A major report on the future of work foresees a growing role for social and emotional skills in global banking and investment. As everyone in the sector builds out their AI infrastructure, great soft skills – our specialism at MSB Executive – will be even more of a difference maker.

Hybrid Skillset

It is just over two years since the McKinsey Global Institute published A new future of work: The race to deploy AI and raise skills in Europe and beyond. So far, its predictions have proved accurate.

The writers of the report gathered a large amount of labour market data, focusing chiefly on Europe and the US. The overall picture is clear: across all sectors and markets, demand is rising for two complementary skillsets. On the one hand, the technological skills required to implement, engineer and run the new infrastructure will be crucial. On the other, what McKinsey calls social and emotional skills – the bits that AI can’t do – will increase greatly in value.

Together, technological skills and soft skills form the all-important hybrid skillset that we discussed in our latest MSB Executive Club newsletter.

Which “Soft Skills”?

The later part of the McKinsey report throws a spotlight on four sectors: Wholesale and Retail Trade, Manufacturing, Healthcare and Financial Services. One metric in this section is called the “skill mix”. It show the share of ‘total working hours’ that are taken up by various skills. In 2022, for example, technological skills took up 21% of total working hours in financial services, social and emotional skills also took up 21%, and so on. Comparing the 2022 figure to the outlook for 2030, social and emotional skills account for by far the biggest increase in the mix.

But what exactly are those “social and emotional skills”? In financial services, the most important social and emotional skill — according to the report — is “advanced communication and negotiation”. This is followed by “interpersonal skills and empathy” and “leadership and managing others”.

Conversely, physical and manual skills will take up a smaller share of the mix in 2030, and basic cognitive skills (the sort of clerical work AI excels at) will drop off dramatically.

What It Means For Us

At MSB Executive, we are heartened by this report (and by similar ones we have read this year). We know that the communication skills we already specialise in are highly valued by our clients, not only in financial services, but in the other sectors we work in. We continue to follow the changing demands of the labour market to make sure we are there for all our clients’ changing needs.

In our latest newsletter, exclusive to members of the MSB Executive Club, we dived into this topic. We invite all our readers to join the MSB Executive Club and receive four newsletters a year, containing exclusive tips and techniques on the crucial soft skills we are proud to specialise in.