Home topics small-business-resources Image Credit: Clayton Cardinalli on Unsplash Education | Training Small Business Education | Training Your employees want to upskill: How can you support them? Jason Toshack October 8, 2021 Technology is evolving at breakneck speed and keeping up with the pace of these advancements is a challenge. In fact, research has revealed Australia is facing a major gap in digital skills across the workforce, with 87% of jobs requiring these skills as a prerequisite. Luckily, the appetite for learning is strong, with a report from LinkedIn finding that 94% of workers would stay at a company longer if they felt it invested in their careers. An IBM study also revealed that employees are twelve times more likely to consider moving on when they feel they aren’t developing or achieving career goals. Staff turnover is demoralising for the team; it has a bottom-line impact, as it can cost an average of 33% of a worker’s annual salary to replace them. So how can employers bridge the skills gap to engage employees and boost job satisfaction? Here are three areas for consideration. There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach Asking your employees what interests and motivates them should be your first step when building a training plan. Once you know the areas in which people would like to upskill, create a framework that employees can use to track their progress – commonly called a personal development plan (PDP). This should include the skills and competencies they would like to build over time