Getting the right people with the right skills
16 January 2019
A new Acas poll has revealed that over half of workers (53%) believe that getting the right people with the right skills will be the biggest issue faced by their workplace in the year ahead. The other two top issues identified were technological change (36%) and productivity (36%).
15% of respondents to the research said that they didn’t think there will be any issues faced by their current workplace in the next year (15%).
Acas commissioned YouGov to find out what UK employees identified as the most important workplace issues in the year ahead. The poll took place between 13 and 21 December 2018 and surveyed 2035 employees below senior manager level. Participants were asked to pick the three biggest issues faced by their current workplace in 2019. The full results were:
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Getting the right people with the right skills (53%)
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Productivity (36%)
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Technological change (36%)
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Fit and healthy staff (18%)
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Equality and fairness (17%)
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Other (16%)
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Not applicable - I don't think there will be any issues faced by my current workplace in the next year (15%)
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Don't Know (6%)
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Tackling sexual harassment (3%)
Acas chief exec, Susan Clews, said:
"Employees feel that getting workers with the right skills is a key concern in the year ahead. This could be attributed to uncertainty around our relationship with the EU at the moment or general concerns around skills shortages…”
Acas has done a lot of work on the UK's productivity puzzle with advice and a diagnostic tool for organisations. For more information visit Building Productivity in the UK.
Acas also published research in 2017 which revealed how technological advances at work can have wide-ranging and often overlooked implications for employment relations and health and wellbeing: Mind Over Machines: New technology and employment relations.