UK leads the way in access to personal development

The global Bridge the Skills Gap research with 24,235 employee respondents from the UK, Europe, Latin America and Australia found that only 29% believe an organisation doesn’t invest equally in personal development opportunities. In the UK, this number drops even lower, with only one-fifth of employees (20%) thinking so.

In comparison, employees in Portugal (41%), Poland (38%) and Austria (31%) believe they don’t have access to equal personal development opportunities, ranking them as the most biased countries when it comes to L&D. 

Tim Segers, UK director of GoodHabitz, said, “Diversity and inclusion continue to play an important role for employees, which we now see translates into how they experience personal development opportunities at work. With the UK being home to many international headquarters that lead in HR strategies, not least providing equal development opportunities, it’s encouraging to see that personal development is increasingly available to more employees.”

Nevertheless, personal development still remains biased and may be influenced by certain factors. For example, 36% of UK employees believe personal development is unequal based on their status and level in the company, whilst 28% think it’s influenced by team and department. The numbers drop even lower when judging access to L&D based on length of employment (17%), age (15%), gender (9%) and race (7%).

Segers explained: “In some ways, personal development remains biased, dictated by levels of seniority or time spent at the company, and this is something that organisations need to address as soon as possible. The lack of communication or provision of development can result in an employee thinking that their organisation does not care about their growth path, creating a negative employee experience. Organisations need to adopt a human-centric leadership approach which means putting employees in the spotlight, listening to their needs and acting on these tactically.

“People are the engine that drive companies forward – organisations must let them be the directors of their own learning path and offer them a solution that gives them a chance to learn when, what and how they want.”

Edmund Monk, CEO of Learning and Performance Institute, added: “A lack of personal development opportunities is one of the leading reasons for employees to leave their current job. The GoodHabitz research has now confirmed this even more, with 84% of the global workforce stating that they would leave within a year if they did not have adequate personal development opportunities. It is, therefore, crucial for organisations to invest in the upskilling of their existing talent instead of focusing on attracting new talent.

“However, organisations should invest in the skills that their employees are intrinsically motivated to learn, as it is equally essential to provide access to the skills that they believe are important for their work. Because, by understanding how to identify and address performance gaps within an organisation, it’s possible to help an organisation to achieve its goals and drive business results.”