7 out of 10 Recruiters look for Communication Skills on a CV

17 May 2023

When it comes to applying for a new job, you’ll want to put yourself ahead of the rest.

On that basis, it might give you an edge to know that 7 out of 10 recruiters look for evidence of strong communication skills when recruiting. Having a workforce with great communication skills leads to better teamwork, improved customer relationships and retention, and overall better business performance, so it’s a skill never to be hidden from view.

How do you demonstrate communication skills on your CV?

You might think a recruiter can’t really tell what sort of a communicator you are just from your CV, but we know they can! First and foremost, a well-written and professionally formatted CV will give them a clue about your written communication skills, and there are so many other ways you can demonstrate your excellent communication skills in your past experience.

Here are a few tips to help you work out what you could be including:

Successful presentations to groups of staff or customers shows that you have the confidence to communicate in what can be a challenging or nerve-wracking setting. Make sure you give examples of the types of presentations you’ve made and to whom.
Leading a project means you must have had experience in organising and communicating about project plans, updates, targets and success. Include in your CV the different ways you’ve communicated about your project.
Contributions to or facilitating meetings, whether they are team, inter-department or client meetings, show you have a certain level of confidence in communication. Giving examples of these will help without going into great detail.
Negotiation, at any level, is a great skill to have and shows recruiters you can think on your feet as well as having the skills needed to handle potentially difficult conversations. Talk about your successes in negotiation situations so the recruiter can see what you can handle.
Customer interaction is an ideal example to give in your CV, especially if you’ve dealt with problem clients, or been responsible for handling complaints.
Written communication skills are vital in today’s workplace for many roles, so examples of the work you’ve done around writing reports, presentations, plans and letters will go down well.

There are of course so many other ways your communication skills can be demonstrated, so don’t be shy about including great examples that will help to make you stand out from the competition.

Skills such as customer interaction can illustrate problem solving skills in addition to the communication skills that are being sought. Being able to help to resolve difficult situations for clients is something that is highly valued as the recruiters will know how difficult some of these encounters can be.

Achieving excellent results, even when in the most pressurised of customer-facing rules will stand you in good stead in a great many roles in the future so be sure to mention that this is one of the areas that you have worked in, and talk about your results, if you can.