As businesses race to close skills gaps and complete AI transformations, many are still defaulting to external hiring – even as recruitment becomes more crowded, costly and difficult to navigate.
New research from SHL suggests the skills they need may already be sitting unseen inside their own organizations.
“The striking thing about this research is how willing people are to prove what they can do. Employees are saying, 'assess me, develop me, show me where I could go next'. Yet organizations continue to invest time and money searching the external market for individuals with skills and experience that they may already have,” says Lucy Beaumont, global SVP of product and design at SHL.
Key takeaways:
· Two-thirds (66%) of workers believe they will have to leave their current employer to advance their career. Yet the same workers are telling their organizations, clearly, that they don't want to.
· More than eight in 10 workers stated they would retrain to secure a more senior role (83%) or a different role altogether (82%). And almost nine in 10 (89%) would sit through a formal skills assessment to demonstrate what they can do.
· 84% of workers want their employers to proactively show them internal opportunities that match their skills and experience.
· Only 42% of workers say their manager fully understands their skills beyond their current role.
· Nearly one-third (31%) of workers cite managers not wanting to lose good people as a top barrier to moving internally. Yet many workers still see external hiring as the preferred path, with 59% of U.S. workers and 49% of UK workers saying their employer still favors outside candidates over internal development.
· Nearly 80% said the prospect of career advancement increases their fulfillment and engagement at work.
