The road to nowhere

The road to nowhere

Employees” belief in career progression plummets. Employers need to focus more on “upskilling”, according to ORC International”s annual Putting it in Perspective report.

The number of employees who believe they have enough opportunity to develop their careers with their current employer is at an all-time low. According to employee research specialists, ORC International, fewer than half of all employees in 2011 felt they were getting a real opportunity to improve their skills in their organisation – a drop of 10 percent on the previous year. In addition, only 42 percent said they were satisfied with the opportunities to get a better job within their organisation.

The figures are published in ORC International”s annual Putting it in Perspective Report, which compares trends and sector differences in employee engagement over the past 11 years. The report is based on data from more than 350 organisations, making it one of the largest employee survey databases in the UK. Kate Pritchard, Director of Employee Research at ORC International, says: “Upskilling is crucial to an organisation”s success: not only do employers need to develop their people to drive the business forward, providing development opportunities is key to employees” engagement. If you do not provide this, you risk employees simply “cruising” in their current jobs or – even worse – actively disengaging, leaving your business to simply stagnate.” The problem is more widespread among public sector employees, where only 40 percent say they are happy with the opportunities for skill development provided by their organisation, compared to 50 percent in the private sector.

Read more

Latest News

Read More

What does “a different kind of leader” really mean?

30 June 2025

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

You will lead HR Business Partnering, OD, and Learning & Development, and also oversee HR related managed services. You may already be an HR Director

HR Project Manager Job Title: HRProject Manager Location:North London Sector: Education ContractType: Permanent About the Role We havepartnered with an Educational establishment who are looking

University of Greenwich – Deputy Director of PeopleSalary: Competitive

HR Analytics and Reporting: Utilise HR metrics and analytics to inform decision-making and report on HR performance. Purpose of the Role The Human Resources Director

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE