TalentLMS Report Finds Organizations Lag in Speed-to-Skill

Organizations are struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of new skills according to TalentLMS’s new Speed-to-Skill report. The data come from a survey of 1,500 U.S. respondents including 964 managers and 536 employees.

Report Highlights Speed-to-Skill Pressures

Seven in 10 employees say they need faster ways to practice skills to keep up with the pace of work. Forty-four percent of respondents say work keeps cutting into their time to learn. More than half of respondents at 53 percent are taking skills development into their own hands. Managers and employees both report that some of their job skills have become outdated within the last five years.

According to Chief Learning Officer, almost half of respondents to LinkedIn’s annual survey view the ongoing skills gap as a crisis. The Josh Bersin Company’s 2025 report advocates a strategy called dynamic skilling in which workforce skills development is continually realigned to evolve with business needs.

Manager and Employee Responses

Managers are struggling with uncertainty about which skills their teams will need even in the next 12 months. Three in four managers want their employees to be able to practice skills faster. A massive driver of this shift is the rise of artificial intelligence and its fundamental impact on how work is evolving.

Employees are learning on the job rather than depending on traditional learning programs. Formal learning still plays a role with 33 percent of respondents using resources in their company’s learning platform, but learning by doing remains the most popular approach.

Organizational Adjustments Cited

According to Chief Learning Officer, senior and learning and development leaders can create protected time for learning when work consistently crowds out development. Leaders can model the behavior by blocking time on their own calendars. Organizations can shift from courses to continuous learning by building skill development into the flow of work. Front-line employees often know first when skills are becoming outdated, and building feedback loops brings these issues to light.

According to Chief Learning Officer, the speed-to-skill gap is unlikely to close on its own.