Originally published in Financial Express

About 70 percent of employees feel there is a gap between the skills they have and the skills they actually need to best perform their job, according to a study by job site SCIKEY Market Network.

The survey further revealed that 70 percent professionals interviewed feel that their organisation is either already facing this issue of skill shortage or is expected to encounter this as a major challenge in the next 2-3 years.

Only 10 percent of the respondents felt that the knowledge they acquired in their educational institutions has proved to be useful in what they do today, the study noted.

The study is based on an online survey with over 2,500 respondents from across industries including IT/IT services, finance, FMCG, and others.

According to the study, 35 percent employees felt that the skill shortage can lead to loss of revenue for businesses, while 45 percent also said it leads to poor quality of work.

Employee growth and productivity has a direct correlation to organisational growth and productivity, it said.

Moreover, it found that 70 percent of the respondents felt that this can severely hamper the productivity of the business and 40 percent feel it can stagnate the business expansion.

With the transition to the virtual mode of working, 60 percent respondents said there is an urgent need to address this issue in the field of IT and 33 percent for Data Analytics, it stated.

The survey also revealed that sectors such as Data Analytics, Web Design and IT are currently facing or are likely to face skill shortage in the future, which contributed to 60 percent, 38 percent, 33 percent, respectively.

Sectors such as Research and Development, Customer Service, Talent Management and Recruitment and Finance also recognised expected shortage of skills in the near future at 28 percent, 20 percent, 29 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

The survey revealed that the respondents felt that the skill gap resulted in major loss of productivity (70 percent) followed by higher rate of staff turnover (33 percent), lower morale (40 percent), inferior work quality (45 percent), inability to expand business (40 percent) and loss of revenue (35 percent).

Addressing the situation is paramount for organisations and the survey highlighted that companies are taking several steps to curb this situation, including in-house training academy (45 percent), frequent workshops and sessions to impart skills (53 percent) and providing resource library to provide employees with relevant material (23 percent) and many simply rely on employees self-learning (20 percent).

The increased skill gap that plagued the job market has left a huge impact and brought in challenges for employers and employees both. This is a stumbling block that makes it difficult for organisations to run flawlessly and for the talent to grow. Employees are largely responsible for putting the company’s broader goals and values into action. Hence, it is crucial to address this glaring issue on priority, SCIKEY Market Network co-founder and CEO Karunjit Kumar Dhir added.