How Important is it for Non Tech Professionals to Learn Basic Technology (5 mins Read)

In today’s times, being tech savvy is essential and it’s universal. There might be some people who are more comfortable around technology than the others and that may depend on your profession if it’s needed for that particular job or not. However, every professional nowadays must have a certain degree of basic technical skills in order to excel in their career.

The basic skills mentioned in the below list might already be known to most of you, but still there might be some who are yet to develop those skills. As these skills are basic so everyone should have the knowledge of these. If you’re one of those who feels incomplete when it comes to workplace tech, then please go through this article and you might find a missing skill which might change the way you work for better prospects in your career.

1. Being social media savvy

Irrespective of whatever you are doing or what role you are in, in today’s times it is very important to be social media savvy. The leading platforms to become familiar with the social media are the ones you probably use already like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

You must have the ability to share important information and engage with the clients and the customers for the better future prospects of every employer and the employee both. So, it’s a two way street which benefits the employee as well as the business as a whole.

2. Know spreadsheeting

Having the ability to use the spreadsheets effectively is a common trait nowadays which the companies look for. In whichever sector you are working in, you will have to store vital information like starting from contact information to research calculations.

If you are not able to navigate yourself through Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, then you need to start learning as it’s a very important basic skill for progress in your career.

3. Basic knowledge of word processing

Although, this seems to be the most basic skill, however learning how to type properly is extremely important as most of the work is done digitally now. You need to make sure that you know how to utilize the basic formatting such as bold, underlining and italics effectively.

There are numerous free word processing tutorials available online to help you brush up your writing skills and make your content look more attractive and useful.

4. Need good presentation skills

Most of the employers assume that you know how to create presentations for the clients or for internal use. If you are working in a B2B or B2C company, the ability to create visually compelling work is integral everywhere in the current workplace.

In order to learn the presentation skills, there are number of tech tools available on Google Suite or Microsoft Office which you can make good use of.

5. Know the keyboard shortcuts

Having a good knowledge of the basic keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time. Shortcuts like copying, pasting, window switching, printing, bookmarking and many more can make you a more productive resource.

In order to know what shortcuts are available, please check out the shortcuts listed by Windows and Apple.

6. Good Emailing etiquette

The title of this article is about the basics and truly email has become one of the basics now for workplace technology. Knowing how to email professionally is extremely important. The email is the first and the foremost way to contact in almost all the workplaces and it is the basic medium to contact the clients, customers as well as the coworkers.

So, it’s very much essential to know all the basics of such as how to compose or format an email,  sending out an email or even creating an email signature for oneself.

7. Touch typing

Touch typing is having the ability to type without wasting time looking at your keyboard. If you still use three fingers to type then you need to learn how to touch type, as the employers will not appreciate a candidate who isn’t comfortable with the keyboard, as computers are a necessity in the workplace now. If you need to learn, you can use free online programs like Keyhero or Ratatype to improve your touch typing skills.

8. Keep pace with the times

Although, this isn’t a tech skill but it is very important to keep an open mind when it comes to knowing the basic tech skills. Only because you are used to doing something in one particular way, does not mean that you can’t do it in a different way which is better.

Moreover, not being tech-savvy can’t be used as an excuse any longer, as these tech skills are considered to be very basic and it’s expected that you have the minimum knowledge of these. Without the knowledge of these, you are not only limiting yourself as a professional, you are limiting the business also for which you work for.

CONCLUSION:

All around the world the employers have a high demand for these basic tech skills. If you don’t possess any of these skills then you need to take immediate steps to learn that or else you might not be able to progress in your career at the right pace and fall behind in the race towards reaching your goals. As these are the basic tech skills, so you must work towards acquiring the knowledge of these for the benefit of yourself and the company in the long run.