Reports of there being a disconnect between bosses and staff have been making the rounds in the corporate landscape, but looks like this disconnect is especially inherent when it comes to training employees.

The 2015 Emerging Workforce Study (EWS) commissioned by Spherion Staffing found that among the 225 employers polled, 77% of them have put more training and career development opportunities in place.

In addition, only 24% found the cost of training staff for the future extremely/very challenging.

Employees, however, clearly don’t feel the same.

31% of staff in the study felt that they have not been adequately trained by their employer and only 33% felt that the development opportunities they are provided with are excellent/good.

As such, 35% of them stated they worry about falling behind when acquiring new skills for the future and 29% feel that their current skill sets are outdated, leaving them at risk when it comes to career development.

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“Workers and employers must take joint responsibility for closing the skills gap,” said Spherion Division president, Sandy Mazur.

“Workers should understand where businesses are headed and what skills they’ll need to help close the gap, while employers should examine their workers’ skill levels to focus on training that will be helpful and useful for them.”

The study also shed light on some of these most useful skills that staff need to succeed in the workplace today.

It found that employees consider problem-solving skills (51%), strategic thinking skills (31%) and evolving technology expertise (30%) are essential skills to have for the workforce.

A similar disconnect was, however, also observed in this area of the study.

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While 47% and 34% of employers agreed with their staff on the importance of the first two skills respectively, they also cited team-building skills, the ability to understand and interpret data and evolving technology expertise as equally important skills that should be required in a job (all at 25%).

The survey stressed that such gaps need to be closed, especially because 62% of employers worry about a talent shortage today, as compared to last year.

Almost half (48% )see finding qualified/skilled workers as a top HR concern in the years to come.

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