With new technologies come new ways of doing business – and new skill sets. Should you hire new talent or train existing teams? SAS worked with HR Dive and Coursera on surveys that explore how managers are approaching upskilling, reskilling and cross-skilling – and what employees say they need – to build tech skills in 2021.

With all the workforce changes last year, it is not surprising that employees lack the skills to meet new demands. Many short-term development plans are becoming irrelevant. In fact, almost nine out of 10 managers surveyed said their employee development plans needed to change to reflect the skills gaps that organizations face today. Here’s what they found:

• 88% of managers said they believed their employee development plans needed to change in 2021.
• 50% of managers said employees needed more upskilling, reskilling and cross-skilling, and 41% said they themselves needed those same opportunities.
• 32% of managers said that when considering the types of skills employees should focus on increasing, employees needed more technical skills and soft skills, and 20% of managers said that they themselves could use more technical skills.

Despite these challenges, managers and employees agree on many things when it comes to building new skills, including what to learn and how to learn it. In fact, both survey groups ranked technical skills, including data science, AI, machine learning, programming and advanced analytics, as most important.

To be ready for today’s challenges, companies need sound methods to assess what skills their employees have, the ability to identify the gaps, and a plan to upskill them for success. They also need to offer ongoing learning and skills development opportunities to recruit new, top-performing employees. Do you feel ready? You can read the survey results here, along with predicted learning and development trends, and insights for upskilling, cross-skilling and reskilling your workforce.