Employability: understanding and boosting it?

Employability refers to a person's ability to obtain, maintain a position, evolve in their career and adapt to the continuous transformations of the professional world. It represents a crucial issue from the point of view of the current labor market, influenced by competitive dynamics, technological adaptation, professional flexibility andinnovation.

The purpose of this article is to define employability, to explore methods to assess and increase it, and to identify the crucial role of corporations in raising employability. You will learn to decipher and strengthen your employability, thus maximizing your professional career and your potential.

1 - What is employability?

Employability represents an individual's ability to obtain, maintain a position, grow professionally, and adapt to changes throughout their career. It depends on personal factors, such as skills, attitudes, and personality, as well as on the context of the labour market, including demand, supply, and competition. Being a relative concept, employability fluctuates over time and according to economic and sectoral conditions.

1.1 - Definition and relevance in the current context

The term employability gained momentum in the 1990s, in a world of work transformed by globalization, digitalization and innovation. These changes require employees to develop new skills such as mobility, versatility, autonomy and creativity. Employability thus becomes crucial for individuals seeking to remain competitive and for businesses wishing to maintain their competitiveness and sustainability.

This concept also has an important social dimension, affecting aspects such as the fight against unemployment and exclusion.

1.2 - The key components of employability

Employability consists mainly of three elements: skills, adaptability, and motivation. Competencies include knowledge, practical abilities, and personal qualities applicable to work, including technical, functional, managerial skills, as well as Soft Skills.

Adaptability refers to the ability to deal with changes and the unexpected, requiring flexibility, responsiveness, curiosity and open-mindedness. Motivation, on the other hand, represents the strength that pushes the employee to get involved, to surpass themselves and to invest in their career, determined by their needs, values, interests and goals.

1.3 - The importance of adaptability and continuing education

Adaptability and continuing education are essential aspects of employability in the modern context, where professional skills are rapidly evolving due to technical, organizational and social innovations.

In this perspective, theUpskilling, which allows employees to update or acquire new skills to meet the requirements of the labor market, through various methods such as Competence assessment, the skills development plan, the personal training account or professional retraining, plays a crucial role in strengthening employability, in addition to contributing to the personal and professional development of employees.

2 - Evaluate your employability

Understanding employability and its importance is one thing, but knowing how to assess and improve your own employability is another. To judge your employability, consider three essential criteria: skills, attitudes, and personality. Your skills include the technical, managerial or transversal knowledge and know-how that you can exercise in your professional environment.

Attitudes reflect your reactions and behaviors to professional challenges, including motivation, flexibility, and the ability to work in a team, among others. Personality, on the other hand, is about your characteristic traits, values, and aspirations.

Various tools can help you assess these aspects, such as the skills assessment, personality tests, feedback from colleagues or superiors, or even self-assessment.

In addition, there are innovative solutions to obtain an evaluation of your soft skills, that of Yuzu. Indeed, while our recruitment solution allows companies to assess their candidates, we will soon allow talents to be assessed in order to obtain a behavioral skills certificate for free. This certification can not only strengthen your confidence in your abilities, but also be a valuable asset for your applications, by showing employers your commitment to developing and validating your behavioral skills.

3 - Strategies to improve employability

After assessing your level of employability, various strategies can be implemented to improve it, adapted to your needs and goals. Let's look at a few of these strategies.

3.1 - Acquisition of new skills

To improve your employability, a proven method is to acquire new skills. Whether through professional training, via a personal training account, retraining, or through self-taught learning through online resources or books, the important thing is to find training courses that match your aspirations and your current level.

3.2 - Professional experience and volunteering

Developing your professional experience by diversifying your missions, taking on responsibilities or changing positions is another strategy to boost your employability. La internal mobility or external, exposes you to new challenges and professional cultures. Volunteering can also be valuable, especially if you are in between jobs, to practice your skills, expand your network and enhance your resume.

3.3 - Strengthening the professional network

Improving your employability also involves developing your professional network. It is proving to be a gold mine of information, support, and opportunities. An effective method to expand your network is to participate in various events such as conferences, trade shows, workshops or even training courses. These meetings are an opportunity to connect with individuals who have common interests or who work in your field.

In addition, online professional networking platforms, such as LinkedIn, offer a great way to make and maintain contacts. Here you can share your achievements, projects, relevant articles and stay up to date with the latest news in your sector.

3.4 - The importance of monitoring labour market trends

To boost your employability, it is crucial to stay informed of current trends in the labor market, which is in constant transformation due to technological, organizational and social advances. This means keeping up to date with jobs in demand, valued skills, employer expectations, and new career opportunities.

You can rely on various sources of information, such as specialized sites, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and market research. Active monitoring will help you anticipate changes, adapt to market requirements and capture emerging opportunities.

4 - The role of businesses in employability

Employability represents a major challenge not only for individuals but also for businesses. Let's look at the crucial role of these in strengthening employability, as well as the challenges and opportunities they face in the context of the French job market.

4.1 - The responsibility of employers

Companies play an essential role in the employability of their employees, having both an interest and a duty to develop their skills. They must adopt management policies that promote employability, including training management, skills development, mobility, assessment, feedback, mentoring, and much more.

4.2 - In-house training and skills development

Establishing in-house training and skills development programs is critical to improving the employability of employees. These programs help maintain and acquire new skills that are tailored to business needs. For this, a transparent and accessible learning and development code can be provided to promote their adaptability, versatility, creativity, and collaborative work.

4.3 - Creating an environment conducive to innovation

Fostering an environment of innovation within the company is a beneficial strategy for employability. It's about promoting a culture that values initiative, sharing ideas, experimentation, and lifelong learning. Companies must provide the tools and spaces necessary for innovation, and encourage innovation that can be technological, organizational or even environmental, thus improving the differentiation of the company on the market while developing the creativity and employability of employees.

4.4 - The adequacy between training and market needs

One of the crucial challenges of vocational training lies in the ability to align the training offered and the real requirements of the labor market. Often, there is a discrepancy between the skills that individuals develop and those that employers are actively looking for. This inconsistency may result from a lack of relevance, quality, diversification, or updating of the training programs offered.

It can also be linked to a lack of information, professional guidance, recognition or valorization of training courses. These differences are likely to generate problems ofprofessional integration, recruitment, staff retention or even professional mobility.

To bridge this gap, it is essential to establish a stronger link between the various actors, namely training organizations, employment actors and businesses. In addition, active coordination is imperative, with monitoring, analysis and forecasting tools that make it possible to adjust training courses to the constant changes in the labor market.

4.5 - The role of lifelong learning

Lifelong learning plays a key role in strengthening the employability of individuals. It is essential to understand that learning goes beyond initial training and continues throughout the professional and personal journey. Continued training allows you to maintain or develop your skills, to adapt to changes, to retrain, to advance in your career or to develop.

Lifelong learning can take many forms: continuing education, validation of acquired experience (VAE), skills assessment, mentoring, coaching, self-training, and many more. This approach requires the personal commitment of learners, as well as the support and support of collective structures such as employers' organizations, training centers, schools, and public authorities.

To remember

You are now armed with a thorough understanding of employability, its pivotal role in today's job market, and strategies to assess and improve your professional profile.

How businesses work in promoting employability, as well as the challenges and opportunities they encounter, no longer hold any secrets for you.

Complex and multi-dimensional, employability depends on the individual characteristics of employees, the dynamics of the labor market, and the collective efforts of the various social actors. It varies considerably depending on the context and evolves over time, underlining its relative and dynamic nature.

Being employable today means adopting a proactive approach: training, enriching your skills, varying your experiences, consolidating your professional network and staying on the lookout for new trends. It is also about knowing how to use the resources and tools made available by companies, training centers, educational institutions while taking into account your own needs, values, interests and professional goals.