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Are you levelling up ?
Almost half of Aussie employees are actively seeking opportunities to upskill – are you one of them ?
Independent research by specialised recruiter Robert Half has revealed that 49 % of Australian employers say employees have asked for training and professional development opportunities to improve their capability in their current position ; a result of the combination of constantly evolving technologies and a heightened focus on productivity .
It seems employees are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to addressing their skills development – but thankfully the findings revealed the majority of employers prefer to upskill and reskill existing workers than hire new staff , with 81 % confirming that reskilling improves their team ’ s productivity .
What employees want In the past six months , requests to Australian employers have looked like this : w 49 % say employees have requested training to upskill in new competencies for their current role w 47 % say they have been asked to provide reskilling opportunities so that workers can perform new roles or take on new responsibilities within the organisation w 33 % say they have been asked to introduce mentoring programs w 26 % say they have been asked to enable job rotations that cross-train employees
Nicole Gorton , director at Robert Half , adds to the findings : “ 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 .”
The benefit to employers Employers recognise that upskilling and reskilling their staff not only benefits their business by boosting productivity and filling talent gaps , but also leads to better staff engagement and retention , according to the report findings . Almost three in four ( 74 %) business leaders say reskilling existing employees has increased their team ’ s workload capacity to perform tasks more efficiently .
In addition , 73 % of employers say if budget constraints are not an issue , they prefer to reskill a current employee than hire a new employee . A similar proportion ( 78 %) of employers prefer to upskill an existing employee to expand their skill set so they can perform more functions than recruit a new employee .
Gorton continues : “ While the chronic skills shortage continues , employers understand that investing in upskilling programs could answer their talent deficit woes . 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 .” S
14 Executive PA | Summer Issue 2024