Workforce capability

Pillar 3

PILLAR 3

Workforce capability

The third pillar of workforce resilience is workforce capability: the organization’s ability to develop the workforce to ensure it has the skills needed to stay competitive. A culture of continuous learning should be the goal, but our research shows that less than half of organizations have achieved this (49%).

Compared with the other two pillars, executives are more likely to rate their organization as “poor” or “very poor” on workforce capability. Yet 50% do recognize that the skills needed by their organization are set to change dramatically, and 48% say that addressing skills gaps is a priority for their leadership.

Most of our employees are eligible for education reimbursement if they’re pursuing an additional degree. We also ensure that managers and employees partner together to talk about development opportunities, development needs, and career paths.

Megan Henry
Cummins Inc.

Figure 13: More than half of executives say that employees’ training and development expectations are rising

Over half of executives indicate that employees’ expectations for training and development are rising, but almost a third of the talent surveyed say it is not easy to access development opportunities to help them in their current roles (29%).

That is a critical mismatch: reskilling existing talent is one of the important ways in which organizations will navigate the future of work.

The talent perspective

Remarkably, 25% of talent say they have never participated in the training provided by their current employer. There is a high correlation here with those who plan to leave within 12 months: 68% of that group have never participated in training at their current employer, which underlines the importance to retention. Among employees who say they are not at all likely to leave their organization in the next 12 months, 30% say they participate in training “very frequently” (compared with just 1% of those who plan to leave). Talent that plans to stay with their organization are also more likely than those who plan to leave to say that:

They find it easy to access the training and development they need (44% compared with 22%)
They are able to regularly dedicate time to training and upskilling (90% compared with 26%)
Their organization offers a bespoke approach to training and development (48% compared with 7%)

The talent perspective

They find it easy to access the training and development they need (44% compared with 22%)
They are able to regularly dedicate time to training and upskilling (90% compared with 26%)
Their organization offers a bespoke approach to training and development (48% compared with 7%)

Figure 14: Talent feels that their employer could do much more to support them in building their capability

The barriers to workforce capability

Executives identify weak training and development strategy and capability, poor talent visibility, and a lack of employee engagement as the top barriers to strengthening workforce capability.

Figure 15: Executives identify a range of workforce capability challenges

Lessons from the Workforce Resilience Leaders

Our Workforce Resilience Leaders are more likely to have implemented accelerated training programs to quickly upskill talent: 75%, compared with 55% of the Workforce Resilience Laggards. And 76% offer secondment programs that enable employees to gain experience in other areas of the business, compared with 56% of the Laggards.

The Leaders’ commitment to providing development opportunities seems to be paying off. Across multiple skills areas—including digital, technical, interpersonal, and working with automation—about a quarter of executives overall rate their organization’s capabilities as “poor” or “very poor.” In contrast, the Workforce Resilience Leaders are much more likely to rate each area as “strong” or “very strong.”

Enhancing capabilities with technology

Alongside training and development, providing employees with the right tools and technologies to perform is also an important way to unlock workforce capability. But only 43% of talent say their organization does this.

Technologies such as automation can help to strengthen workforce capability by removing repetitive tasks from employees’ roles, which increases their productivity. Once again, however, this seems to be an area where organizations are slow to make progress: just under half of talent (46%) say their organization is using automation to improve workforce capability. This could lead to missed opportunities: 71% of those whose organization has implemented automation say it has had a positive impact on business performance.

“In our manufacturing spaces, we have started implementing ‘co-bots’ that help employees perform their work more effectively—and create a safer working environment,” says Meghan Henry of Cummins Inc.

And at JTI GBS, Philip Rybakov says that automation can enable employees to refocus on more meaningful and enjoyable tasks. “Automation has enabled us to free employees from working on repetitive tasks so they can spend a greater proportion of their time helping our customers,” he explains.

Enhancing capabilities with technology

“In our manufacturing spaces, we have started implementing ‘co-bots’ that help employees perform their work more effectively – and create a safer working environment,” says Meghan Henry of Cummings Inc.

And at a retail company, the VP of HR says that automation can enable employees to refocus on more meaningful and enjoyable tasks. “Automation has enabled us to free employees from working on repetitive tasks so they can spend a greater proportion of their time helping our customers,” he explains. “It adds a human touch to what we do.”