It is hard to think of an industry or business that does not thrive or falter off the back of its communication. Companies whose employees and leaders have strong communication skills tend to rise to the top through mechanisms such as effective internal collaboration, high customer satisfaction, motivation, responsiveness, and cohesion, with all staff working toward the same goals. So, it is hardly surprising that you, as a business owner or recruiter, are looking at how to hire employees with the best communication skills. Achieving this goal starts with choosing the communication skills to include in the job description. 

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When writing a job description, you will need to consider verbal communication skills and nonverbal communication skills. You should also factor in how these might be affected by technology. Thirty years ago, written communication probably meant sending a fax or handwriting a letter. Traditional communication skills are still vital in today’s digital age. Still, they are leveraged across email, instant chat, and Zoom meetings, with spelling proficiency and grammatical accuracy handled by applications such as Grammarly. Therefore, we encourage you to write job descriptions that include not only the top communication skills but also the setting or technology under which they are delivered.

Quick Links:

• What Are Communication Skills?
• Most Important Communication Skills
• All Verbal And Written Communication Skills Examples
• Effective Communication Skills FAQs

Highlights And Key Takeaways:

1. Strong communication skills facilitate good communications on the job site, leading to effective collaboration, team cohesion, higher staff motivation, and improved responsiveness.
2. Top communication skills include active listening, clarity, confidence, honesty, body language, openness, public speaking, and respectfulness.

What Are Communication Skills?

What are good communication skills?

Communication skills are the individual’s ability to relay or receive information. It is vital to remember that communication is a two-way street, and both sides are essential to avoid misinterpretation. Outstanding employees can give information (written or verbal communication) and receive information (active listening/reading body language).

Communication skills are often likened to soft skills and interpersonal skills, and bringing these together in the job description is vital. Hiring managers will receive better candidates, making job interviews all the more effective.

Download Job Interview Questions And Example Answers

We have touched on several topics here that you may want to investigate further. You can do so by visiting our interviews hub or reading our articles:

• What To Include In A Job Description
• What Soft Skills To Include In A Job Description
• What Interpersonal Skills To Include In A Job Description

Most Important Communication Skills

When recruiting employees, it is crucial for workplace success for individuals to have strong communication skills. So, what are the most crucial communication skills?

Excellent communication skills example

When looking at ‘What is communication skills?’ It can help to prioritise the most crucial. We have categorised the most sought-after communication skills below:

ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS

Active listening skills are vital in roles such as customer services (helping customers feel heard) and sales (listening for opportunities and needs). Active listening is also an important communication skill for interacting with managers and colleagues alike.

Being a good listener includes paying attention, so the other person’s point is understood. You can request active listening in your job description and test for active listening during the candidate’s job interview. Are they maintaining eye contact, and do they respond appropriately to your interview questions?

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CLARITY

Clarity is about how the person can convey information and share ideas. It is an excellent inclusion in the skills section of your job description and easy to test for in a job interview. Does the applicant use lots of jargon, present complicated answers to simple questions, and is the answer complete, or do you need to ask for further information?

CONFIDENCE

Confidence transcends verbal communication, non verbal communication, and visual communication. It can be displayed through tone of voice, be evident on a well-written CV or cover letter, or appear lacking if the person stumbles over their words. It is required to convince customers, make sales, and communicate effectively with colleagues.

HONEST COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Honesty is an important element of good communication; potential employers should include it in their job descriptions. Honesty and transparency are particularly relevant within teams to nurture a good company culture and take responsibility for mistakes and actions.

NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND BODY LANGUAGE

Being able to read body language and nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, eye contact patterns, and hand gestures is advantageous in many roles and circumstances. Individuals can see beyond what is being said, which is essential to emotional intelligence.

OPENNESS AND APPROACHABILITY

Open-mindedness and approachability are the hallmarks of a good communicator. Including it in your job descriptions will help you build or maintain a good team, ready to collaborate or display empathy.

PRESENTATION SKILLS AND PUBLIC SPEAKING

Good presentation skills and public speaking are extremely valuable for employers to seek out. Adding it to job descriptions will bring in candidates who can present ideas, which shows planning, or become a future team or company leader.

RESPECTFULNESS

A cohesive team and satisfied customers only occur when respect exists. Actively listening to a person’s message, allowing others to initiate conversations, responding appropriately, and using tone of voice all contribute to respectfulness as a communication style.

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VERBAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Excellent verbal communication skills appear in job descriptions more often than other soft skills. Oral communication skills are a must for building rapport, customer service, teamwork, and much more. Whether recruiting a restaurant server or a teacher, it is hard to excel without this important skill.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Good communication skills are not complete without writing skills. Almost every job requires at least some writing, from completing reports to responding to customer emails. Writing skills can also be fundamental to job descriptions for copywriters, journalists, and marketing professionals.

All Verbal And Written Communication Skills Examples

We have so far uncovered core communication skills examples you might include in your job description. However, there are many others you may want to add that can be very relevant to a particular role, work environment, customer type, or team make up.

Here is a list of 100 communication skills:

1. Active listener
2. Active listening
3. Assertiveness
4. Awareness
5. Body language
6. Caring
7. Charisma
8. Charismatic
9. Coaching
10. Comforting
11. Communication skills
12. Compassion
13. Confidence
14. Constructive criticism
15. Constructive feedback
16. Consulting
17. Conversation
18. Counselling
19. Creative
20. Creativity
21. Cultural awareness
22. Curiosity
23. Customer service
24. Diplomacy
25. Dynamic
26. Emotional intelligence
27. Empathetic
28. Empathy
29. Encouraging
30. Eye contact
31. Facilitating
32. Flexibility
33. Focus
34. Friendliness
35. Giving feedback
36. Honesty
37. Humour
38. Influence
39. Informing
40. Inquiring
41. Inspirational
42. Inspiring
43. Instructing
44. Interviewing
45. Investigating
46. Kindness
47. Leadership
48. Lightheartedness
49. Listening
50. Mediation
51. Mentoring
52. Mindfulness
53. Motivational
54. Negotiation
55. Networking
56. Non verbal communication skills
57. Open mindedness
58. Openness
59. Oral communication skills
60. Patience
61. Paying attention
62. Personable
63. Persuasion
64. Planning
65. Politeness
66. Political awareness
67. Positive attitude
68. Positive reinforcement
69. Positivity
70. Presentable
71. Presentation skills
72. Public speaking
73. Questioning
74. Rapport
75. Receiving feedback
76. Reflection
77. Relatability
78. Relatable
79. Relationship building
80. Relationship management
81. Researching
82. Respectfulness
83. Self motivation
84. Self reflection
85. Sensitivity
86. Social skills
87. Speaking
88. Sympathy
89. Tact
90. Tactful
91. Tactfulness
92. Team working
93. Tolerance
94. Tone of voice
95. Trustfulness
96. Truthfulness
97. Understanding
98. Verbal communication
99. Visual communication
100. Written communication skills

Further Resources For Employers

AI Job Description Writer

If you are a business owner, hiring manager, or Human Resources professional, these further resources will be invaluable:

• What Are The Duties, Tasks, And Skills To Include In Job Descriptions
• What Hard Skills To Include In A Job Description
• How To Define What People Do In Their Jobs

To start advertising for the skills you need, check out our job advertising packages, starting from £199.

Effective Communication Skills FAQs

Here we answer your questions on including communication skills in your job descriptions.