Soft Skills Development Statistics: Demand, Training & Outcomes

of employers identify skills gaps as the biggest barrier to business transformation.

of employers plan to prioritize workforce upskilling between 2025 and 2030.

of employers expect to hire workers with new skills by 2030.

of employers expect to move staff from declining roles into growing roles by 2030.

of employers rate communication as an essential career-readiness competency for new college graduates.

of employers rate teamwork as an essential career-readiness competency for new college graduates.

of employers expect analytical thinking to remain a core skill through 2030.

of leaders identify managing others as one of their greatest leadership weaknesses.

of leaders say they are at high risk of burnout, highlighting a widespread self-management and resilience gap.

of the variance in employee engagement is attributable to the manager, exposing the scale of the people-management capability gap.

of employees say they would need new skills to successfully do their jobs in the next three years.

of employees say they have had no formal workplace training or development in the past year.

of employees say they have never received workplace training or development in the past year, limiting opportunities for performance improvement and advancement.

of employees say they do not have the skills needed to advance in their careers.

$1,280 was spent per employee on training and development in 2023 by organizations surveyed by the Association for Talent Development.

47.6 hours of formal learning were provided per employee in 2023 by organizations surveyed by the Association for Talent Development.

of organizations increased or maintained their learning-and-development budgets in 2024.

of learning-and-development professionals say their organization has a skills-based talent strategy in place.

of organizations say developing people leaders is important or very important to their future success.

of organizations say they are increasing investment in leadership development.

of organizations say they are increasing investment in coaching and mentoring.

of organizations say they are increasing investment in collaboration and teamwork development.

of employees strongly agree that they have had opportunities at work to learn and grow in the past year.

of organizations use coaching or mentoring to reinforce workplace learning after formal training.

of organizations use manager check-ins or performance conversations to reinforce learning after training.

of organizations use peer learning or communities of practice to reinforce interpersonal-skills development.

of organizations measure whether learning is transferred to workplace behavior rather than only tracking course completion.

of organizations measure the business impact of learning and development programs.

of organizations evaluate training at the learner-reaction level rather than measuring changes in workplace behavior.

of employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.

of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week, compared with 18% of actively disengaged employees.

of employees who receive strengths-focused feedback are fully engaged at work.

of employees say recognition makes them more likely to do better work, linking interpersonal management practices with performance.

of employees say they would be more likely to stay at their organization if it offered better learning and development opportunities.

4 times as many employees at organizations with strong internal mobility report high career satisfaction compared with employees at organizations with weak internal mobility.

of employees say they have stayed in a job because of opportunities to learn and grow.