Employees want to learn on the job. Sometimes, it's for altruistic reasons, like improving the well-being of the organization. Sometimes, it's for personal ones, like learning a new skill that will improve their job prospects internally or externally. Either way, organizations benefit by supporting professional development. However, lately, workers have been skeptical about leaders’ capacity or interest in providing it.
That predicament is especially acute when it comes to generative artificial intelligence (AI), which organizations are rapidly embracing without being clear with their people about its implications. A business.com survey of small-business employees released last month found that while 42 percent of companies are using AI technology, only about half of the ones who do so are training their staffs on it. "Artificial intelligence implementation is too fast for many of the employees we surveyed," the report noted. "Only 37 percent of all [small and medium-sized business] employees express confidence in their AI skills, and 54 percent believe they need more training in the technology."
This lack of training doesn't just erode the potential efficiencies gained from using AI; it erodes employees' willingness to stick around. A 2023 report from TalentLMS and Vyond found that 41 percent of employees say they’ll leave their employers in the next year if they don’t provide training. Another recent report from Skillsoft found some similar issues around training and employee confidence, suggesting that organizations haven’t stepped up. As a Gartner analyst told em>CIOmagazine in a recent story on the research, "organizations that take a holistic, longer-term, strategic approach to workforce planning and talent development can better prepare their workforce to stay current with their skills and competencies to meeting changing business needs."
Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.