According to a new report from the World Economic Forum, it is clear that creativity at work is going to be one of the most important and in-demand skills in the next 5 years.

In fact, it is going to be the third most important skill overall.

This comes from a new Forum report, The Future of Jobs, which took input from an extensive survey of CHROs and other senior talent and strategy executives from a total of 371 leading global employers, representing more than 13 million employees. The report asked chief human resources and strategy officers from leading global employers what the current economic and technological shifts mean, specifically for employment, skills and recruitment across industries and geographies.

Here are the Top 10 Skills in 2020 that these companies want from their employees and recruits:

  1. Complex Problem Solving
  2. Critical Thinking
  3. Creativity
  4. People Management
  5. Coordinating with others
  6. Emotional Intelligence
  7. Judgement and Decision Making
  8. Service Orientation
  9. Negotiation
  10. Cognitive Flexibility

This study backs up other surveys which show how important it will be to companies for their people to be able to think creatively. In 2010, IBM surveyed 1,500 CEOs from across the world, and they voted creativity to be their most important workplace capability to help them survive and grow.

Let us compare this list to the Top 10 Skills in 2015 the companies wanted:

  1. Complex Problem Solving
  2. Coordinating with others
  3. People Management
  4. Critical Thinking
  5. Negotiation
  6. Quality Control
  7. Service Orientation
  8. Judgement and Decision Making
  9. Active Listening
  10. Creativity

As we can see, creativity is becoming a skill which is seen as growing in value for the world’s largest corporations.

Not only that but the other top skills like Critical Thinking and Complex Problem Solving are also intricately linked to creativity and innovation, as they are all about helping the companies navigate unexpected future challenges, whatever they may be.

Fortunately, like every skill on the list, creativity is something that can be improved over time.

To find out how, make sure you subscribe to the free Idea to Value newsletter. It shows you some of the top scientifically-backed ways to build up your creative abilities and find new and successful ways to innovate.