How do employers and employees feel about upskilling and reskilling?

In recent years there’s been a great deal of chatter about “upskilling” and “reskilling.” A Mercer Global Talent Trends report from 2019 showed that reskilling training programs moved up in priority for executives from ninth position to third, with insurance executives putting it at the top of their own priority list. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the urgency for companies to include these efforts, as demands in the workplace continue to shift and employees require different skillsets to adapt.

So what is the current state of upskilling and reskilling training, as far as both employers and employees are concerned? To answer that question, TalentLMS teamed up with Workable and Training Journal to survey 282 high-ranking decision-makers in various companies, asking whether or not they’ve upskilled or reskilled their workforce and if those efforts have been beneficial. The team also asked 400 full-time employees in the U.S. to share their opinions about these initiatives.

Here are 6 takeaways from the report:

1. Both employers and employees stepped up during the pandemic.

When asked if they had ever provided employees with reskilling or upskilling training, 92% of surveyed companies said yes. After the coronavirus outbreak, 42% of companies reported increasing those courses and training materials. Employees tended to go above and beyond: 42% said they pursued reskilling and upskilling training in addition to what their employers provided. Of the 27% of employees who said their employers did not provide them with that training, 65% said they took it upon themselves to seek that training out on their own time.

2. Even so, there’s very little in the way of formal programs.

Only 35% of employers said they had official upskilling or reskilling programs in place. The majority reported delivering such programs on an ad hoc basis. However, 87% of companies said they have in-house teams who design those programs, and the report suggests that as reskilling and upskilling become more imperative, new corporate learning & development roles may surface to spearhead the creation of that training.

3. Employers vs. employees: The “why”

A slim majority of managers (71%) said they felt the need to upskill or reskill their workforce as part of the company’s development culture, while 68% said it was necessary to handle changes within the organization. Employees, on the other hand, had their eyes on a different prize: Although 66% reported “the joy of learning new things” as their top reason for upskilling, 33% said they did it with a possible promotion in mind, and 29% said they invested the time in the hopes of getting a raise.

4. Did employers think it was worth it? 

Absolutely, by a wide margin. Employers felt upskilling/reskilling training was most beneficial (75%) to productivity, goals (69%), company reputation (63%) and employee retention (58%). While most employers (51%) felt their employees were also satisfied with the training, 26% of them reported that they felt their employees would be satisfied but don’t have the time in their schedules to take advantage of it.

5. Did employees think it was worth it? 

Again, yes. For those employees provided with upskilling/reskilling training, 78% were either satisfied or very satisfied. When it comes to employees not provided with that training, the numbers paint a somewhat complicated picture: 27% of employees report not being offered upskilling/reskilling training by their employers in the last five years of their careers, and 80% of those employees have never requested such training. That said, 74% of those employees who did not receive training say they would prefer to work for a company that offers it. “Clearly, businesses need to ask their employees whether they’d like more training opportunities,” the report states.

There’s another wrinkle: While 51% of employees who received training felt it was beneficial to their confidence levels and 47% felt it helped boost their productivity, only 33% reported seeing any significant change in their salaries—one of the top priorities for employees undergoing the training in the first place.

6. Hard skills vs. soft skills: “I know you are but what am I?”

According to managers, the higher employees climb up the corporate ladder, the more soft skills are necessary to do those jobs. When it comes to the soft skills managers feel employees are lacking, four take the top spots: Communication/collaboration (57%), leadership (54%), proactive thinking (50%), and adaptability/ability to pivot (45%).

Employees, on the other hand, have a different view of the matter. For one thing, a slight majority (55%) say they prefer to spend time training on hard skills that relate directly to their current role in the company, while 53% prefer to focus on soft skills. Additionally, employees think their leadership skills are just fine, with 40% reporting that they feel it’s a soft skill where they excel. Employees also felt they excelled in empathy (35%), creativity (34%), and proactive thinking (34%). Only 29% reported excelling in communication/collaboration, while 34% said they felt their managers lacked that particular skill. In fact, 74% of employees felt their managers needed upskilling/reskilling training of their own.