LONDON, 29 February 2024 – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, has said that responses to polling on a recent webinar for UK HR professionals indicated that over a third of UK employees will require reskilling or need new skills to meet the demands of their future roles.
The 200 HR professionals – from a range of sectors - were polled when attending a webinar focused on building a skills-based talent strategy. More than 50 percent of polled participants said that 30 percent of their UK employees required re-skilling or need future skills. At the same time, a similar proportion of respondents said that they had yet to start or were yet to complete a baseline review of skills within their organisations.
Charlotte Schaller, partner and head of assessment for the UK at Aon, said:
“The results from our recent polling showed that HR professionals are all too aware of the skills challenge that today’s organisations face. The workplace and talent landscape is in constant upheaval and there are numerous factors that will change the future of work. These include the advancement of artificial intelligence and other technologies, the disruptive impact of new entrants to every marketplace, the changes in models and location of work, and the greater ownership of individual career futures. All these factors impact the skills needed both right now and into the future.
“In that rapidly evolving context and with the aim of building a resilient workforce, organisations have hard decisions to make. They need the right workforce skills to deliver growth, while at the same time being challenged by talent scarcities. Inflation, higher operational costs and the need for businesses to conserve cash to preserve operating margins, can make it hard to achieve a balance between optimising people spend and planning sufficiently for the future.
“Many organisations are responding to this by increasing their focus on talent mobility to build from within, as well as taking a more strategic, data-led approach to simply ‘buying- in’ people with specific skills.”
The polling results also demonstrated that more than half of participating organisations had yet to implement an assessment process focusing on skills.
Charlotte Schaller continued:
“It may be that talent leaders need to take a more strategic view of assessment in general, using the insights it provides to inform post-hire development and career planning conversations. Skills – hard and soft – are important. But so is the motivation to learn new skills and to move into new roles. Without recruiting people with that approach, companies will be in a constant search for the latest in-demand skills – at the risk of forgetting those that are already available within the business.
“Organisations need to hire for the future – and not just for current skill sets. They need to realise the powerful combination of current skill, motivation and potential. Personality assessment is core to the hiring decision. Beyond hiring, talent leaders must think about what’s needed for their future business and be able to provide existing employees with a clear line of sight from the ‘here-and-now’ to the future.
“Companies will also need to be able to explain any job or role changes needed for the future and translate these into the skills and capabilities that are seen as critical. They will need to help employees make the connections between where they are, and a future role - and how to develop the skills that will ensure they can get there.”
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Media Contacts:
Colin Mayes
Aon
+44 (0)7801 748138
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Anelia Fikiina
Kekst CNC
+44 (0)7970 952774
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