaving little time to spend with their teams. Employee development can thus get overlooked, unless someone with coaching skills takes it on.

Whereas management is about meeting deadlines and achieving company goals, coaching focuses on helping your colleagues reach their potential and do their best work. That's why more and more organizations have come to value this skill.

You may not identify as a programmer, but if you know how to write Excel macros or query a database, you have basic coding skills. If you can take the next step and learn how to script these functions, you now have automation skills.

Advertising these skills can be your first step toward a career in AI or cybersecurity, two fields with lots of job opportunities.

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Workplace dynamics can lead to interpersonal tensions. These issues find resolution when someone steps up to build consensus and find a path forward.

If that sounds like what you often do, give it a name: conflict resolution. Managers value this skill because employee disputes are a costly drag on productivity. The ability to resolve these issues creates a healthier overall company culture.

As AI and automated systems become the norm in all types of industries, businesses have more data to work with. There are plenty of insights to glean from all this information, but only if someone knows how to read it. You don't even have to be technically inclined to add data analysis skills to your resume.

If you can read spreadsheets, identify trends, and translate numbers into actionable steps for your company, you can effectively interpret data. And for businesses with a lot of information generated daily, that's a valuable skill.

Negotiation is at the center of most business activities, and it may be needed more than you think. Whether it's hashing out the details of vendor contracts or gathering stakeholder buy-in for an internal project, the opportunity to negotiate and persuade comes up a lot.

Document the times you found beneficial solutions so that you can add negotiation to your list of skills.

There are always ways to do things faster or better. However, someone has to identify the bottlenecks and streamline the workflows. The technical term for this skill is process improvement.

Think of it as pushing for efficiency in the workplace. If you can demonstrate that you have made things run smoothly, you have a valuable skill for any organization looking to optimize its operations.

Few people hold the title of project manager (PM), but many possess the necessary skills to do the job. If you find yourself organizing timelines and coordinating resources, you're already doing a lot of what a PM does.

If your role already involves project-based work, start tracking progress and demonstrate your ability to keep things on track. That will help make it official that you have project management skills.

Not every company has a dedicated IT department, and even when they do, the team is often busy keeping complex systems up and running. This creates an opportunity for those who can figure out software issues or otherwise bridge the tech gap for colleagues.

Many companies today are looking for workers with the ability to do basic tech troubleshooting. If you have these skills, let it be known.

Are you one of those people who always seem to get their work done before everyone else? More than likely, it's because you have excellent time management skills.

Managers look for people with this ability, as they are known to be dependable and efficient. Add time management to your skills list, and you will surely attract some interest in the job market.

Learning new skills makes you more well-rounded and adaptable in today's job market. It can also demonstrate that you're up-to-date on today's business trends. It could even help you stop living paycheck to paycheck.

A recent report by the World Economic Forum found that 60% of all business leaders expect their companies to be transformed by AI and other emerging technologies over the next five years. In response to that, 50% of workers covered in the study had completed training for reskilling or upskilling purposes. By acquiring new skills, you'll be well-prepared for the changes ahead.