Enterprise skills in the workplace

In today’s business environment, you have likely heard the terms ‘enterprise skills’ or ‘twenty-first-century skills’. These terms are frequently used by business leaders, educators, and the government, in the context of ‘the future of work’.

Many argue that the ‘future of work’ is here. This phrase has become more common as many roles are being impacted by technology-driven automation and augmentation. This has forced organisations to reconsider which is more important – technical skills or enterprise skills. The fact that you are taking a course, which is designed to quickly increase your skills in a popular global software company’s core product, is proof of that. It’s important for you to stay on top of emerging software trends, as well as the enterprise skills that will support them.

So what, exactly, are enterprise skills, and how can your role as a Salesforce Administrator help you develop them?

In 2017, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published a report called ‘Future skills and training: A practical resource to help identify future skills and training’. The report discusses how harnessing enterprise skills will be the difference between being good at your administrative role or being great at it, in addition to your technical understanding of Salesforce.

As well as digital skills, ASIC identifies six other clusters of skills needed to excel.

They are:

1. Collaborating
2. Learning and adapting
3. Entrepreneurship
4. Value creation
5. Non-automatable skills
6. Social-platforming

You can download the full list, along with a brief explanation of each cluster in the article labelled ‘Future of Learning and Skills’, adapted from ASIC’s Future skills and training report listed in the the ‘downloads’ section below.

Many skills appear more than once in these clusters. Although reflecting on all of the skills listed is a useful individual exercise, let’s complete a self-assessment task on the skills that appear more than once.

They are:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Social / cultural awareness
• Sociability
• Experimentation
• Adaptability
• Self-confidence
• Persuasion
• Creative thinking
• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving
• Customer engagement

Activity

Complete this Enterprise skills self-assessment (below) to identify your areas of strength and your opportunities for development. As you complete the questions, consider which skills you scored less than 7 and how you can work towards improving them further.

Download Skills self asessment.pdf.

To find out more about the skills required for success now and in the future, check out The Foundation for Young Australians report on The New Basics and The New Work Mindset in the ‘See also’ section at the bottom of the page.

Download Future of Learning and Skills.pdf.

Throughout the course, we will highlight four core enterprise focus areas to support your technical grasp of Salesforce with the appropriate skills.

These areas are:

1. Communication
2. Problem-solving
3. Stakeholder management
4. Business processes

Adding these enterprise skills to your repertoire will improve your career success and provide robust support for your role as a Salesforce Administrator in your company.

Now that you know more about the various enterprise skills that you will need to support your technical skills, let’s find out more about Salesforce itself.

References

<sub>1. The New Basics Report: Big data reveals the skills young people need for the New Work Order [PDF]. The Foundation of Young Australians; 2016. Available from: https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/The-New-Basics_Update_Web.pdf
2. The new work mindset: 7 new job clusters to help young people navigate the new work order [PDF]. The Foundation of Young Australians; 2016. Available from: https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/The-New-Work-Mindset.pdf</sub>