Half of the companies cut their training programs due to the pandemic

“The most precious asset is the staff, but the first budget we cut in a crisis is that of training”Said Isael Paz-Zimbeck, director of Business Solutions for Degreed. The shortage of training and talent development programs is a problem that not only affects workers, it can also put the continuity of companies at risk.

In the world, there are multiple examples of companies that have not managed to evolve because they do not have the talent with the necessary skills to face the challenges, or there are organizations that are clear about their goals, but are unaware and lack the skills to achieve the objectives, the executive explained during the meeting What you need to know about the State of skills in 2021 of the International Congress of Human Resources of the Mexican Association in Human Resources Management (Amedirh).

Despite the importance of the development of talent for growth and, in contexts such as the current one, the survival of the business, the budgets for training they are the first to be reduced. According to data provided by Degreed, 46% of the global workforce expresses that their employer reduced development opportunities during the pandemic, in Mexico that proportion increased to 56 percent.

“If we want to make a change and we are not equipping people to do it, we are really limiting ourselves to face a problem that will not be easy to solve in the short and medium term,” said the executive.

The scarcity of training programs Not only does it affect workers and puts their professional future at risk in an increasingly dynamic and digitized market, the lack of commitment to talent development can also affect business results and, therefore, its continuity.

According to the report, 41% of people affirm that their productivity decreases when they lack the appropriate skills, 22% say that the quality of their work is not good and another 46% say that it is likely that they will change jobs due to lack of training opportunities. In other words, the scarcity of development programs reduces the recovery of businesses.

“If we want to be extreme, people stop being employable and companies stop achieving their goals, they stop being profitable, and the communities in which companies operate and people live start to have problems because there is not much tax on expenses either. infrastructure. The negative effect of suffering or having a handicap on skills is quite shocking, ”said the specialist.

The need for training

The report The State of Skills 2021 Degreed identified that six out of 10 people in the world acknowledge that the pandemic accelerated the need for develop new skills, the proportion decreases slightly to 56% in Mexico, even so, our country is the third economy with the highest number among the eight that make up the study.

In this sense, 46% of people believe that their basic job skills will become obsolete within five years and 36% perceive that this expiration date will arrive in three years.

“Many skills are going to stop being useful in the next year. Let’s think about what happened with TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat, now there are professional roles, there are people who dedicate themselves to being an influencer. Five years ago nobody knew that there would be adequate technology to offer these functions to the public and today there is Professional careers or microentrepreneurs who only dedicate themselves to that, developed skills immediately, “said the specialist.

But the development of skills not only implies a workforce more prepared to face changes, it also translates into collaborators with greater well-being. 55% of people say that the lack of skills it makes their work more stressful and another 38% report that this has a negative impact on their mental health.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that investment in the development of our people will return growth and an investment in the development of our organization and in the communities where we are operating,” Isael Paz-Zimbeck pointed out.

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