According to a survey of 2,500 full-time employees in Germany, India, the UK and the US, only a quarter of employees consider talent development programmes to be very effective. Others consider lack of time (42%), learning formats (30%) and leadership support (26%) to be the main obstacles.
As a result, 35% of respondents are not confident that they have the skills necessary to succeed in their roles. In addition, more than two in five employees have concerns about job security due to lack of skills.
“This data highlights a significant issue: a third of the workforce is questioning whether they have the right skills to excel in their roles,” said Ciara Harrington, Chief People Officer at Skillsoft.
“These skills gaps prevent workers from reaching their full potential and can hinder organizations from achieving their key business objectives,” he added.
Respondents rated Leadership skills as the most critical aspect of achieving success in today’s workplace, followed by soft skills, technology skills, and AI/machine learning skills. They said their managers view leadership skills as the most vital competency for team members to possess, though nearly a third (31%) said this is their biggest skills gap. More than two in five (43%) believe the same about their AI/machine learning skills. “As workers face an increasingly complex set of responsibilities, ongoing workplace change, and generative AI-driven disruption, it’s critical for organizations to proactively develop the skills of their talent. A skilled, agile workforce is inherently safer, more capable, and more productive,” Harrington said. Despite the proliferation of GenAI tools, more than three in five (62%) employees rated their organization’s AI training program as average to poor.
To be successful in their skills development goals, nearly two in five (39%) employees are looking for a blended learning program that includes on-demand online courses, interactive and experiential opportunities (37%), and live instructor-led training (37%) in particular.
Harrington said: “Effective learning programs take a blended, multi-modal approach that goes beyond skills development and drives measurable improvements in job performance and behavior change on an ongoing basis.”
More than four in five (82%) employees said their organizations are taking steps to transition to a skills-based modelThe most common actions driving this transition are providing skills- and role-based learning paths (28%), conducting skills gap analyses (16%), and implementing a skills taxonomy (16%).
However, the transition is still in its infancy. Only 19% of employees say they receive regular assessments of their skills, which is a key component of skills-based strategies.
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