What does it say about an organization when the employees are more pessimistic about their chances to find a new job within their current company? According to the Career Mobility Outlook recently published by Ranstad RiseSmart, workers are unsure of or don’t know how they can advance their skills internally. That’s bad news for people who want to learn more. According to the report;
These findings are in direct contrast with employer sentiment, which found that 95% of organizations are looking to hire, including promoting from within, to fill existing job openings: 68.4% of employers are optimistic about filling open roles with current employees, down 11% from Q2. By contrast, only one third (30.3%) of employees said they are likely to opt for an internal job change, while those who were likely to make an external job change dropped even further to one-fifth (20.6%) of all respondents, indicating that the pace of “The Great Resignation” of employees leaving their jobs for external opportunities may be slowing.
This conundrum is why you are seeing more applicant tracking systems improve their internal job boards for their existing employees. The “reskilling” of the workplace needs to become a bigger priority for C-suite leaders.
Employers and Employees Not Aligned on Reskilling
Sometimes referred to as ‘upskilling’, reskilling means teaching your employees new skills so they can take on a new role inside your organization.
Ranstad’s report says only forty-three percent (43%) of workers are optimistic about finding new roles internally. Thats down 10% from the previous quarter. Internal talent teams seem to do a poor job of promoting these roles inside company walls. Employees are also doubtful their manager will let them move anyway so that is another obstacle in the way.
Employees see skepticism about their about the ability to find internal positions but in the report, employers “overwhelmingly said they plan to fill existing job openings through internal mobility, with 71% of employers saying they plan to fill 10-50% of open jobs internally, a percentage that is relatively unchanged since the first quarter of 2021.”
The “Career Mobility Outlook” report also shows some major disconnects exist between employees and employers regarding reskilling and career path development.
73.5% of employers believe they are offering their employees such internal opportunities. However, only 52.3% of employees agree with this sentiment. This disconnect is even larger within specific industries, such as financial services.
“Individuals are telling us that they want to learn new skills to be able to grow and develop their careers, and businesses want to train their employees so they can advance within the company. But for some reason, they can’t get on the same page,” said Dan Davenport, CEO at Randstad RiseSmart. “Our goal is to help organizations and their workers realize that they both want the same thing and provide them with the career coaching expertise and tools to build agile workforces that benefit individuals and the organization.”
Benefits of Reskilling
Investing in your people through reskilling has a number of benefits that can’t be ignored. Especially in the tight labor that exists today. In the short term you save time and money but in the long term you can strengthen your brand as a great place to work while increasing retention.
1. Reskilling Reduces Hiring Costs
Before you can hire you have to advertise, source, interview and more. That process is expensive and takes time. When you initiate reskilling for your workforce you can avoid those expenses and long time horizons. Thus you free up other recruiting resources to focus on more important projects.
2. Reskilling Boosts Talent Attraction
Companies that invest in their employees are ones that people want to work. Wouldn’t you like to be a ‘company of choice’ among potential job seekers? Reskilling shows candidates that you value them and that always moves the needle when it comes to talent attraction. Workers who can learn will tell their friends and your employer brand will become more attractive once reskilling is in place. Make it part of your company culture.
3. Reskilling Equals Retention
Those employees who feel valued will stay longer and in a world where job hopping is rampant that’s a good thing for employers. As the pandemic starts to fade, most job seekers want more out of their lives including what they do for a living. Recognizing that fact will only make your company better at talent acquisition in this new era.
In conclusion, your company’s reskilling effort will be most effective if your team embraces a learning culture. It has to start from the top down. Will it take time to build this out? Yes but I don’t think today’s employers have a choice. The war for talent is in full effect and shows no signs of letting up.
