The skills your organisation relies upon today are not necessarily the only skills you will need in the future. With new demands on how we work, organisations need employees who are adaptive to changing times. In a fiercely competitive jobs market, you can’t just rely on recruiting individuals with the skills you need. Instead, you have to make sure your current employees can fill gaps that emerge and drive the organisation forward.

Three in five (61%) working age adults don’t feel they are equipped with all the skills they will need to unlock new opportunities over the next five years. City & Guilds Group, 2021.

When thinking about training staff, it is important to recognise the different types that can be offered. Gone are the days of training involving everyone attending, in person, in a single location, at the same time. Organisations that moved to offering continuous learning and development saw retention rates amongst staff increase by 30-50% (Robert Half, 2018).

We advise organisations to create a culture that encourages staff to maximise their opportunities.

  • Supporting progression through line management
    A third of UK employees say their career progression to date has failed to meet their expectations, with four in ten blaming poor line management for stifling their ambitions.

    ‘Having a good relationship with your manager is so important. I’ve had managers who weren’t interested in me and my wellbeing. It is hard being in that situation.’

    The importance of line managers knowing how to emotionally support team members as well as manage KPIs cannot be overstated. Staff who feel emotionally supported and valued are more likely to stay at organisation. Therefore, the relationship with line a manager is crucial.

    We recommended incorporating elements of 360-degree feedback as a part of development for line managers. 360-degree feedback is a process where employees receive confidential and anonymous feedback from the people who work around them, including line managers, peers and in some instances, clients. In particular, we recommend embedding feedback to line managers from their sub-coordinates, as well as a self-evaluation by the employee themselves.
  • Supporting mental health through line management
    Staff are often wary of speaking openly about their mental health, believing it may lead to discrimination and/or harm their career prospects. As an employer you need to take a lead role in creating an environment where staff feel they can safety talk about their mental state. Research by the University of Warwick in 2015 showed that organisations that actively support the wellbeing of staff saw productivity increase by up to 12%.

    On this page, we have included questions used in Wellness Action Plans that line managers at your organisation can use to support a staff member experiencing mental health challenges
  • Supporting line managers
    Line managers play not only a crucial role in the progression of staff internally but are the most important factor in whether an individual wants to quit their job. Having a poor relationship with their line manager is the most common reason an individual leaves an organisation in the United Kingdom.

    It is essential to develop and support line managers at your organisation. While most individuals at your organisation will have experience of being line managed, not every individual who line manages has prior experience of supporting other staff members. For instance, Individuals from operational roles or roles which typically require lone working will likely have received no training around line management and will likely have had a line manager who they saw infrequently. As a result, someone promoted from this background will not have had training around line management and may not have experience of regular line management that they can draw upon.