The majority of employees, irrespective of their age, are very much willing to learn new skills whenever they can during the working day, reveals a report by digital learning platform for working professionals Go1.

According to the findings of the report, over 70% of employees across all age groups are happy to learn new skills. The most keen to upskill were employees aged 25 to 34 (82%), after which the proportion of employees happy to learn declined slightly with age group.

Similarly, the report also found that the younger the employee, the happier they are to learn on the go, such as while commuting to work. For example, 65% of employees between 16 and 24 years old said they are happy to learn on the go, but this dropped to 61% of employees aged 24 to 34, 56% of employees aged 35 to 44, 43% of employees aged 45 to 54, and 36% of employees aged 55 and older.

To further boost retention rates, employees are in favour of holding regular 1-on-1 sessions with each team member to review development. Increased investment on training and developing employees' soft skills, providing more time and budget for each employee to learn, providing a greater choice of learning courses and formats and more clarity on training needed to address skills gaps are among other suggestions that need to be incorporated for better employee retention.

The report also points out that training existing staff has been overlooked in favour of recruitment as employers seem to be too reliant on recruitment to fill the skills gap in their workforce. This is significant as the findings also show that eagerness to learn and get trained is a contributing factor  to employees deciding to switch employers. The report indicates that around 60% of workers aged between 16 and 24 left a previous job because of limited growth opportunities.

Chris Eigeland, CRO and Co-founder of Go1 said that on-the-job training is one of the most important aspects of any employment. He suggested employers start training their current staff to help empower them, and added that employers should take active responsibility in ensuring they retain staff as employees are the biggest asset of any company, and investing in talent is essential to business growth and success.