Top companies in the U.S. and U.K. appear to be underprioritizing skills development related to their technology priorities, according to a March 17 report from Multiverse.
In an analysis of S&P 100 and FTSE 100 company reports, 76% of U.S. companies and 69% of U.K. companies mentioned strategic priorities related to technology. However, only 8% of U.S. companies and 7% of U.K. companies mentioned training and skills development as a priority.
Although technology priorities have increased dramatically in recent years, training priorities haven’t improved since 2013, Multiverse said, suggesting that top leaders aren’t yet recognizing the major impact on workforce skills requirements.
“Annual reports are a weathervane for the issues that are capturing the boardroom’s attention,” said Euan Blair, CEO of Multiverse. “What we can see in the data is that investment in technology is skyrocketing, but skills and training [have] stagnated.”
In addition, companies don’t appear to be focusing skills development on the most consequential technologies shaping the future of work, the report found. About half of S&P 100 10-K reports mentioned AI in their strategy, while only 18% mentioned AI training.
At the same time, some boardrooms are making moves, with discussions of “reskilling” and “upskilling” on the rise, the report found. In the U.S., mentions of reskilling rose from 1% in 2013 to 13% in recent years, and mentions of upskilling jumped nearly sixfold from 5% to 29%.
Even so, only 4% of S&P 100 companies provided a sum for how much they invested in training. On average, U.S. companies spent $1,700 per employee.
About half of employees believe AI is advancing faster than their company’s ability to train them, according to a TalentLMS report. They pointed to a “clear lack of guidelines” on AI tool use at work and said current training programs “could be significantly improved,” particularly by increasing the speed at which training can be delivered.
Technology training, including AI training, also faces barriers related to a gender divide, which can worsen without intervention, according to reports from Amazon Web Services and Coursera. Women tended to perceive a lack of AI relevance to their jobs and expressed uncertainty about where to start with training.
Most companies using AI seem to be hiring AI talent too quickly and not taking the time to build a lasting pipeline of potential candidates, according to a General Assembly report. Instead, companies should build a sustainable pool of external talent and invest in training for their current employees.
