Study examines the untapped potential of workers in the first of a series of studies comprising the refreshed “People at Work 2025” report, built on the ADP Research Global Workforce Survey
Melbourne, Australia, January 15, 2025 – Employers that invest in continued learning and on-the-job development stand to reap bottom-line benefits that go beyond having a well-prepared workforce. According to the first study in ADP Research’s refreshed “People at Work 2025” report series, only a quarter (24%) of the global workforce is confident they have the skills needed to advance to the next job level in the near future, while just 17 percent of workers strongly agree their employers are investing in the skills they need for career advancement.
The situation in Australia is particularly concerning, as only 19 percent of workers believe they possess the skills needed to advance in their careers over the next three years. This figure is slightly lower than the 21 percent average in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Adding to this challenge is the perceived lack of investment from employers in upskilling their staff; only 14 percent of Australians feel that their employers invest in their skill development, which is below the APAC average of 17 percent.
This sentiment is especially pronounced among older Australian workers, with only 6 percent of those over 55 believing their employers are investing in the skills necessary for their career progression.
For employers, the need to prioritise skills development is deeper than building a workforce that keeps pace with today’s dynamic workplace. ADP Research’s analysis found providing employees with the skills of tomorrow is correlated to productivity, retention and reputation.
“Our research shows that a skilled workforce is more loyal to their employers—and more productive. Yet only a small fraction of workers are upskilled within two years of being hired,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “If companies want to benefit from the enormous technological advancement to come, they must start with investing in the skills and career progression of their workers.”
The skills development analysis launches “People at Work 2025,” ADP Research’s annual lens into the world of work that has been given a data refresh in 2025 in addition to being revamped as a series of reports on various workplace topics. The refreshed report is built on workplace data and topics from ADP Research’s Global Workforce Survey which has been conducted since 2015. “People at Work” provides comprehensive worker sentiment on how workers feel and think, as well as what they expect from their employer, with a purpose to empower employers to meet challenges and capitalise on opportunities amid a rapidly changing world of work.
The Untapped Potential of Workers
In the first installment of the “People at Work 2025” report series, the ADP Research team examined the impact of skills development learned through on-the-job training and found most workers think their employers could be doing better when it comes to skills development. The analysis further finds the business opportunity that comes with building out comprehensive training programs that help ensure employees are prepared for tomorrow’s world of work.
“We found that education is not enough to fill the skills gap,” said Mary Hayes, research director of People & Performance at ADP Research. “Only 24 percent of workers are confident that they have the skills needed to advance in the next three years of their careers. The world of work is changing at light speed, and organisations need to do their part to close the skills gap.”
Other key findings include:
- The opportunity to get ahead is important, and not just for workers. When workers globally were asked to provide the top reasons why they would stay with their employer, the opportunity for career advancement is second only to flexibility in scheduling.
- Workers who feel strongly that their employer is providing the training they need are nearly 6 times more likely to recommend their company as a great place to work.
- These same workers are also 3.3 times more likely to describe themselves as highly-productive.
- They’re also twice as likely to say they have no intent to leave their organisation compared to workers who have the skills but lack on-the-job training opportunities.
- Cycle workers, those that do similar repetitive tasks daily, in particular have a dismal view of employer investment, with only 9 percent of men and 7 percent of women expressing satisfaction in their upskilling opportunities.
The refreshed “People at Work 2025” series will dive deep into key topics at a market-by-market level, crucial for the increasingly borderless world of work. Digging into some of the market-by-market findings from the skills development launch story, ADP Research’s analysis reveals:
- Workers in the Middle East & Africa were most likely to believe they have the skills needed to advance their career to the next job level in the next three years (38%), followed by Latin America (32%), North America (22%), Asia-Pacific (21%), and Europe (17%).
- Workers in the Middle East & Africa were also the most likely to say their employer invests in the skills needed to advance their career in the future (28%), followed by North America (18%), Latin America and Asia-Pacific (17%), and Europe (12%).
- By markets, workers in Nigeria were the most likely to believe they have the skills needed to advance their career to the next job level in the next three years (45%), followed by Egypt (44%), South Africa (42%), India and Brazil (37%), Saudia Arabia (36%), Chile (32%), Argentina (30%), and Peru (30%).
- By markets, workers in Egypt were the most likely to say their employer invests in the skills needed to advance their career in the future (35%), followed by India (32%), South Africa (29%), Saudi Arabia (28%), Nigeria (27%), Brazil and Thailand (24%), Vietnam and Singapore (23%), and Philippines (21%).
“People at Work 2025” Report Series Methodology
For the first time, “People at Work” is built on the ADP Research Global Workforce Survey, a robust study conducted annually since 2015. The survey was designed by ADP Research’s team of analysts by obtaining information about the labor market from the perspective of workers themselves, with the goal of providing insights that can improve the world of work by better understanding worker sentiment and expectations.
Based on survey data from nearly 38,000 working adults in 34 markets across six continents, “People at Work 2025” features a more robust, representative sample of the global workforce to provide regional and market-to-market comparisons of worker sentiment in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and North America.
Respondents come from a wide variety of industries, educational backgrounds, on-site and remote work environments and skill sets. They represent a range of management and individual contributor roles, working for employers of all sizes.
A unique attribute of the “People at Work 2025” report series is its measurement of worker sentiment in granular detail across worker types using a proprietary methodology developed by ADP Research. In addition to demographic and employer characteristics, survey respondents are classified by the type of work they do – knowledge, skilled task, or cyclical – regardless of industry.
“People at Work’s” ability to gather sentiment along these different worker and geographical dimensions provides employers with a fine-tuned and granular view of the global workforce that they can leverage to better understand their workforces and drive growth through data-driven talent decisions.
“The future of work will be increasingly global and dynamic in its priorities,” said Richardson. “The new People at Work series format enables a more focused analysis of the data by topic and region, better ensuring worldwide business leaders with varying needs are provided with the same level of actionable research on a wide range of subjects impacting their employees.”
Each report will pair global trends with market-by-market insights on workplace topics ranging from artificial intelligence and inflation’s impact on having multiple jobs, to wage trends and career development.
Stay Up-to-Date on the “People at Work 2025” Report Series
Publishing throughout early 2025, the revamped “People at Work 2025” report series can help companies stay on the right track for today’s workplace, while prepare them to capitalise on the opportunities that will come with the future of work.
To stay current on the latest studies in the “People at Work 2025” report series, visit here.
About ADP Research
The mission of ADP Research is to make the future of work more productive through data-driven discovery. Companies, workers, and policymakers rely on our finely tuned data and unique perspective to make informed decisions that impact workplaces around the world.
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