You’re stuck in an office, working 9-to-5 and want to escape. Do you aspire to work from home but are unsure if you have the skills to achieve this?

When you’re applying for a remote job, you have an increased chance of being successful if these skills are included in your Resume/CV. In the interview, remember to highlight scenarios where you’ve used them in your current or previous employment.

Here are 12 skills you need to work from home.

Self-motivated to get work done

Working in an office and the commute forces you to get out of bed. Having a manager overlooking your work keeps you productive. When working from home, you have to be able to motivate yourself and complete work to a high standard.

If you do not enjoy the work, or, you cannot motivate yourself in the office, then this is not going to change when working from home. It is for this reason why applying for a remote job that you are passionate about is important.

Great communication skills

Communication is the key to success. When there is a breakdown in communication, it can lead to a negative impact on productivity and team morale. You need to be an approachable person who can speak with colleagues at all levels in the business.

Be clear and concise when communicating but also become a good listener.

Most of the communication will take place through email, video conferencing and messaging services like Zoom and Slack. So, being comfortable communicating on these multiple channels is essential.

Ability to work independently

While you will be working as part of a team, your work will be carried out independently. Be the type of person who can work on their own initiative. Being resourceful and a good problem-solver will come in handy when working from home.

Efficient time manager

When working for a remote business, your colleagues will likely be located all over the world. This makes working on projects with other team members more complicated due to timezones, especially when the work is time sensitive.

Your success in working from home will come down to your work routine and making sure deadlines are met. It’s another example of why communication is important but also being flexible in your approach to work and have planning skills.

Be adaptable and flexible

Businesses change direction so being an adaptable person will make you more employable. Become multi-skilled, so you can quickly adapt to a new role and learn new skills. Stand out and show interest in all aspects of the business.

Good technical skills

Even if your job is not particularly technical, you will need to feel comfortable with both software and hardware as a remote worker. Most fully-distributed companies do not have an IT team to assist you with technical issues.

You will have to keep your computer and software up-to-date and have a fast internet connection, plus a back-up. It will help to be proficient in the use of the operating system on your computer and problem solve any issues you’re having.

This leads on to some recommended software skills.

G Suite for Business

Many remote businesses use the G Suite of applications for creating and storing documents and meeting planning. Being familiar with software like Google Docs and Hangouts will put you in better positioning when applying for remote jobs.

Slack

It’s the communication tool of choice for hundreds of thousands of fully-distributed companies. This is where you will communicate with your team by sending text messages, audio, video calls and gifs. The software can be downloaded for free so, try it out and use the features.

Jira

Jira by Atlassian is fast becoming the development, task and project management tool for many companies. This is where time is tracked, tasks are identified, scrums and agile development is monitored and managed. Many SAAS businesses use this to report product bugs and improvements. Managers can also report out in real-time.

If you’re wanting to learn new skills, but unsure what to focus on, these roles are in high demand due to changes in consumer behaviour.

Online teaching

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, more families have decided to homeschool their children so, the demand for online teaching has become popular. While schools are starting to open up, teaching online is only going to increase as technology continues to improve.

Project Management

With a growing number of people who are working from home, businesses need someone to bring the team together online, manage projects and workloads. Having project management experience with organisational skills, being able to communicate and work remotely will be required more than ever.

E-Commerce Roles

We’ve seen an explosion of online shopping and many independent businesses transition during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being able to develop websites with WooCommerce and Shopify are skills to have.

Another area to think about learning is being a conversion specialist on e-commerce websites. The focus for many businesses is having a fully-functioning website, but converting visitors into customers is a must-have skill.

Become multi-skilled

Multi-skilled people are more employable, so being open to learning is a must-have skill in itself. You do not have to pay a fortune for courses. Search YouTube, it’s the 2nd largest search engine online.

Google has a skill shop to learn about their products but also has a ton of free marketing and digital courses. Coursera has a good-sized database of free training from how to teach online to learning Korean.

Before you go, please check out our guide on what is upskilling and how you can upskill to increase your chances of landing a remote job.