Employers that invest in continued learning and on-the-job development stand to reap bottom-line benefits that go beyond having a well-prepared workforce, according to the first study in ADP Research’s refreshed “People at Work 2025” report series.
The report reveals that Singapore’s workforce has similar demands towards skills development with the rest of the world. Only a quarter (24%) of the global workforce is confident they have the skills needed to advance to the next job level in the near future, with 23% of Singapore’s respondents expressing the same sentiment.
While 17 percent of workers globally strongly agree their employers are investing in the skills they need for career advancement, 23% of those surveyed in Singapore feel the same.
For employers, the need to prioritize skills development is deeper than building a workforce that keeps pace with today’s dynamic workplace. ADP Research’s analysis found providing employees with the skills of tomorrow is correlated to productivity, retention and reputation.
“Our research shows that a skilled workforce is more loyal to their employers—and more productive. Yet only a small fraction of workers are upskilled within two years of being hired,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “If companies want to benefit from the enormous technological advancement to come, they must start with investing in the skills and career progression of their workers.”
The Untapped Potential of Workers
In the first installment of the “People at Work 2025” report series, the ADP Research team examined the impact of skills development learned through on-the-job training and found most workers think their employers could be doing better when it comes to skills development. The analysis further finds the business opportunity that comes with building out comprehensive training programs that help ensure employees are prepared for tomorrow’s world of work.
“We found that education is not enough to fill the skills gap,” said Mary Hayes, research director of People & Performance at ADP Research. “Only 24 percent of workers are confident that they have the skills needed to advance in the next three years of their careers. The world of work is changing at light speed, and organizations need to do their part to close the skills gap.”
Other key findings include:
- The opportunity to get ahead is important, and not just for workers. When workers globally were asked to provide the top reasons why they would stay with their employer, the opportunity for career advancement is second only to flexibility in scheduling.
- Workers who feel strongly that their employer is providing the training they need are nearly 6 times more likely to recommend their company as a great place to work.
- These same workers are also 3.3 times more likely to describe themselves as highly-productive.
- They’re also twice as likely to say they have no intent to leave their organization compared to workers who have the skills but lack on-the-job training opportunities.
- Cycle workers, those that do similar repetitive tasks daily, in particular have a dismal view of employer investment, with only 9 percent of men and 7 percent of women expressing satisfaction in their upskilling opportunities.
The refreshed “People at Work 2025” series will dive deep into key topics at a market-by-market level, crucial for the increasingly borderless world of work. Digging into some of the market-by-market findings from the skills development launch story, ADP Research’s analysis reveals:
- Workers in the Middle East & Africa were most likely to believe they have the skills needed to advance their career to the next job level in the next three years (38%), followed by Latin America (32%), North America (22%), Asia-Pacific (21%), and Europe (17%).
- Workers in Singapore are the least likely in Southeast Asia to believe they have the skills needed to advance their career to the next job level in the next three years (23%). Vietnam’s workers (29%) lead the sub-region in terms of confidence, followed by The Philippines (26%), Indonesia (26%), and Thailand (25%).
- Workers in the Middle East & Africa were also the most likely to say their employer invests in the skills needed to advance their career in the future (28%), followed by North America (18%), Latin America and Asia-Pacific (17%), and Europe (12%).
- Female workers (28%) in Singapore are more likely to believe that their employer invests in the skills they need to advance their career in the future as compared to male counterparts (20%). The proportion of female workers with this sentiment is the highest in Southeast Asia.
- By markets, workers in Egypt were the most likely to say their employer invests in the skills needed to advance their career in the future (35%), followed by India (32%), South Africa (29%), Saudi Arabia (28%), Nigeria (27%), Brazil and Thailand (24%), Vietnam and Singapore (23%), and Philippines (21%).