In July, StepStone and the KU Leuven unveiled the results of their study on occupational insecurity in Belgium. Today, both parties are releasing a follow-up piece of research, which dives deeper into how Belgian employees think their current professional skills will help them cope with upcoming technological developments.
Here, 1 in 3 worries their current skills are insufficient, while 58% state that they need extra training and guidance in technology in order to continue to perform in their current occupation.
26% of Belgian respondents say their current professional skills will soon become outdated due to new technology
When asked how their knowledge and professional abilities stack up against current technical and digital progress, 1 in 3 of all respondents (36%) worries that their current skill levels are not good enough. Almost half (49%) stated that they will need to perform tasks in their occupation in the future, for which they are not well trained at the moment.
More than 1 in 4 of the interviewees (26%) flat-out said their currently known skills will soon become outdated because of new technology. 13% are afraid that they will not be able to cope with their occupation in the future, because it will change strongly due to new technology.
Almost 6 in 10 say they need additional training and support to tackle technological improvements in their occupation
Interestingly enough, the current health crisis will most likely have accelerated technological developments and automation processes due to realizing a more ‘contact-free’ economy. Back in the summer of 2020, 57% of Belgian employers said that they would invest in the increase of digital and technical infrastructure in the months to come.
This is one of the probable reasons why more than half of the respondents (58%) of the current study believe that they need additional training in technology in order to be able to continue working in their occupation.
Steven Van Dalem, Training and Development Manager at StepStone, states: “Look for example to the sharply increased use of collaboration software like MS Teams or Slack. Before COVID, a lot of office workers used these platforms only once or twice a week. Now they spend multiple hours on it every day. Just getting by doesn’t cut it anymore. People want to feel comfortable with the software they use. The demand for training has skyrocketed.”
Older employees worry more about their skillset being outdated
Perhaps not unexpectedly, surveyed employees of the ages between 50-65 years old seemed to score higher for being insecure regarding their occupational skills. Thus, these employees seemed to worry more about their current professional knowledge becoming outdated and not up to be on par with the ongoing technological developments. Additionally, blue-collar workers attested to being more insecure as well. There was no difference by gender or sex, which does not alter the fact that other modifiable factors can influence these results.
Being insecure about one’s skillset leads to less work engagement, as well as life and job satisfaction
The consequences of this insecurity regarding professional skills are clear: it has a significant negative impact on work engagement, life as well as job satisfaction for the employee.
More concretely, 27% of respondents – who scored highly for insecurity regarding their skillset – attested to having lower levels of work engagement, compared to only 15% of employees who scored lower on occupational skills insecurity. Results were similar for job satisfaction (23% for those who scored higher on occupational skillset insecurity vs 11% for those who didn’t) and life satisfaction (8% vs 4%).
While there was no direct impact on job performance, a reduction in wellbeing as well as job and life satisfaction could in turn negatively affect performance. Thus, the effect on performance might be indirect through wellbeing and it might that way also impact the organization.
Steven Van Dalem concludes: “It’s in every employer’s best interest to invest into training and development for their staff. Of course, development isn’t free, but that cost is dwarfed by the cost of not investing into your people. The old adagio still holds true: “What happens if we train our people, and they leave?”, asked the first manager. “Well, what happens if we don’t invest in training and they stay?”, replied the second. Having happy, well trained employees always pays for itself.”
Methodology
This study was performed in collaboration with dr. Lara C. Roll and Prof. Dr. Hans De Witte of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of KU Leuven (Research Group Work, Organisational & Personnel Psychology; WOPP-O2L).
The data were collected by means of an online survey in February and March 2021. In total 1131 respondents participated in this study (languages: 56% Dutch, 33% French and 11% English).
The sample consisted out of 47% of the participants being male and 53% female. 49% were between 30 and 49 years old, 45% were between 50 and 65 years of age, and only 6% were below 30. The sample was mainly highly educated (75 % diploma of higher education), with 31% having a non-university degree in higher education, and 44% a university degree. About 44% were upper white-collar workers, middle or higher management staff (e.g., manager, engineer, university lecturer, etc.), 48% were lower to intermediate level white-collar employees (e.g., secretary, computer programmer, schoolteacher, etc.), 6% were skilled blue-collar workers (e.g., electrician, technician, etc.), and 2% were unskilled blue-collar workers (e.g. machine operators, production worker, etc.). 71% worked in the private sector, 20% worked for the government or the public sector, 5% worked for a state-owned enterprise and 4% reported “other”.