‘Taking matters into their own hands’: More employees demanding upskilling opportunities

Almost half of employees are actively seeking opportunities to upskill to address their skills development.

According to new research from Robert Half, 49 per cent of Aussie employers have been approached by employees about upskilling, while 47 per cent have been approached by employees seeking to be reskilled.

The strongest push seems to be coming from those in executive positions, with 57 per cent of chief information officer (CIO) roles demanding greater upskilling to develop new competencies.

A further 33 per cent of employers say they’ve been asked by staff to introduce mentoring programs, and 29 per cent have been asked to enable job rotations that cross-train employees.

Meanwhile, 25 per cent of employers have been asked for contract staff to be hired to backfill vacated roles.

With 81 per cent of employers saying reskilling improves their team’s productivity, the way forward is obvious, said Nicole Gorton, director at Robert Half.

“The concept of upskilling and reskilling has gained prominence as professionals recognise the need to continuously learn and adapt,” Mr Gorton said.

“By investing in employee training and development, a business creates a culture of progression that is beneficial to attracting and retaining talent.

“We know that driving organisational transformation hinges on how well a business can engage and upskill its workforce to adopt and embrace change. A company’s learning and development program is an important differentiator to help achieve this and allows employees to feel equipped to do their best work and stay intellectually challenged.”

Other benefits to employers

In addition to increased productivity levels, the research notes upskilling and reskilling lead to better staff engagement and retention.

Seventy-four per cent of business leaders agree that reskilling existing employees has increased their team’s workload capacity to perform tasks more efficiently.

In addition, nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of employers say that if budget constraints are not an issue, they prefer to reskill a current employee than hire a new employee.

A similar proportion (78 per cent) of employers prefer to upskill an existing employee to expand their skill set so they can perform more functions than recruit a new employee.

“While the chronic skills shortage continues, employers understand that investing in upskilling programs could answer their talent deficit woes,” Ms Gorton said.

“In instances where we see employers wanting to hire someone outside of the business rather than upskill, it likely comes down to the expertise being so specialised that it requires an expert in that field to execute it, or businesses wanting to expand their teams and add to headcount.”