According to job statistics by the Department of Labor, the country's unemployment rate hit as high as 15% in April this year. This implies that businesses are firing workers as a survival strategy. Chances are that you also have been adversely affected by being let go from your job position. Experts agree that it may take several months before things normalize and jobs start flowing again in the market. As an employee, you should take this opportunity to gradually build on your job skills. Improving your skillsets will ensure that you have an easy time when looking for a new job after COVID-19. Here are some tips on what to focus on in order to spruce up your job skill and retain your relevance in your job.

Boosting your tech-savviness

COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of embracing technology in the workplace. The few workers who have been able to retain their jobs are those with crucial tech skills that are in high demand in the workplace. Therefore, you should take this stay-at-home opportunity to boost your crucial technical skills that are necessary for your job. In addition to the basic computing skills, you may want to learn a thing or two regarding artificial intelligence, big data, the internet of things and even robotics. Depending on your job description, you may go ahead and learn some more on tech-related areas like search engine optimization, email marketing and search engine marketing. These skills will generally increase your worth as an employee.

Creativity and innovativeness

Businesses with creative ideas are the ones that will most likely make it past the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers will, therefore, generally tend to favor workers with creative and innovative minds. To increase your chances of landing back your former job after the pandemic, you may want to focus on boosting your creativity skills. Whereas there is no blueprint on how to learn to be creative and innovative, you should focus on sprucing up your human ingenuity as regards your workplace responsibilities and beyond. This is also the best time to contemplate creative ideas that you might present to your boss to ensure that the company performs even better.

Adaptability skills

A company's ability to adapt to the changing business landscape is highly dependent on the adaptability of the individual employees. Chances are that your employer will require you to be a highly adaptive person who is willing to learn and change with time after you resume your job. The upcoming changes in your workplace may, for example, require you to multitask, work from home or even perform certain duties that you were no familiar with before. Refreshing and continuously updating your existing job skills will ensure that you remain relevant and employable after COVID-19.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence has to do with the ability to manage your own emotions as well as those of others, especially your fellow employees. With COVID-19 having brought about significant social and emotional distress, chances are that you will encounter fellow employees expressing emotional distress. The emotional competency skills to work in such a workplace condition without compromising on your quality and productivity will be a major boost for your reputation to your boss. In addition, your emotional intelligence skills will ensure that you can handle all kinds of customers in your job.

Data analytics

Data science remains one of the top relevant skills in this age. It will be one of those skills whose importance will be greatly underscored in the post-COVID-19 era. Having some advanced data analytics skills that are relevant to your workplace will generally be to your advantage as you will become a more valuable employee. These skills always come in handy when analyzing various business performance data, such as daily sales and profits. They will also be crucial in businesses' abilities to strategize for the future.

Leadership skills

Many businesses have undertaken downsizing measures in the bid to cut on operational costs. This implies that most of them are operating at a reduced employee capacity. The few remaining workers in the workplace will have to perform duties beyond what they used to in the pre-COVID-19 era. To spruce your relevance in your job and survive the cutoff, you may have to build on your leadership skills. The process of enhancing your leadership skills doesn't have to be overly complicated. Thanks to the multiple online resources, you can learn how to build and self-develop these skills with ease.