Company training and employee skills development are among the most debated topics in today’s labor market for a very simple reason: their ability to contribute to the competitiveness of companies, of the workers themselves and consequently of the country’s economic fabric. These are the themes that emerge from the white paper “Training to grow – Training scenarios between people’s well-being and resource development”, presented by Mylia, a company of The Adecco Group that deals with training and development for individuals and companies.
The research has shown that, despite corporate training being a strategic lever of transformation, resilience and development for companies, in Italy only 38.3% of companies invest in training activities. A figure influenced by the large number of small businesses present on the national territory: among micro companies with less than 10 employees, the figure drops to 18.4%; on the contrary, by analyzing the medium-large-sized companies (those with over 250 employees) we arrive at 80.8%.
Analyzing the business sectors, the one in which companies are more inclined to offer training is finance, with 64.6% of the realities that have foreseen up-skilling paths. The opposite situation for the realities that operate in the catering and hotel industry, sectors in which the realities that offer training courses do not exceed 25%.
To make the situation worse is the fact that Italy is positioned well below the European average for the percentage of workers involved in training projects, with a rate of 11.7% against 14.3% in Europe. France and Spain are respectively at 14.5% and 18.3%. The first place in this special ranking is occupied by Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands, with 36% of workers involved. The issue of training, however, cannot be underestimated. The US institute Gallup, in fact, has calculated that investment in training and improvement of company economic-financial indicators are two directly proportional values: on a global level, the development of the strengths and skills of workers produces an average increase in profits of the 14-29%, a 10-19% increase in sales and a 72% reduction in turnover. It also has the effect of increasing employee engagement by 9-15%. Not only that, skills also determine a large part of salary and career progress. It is no coincidence that the World Economic Forum considers the presence of lifelong learning opportunities, of which the transmission of skills in companies is a decisive part, one of the pillars of social mobility.
“In recent years – says Roberto Pancaldi, managing director of Mylia – we have witnessed a paradigm shift, as the updating of skills is not just a concern of the company, but a thought in the head of every single professional, who has need to make themselves spendable in the labor market and increase their employability. Training becomes a strategic asset also because training activities are functional to the possibility of recognizing employees a more relevant role in the company, which in addition to making them more productive increases the average retention rate “.