How is the labour market changing, and what determines a person’s value within a team today? This article, developed as part of the x-Inno Radar project, explores soft skills as an increasingly important competitive advantage—not only for individuals, but also for companies and the wider Košice region. It highlights that while technical expertise remains essential, its true value emerges when combined with effective communication, collaboration, adaptability, and a willingness to learn. The article also raises the question of how employers, educational institutions, and regional stakeholders can create an environment in which talent is transformed into strong teams, effective partnerships, and tangible innovation.
How labour market requirements are changing and why expertise alone is no longer enough
For many years, soft skills were perceived as a useful complement to professional expertise—something that improved team dynamics but did not determine organisational performance. Today’s labour market tells a different story. Communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, adaptability, critical thinking, and the ability to learn new skills are no longer optional additions to professional qualifications. They have become key drivers of employability, innovation, and regional competitiveness.
From an HR and recruitment perspective, this shift is clearly visible. Companies are no longer looking only for people who can “do their job.” They are looking for individuals who can work in a constantly changing environment, communicate across teams, accept feedback, take responsibility, and solve problems that do not come with a predefined manual. Technical knowledge remains important, but its true value emerges only when people can apply it effectively in collaboration with others.
This trend is particularly important for the Košice region and eastern Slovakia. The region stands at the intersection of several worlds: a strong IT sector, industrial transformation, the arrival of major investors, the cultural and creative industries, universities, and public institutions. It is precisely between these worlds that the greatest potential—and often the greatest tension—exists. Innovation does not arise from technology alone. It emerges where people from different backgrounds can communicate, define problems, find common solutions, and turn ideas into practice.
What companies are really looking for today
Just a few years ago, job advertisements were primarily built around hard skills. Employers clearly specified which software candidates should be proficient in, which tools they should be able to use, what certifications they were expected to hold, and how many years of experience were required. This type of expertise remains important, but its nature is changing. Many technical skills can be taught relatively quickly within an organisation, especially when a company has well-defined processes, strong internal know-how, and a willingness to invest in onboarding and training new employees. A much more difficult question, however, is how to teach someone to collaborate effectively, communicate under pressure, take responsibility, accept feedback, or function in a team where different professions, generations, and ways of thinking come together. This is why employers are increasingly shifting their focus from the question of “what a candidate knows” to “how they learn, collaborate, and behave in real-world work situations.”
Recruitment processes are increasingly showing that the difference between candidates is not defined by a CV alone. What often matters most is how a person thinks, communicates, and responds to uncertainty. Employers pay close attention to whether candidates can clearly articulate their experience, understand their role within a team, discuss mistakes objectively, and connect their expertise with the needs of the organisation.
Among the most sought-after soft skills today are communication, teamwork, problem-solving, flexibility, responsibility, analytical and critical thinking, independence, learning agility, and emotional resilience. In managerial and project-based roles, additional competencies include facilitating discussions, guiding people through change, making decisions with incomplete information, and balancing different interests.
It is often here that the gap between perceived and actual preparedness becomes evident. Many people possess formal education, professional knowledge, and the ambition to work. What they often lack, however, is experience with project-based work, constructive feedback, presenting their own solutions, or collaborating beyond familiar environments. This is not an individual failure. Rather, it is the result of a system that has long rewarded correct answers more than the ability to ask questions, experiment, build arguments, and collaborate with others.
The Košice Region needs translators between sectors
Košice has an advantage that many regions lack: a unique combination of technical talent, universities, a strong IT community, the creative sector, industry, and emerging innovation initiatives. However, this combination alone is not enough. If trust, a shared language, and the ability to collaborate do not develop among these actors, the region’s potential remains fragmented.
The cultural and creative industries have a particularly important role to play in this context. They bring skills that traditional industrial and technical environments often underestimate: storytelling, empathy, design thinking, facilitation, community engagement, the ability to visualise complex topics, and the capacity to connect people around a shared vision. At a time when both businesses and public institutions are navigating digital and green transitions, these skills form a practical infrastructure for change.
Soft skills should therefore not be viewed as a standalone training session delivered once a year. They should be embedded in the way a region designs projects, prepares people for the labour market, leads organisations, drives innovation, and communicates public policies. If the Košice region wants to retain talent while also attracting new people, it needs not only jobs but also working environments where people can grow, collaborate, and find meaning in their work.
A challenge for employers
Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of soft skills, yet they do not always know how to develop them systematically. They often expect employees to possess these skills from day one, but less frequently create environments in which they can be actively cultivated.
Employers should therefore define more precisely which soft skills are required for specific types of roles. The competencies needed in a manufacturing position differ from those required of a project manager, a member of a creative team, or a leader responsible for driving change. It is also important not to assess soft skills solely on intuition. They can be observed, developed, and measured through concrete behaviours: how a person handles conflict, seeks information, works with ambiguous assignments, responds to feedback, or contributes to team performance.
Soft Skills as Part of Organisational Performance
If we want to discuss soft skills in practical terms, we should not view them as personality traits that people either possess or lack. In the workplace, they are primarily reflected in observable behaviours: how individuals communicate with colleagues, handle pressure, respond to change, work with feedback, and contribute to solving shared challenges.
For organisations, this represents an important shift. It is no longer enough to state in a job advertisement that the company is looking for a “communicative team player.” Such descriptions are often too vague and provide little value to either employers or candidates. It is far more useful to clearly define what a specific role actually requires.
Only when these expectations are clearly articulated can soft skills be identified more effectively during recruitment and subsequently developed in practice. Their development does not result from a single training session but from repeated experiences: project work, strong leadership, constructive feedback, mentoring, reflection, and an environment where people are encouraged to learn from mistakes. It is precisely this type of environment that determines whether people’s professional potential is transformed into actual organisational performance.
For a region such as eastern Slovakia, this is particularly important. The region has skilled professionals, students, creative talent, technology companies, industrial enterprises, and public institutions. The question is not simply whether talent exists. The question is whether that talent can connect, collaborate, and create shared outcomes. Soft skills are therefore one of the key conditions for ensuring that knowledge, ideas, and investments do not remain isolated but are transformed into effective projects, services, and partnerships.
From my perspective, soft skills will become one of the main differentiators in the labour market over the coming years. They will distinguish those who are merely looking for a job from those who are able to build and sustain their value in the labour market over the long term. Professional expertise will remain the foundation, but it will no longer be enough on its own. What will matter most is the ability to learn, collaborate, communicate, adapt to change, and take responsibility for outcomes. These are the capabilities that will determine whether individuals can fully apply their expertise and whether organisations can build strong teams rather than simply fill vacant positions.
Author: Katarína Tešla
This project is supported by the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
