Addressing the Barriers Blocking Employee Development

Calls for upskilling are not new, but they are becoming more urgent. A majority of CHROs (59%) indicated in the first quarter of 2025 that development is one element of the employee experience their organization struggles with the most, up 16 percentage points from 2024.

Technological advancements and the acceleration of AI adoption are reshaping what organizations need from their people. Lightcast reports that 32% of the skills required for the average job changed between 2021 and 2024. The World Economic Forum projects that 59% of the global workforce will need to upskill by 2030.

Despite growing awareness, however, participation in skill development is limited. In 2024, less than half of U.S. employees (45%) participated in training or education to build new skills for their current job. About one in three employees (32%) who are hoping to move into a new role within the next year strongly agree that they have the skills needed to be exceptional in that role.

There is a compelling business case for improving employee development. Gallup projects, based on meta-analytic findings, that organizations could realize an 18% increase in profit and 14% increase in productivity by doubling the proportion of employees who feel that they have opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Time Is the Biggest Challenge

When asked about top barriers to learning and development, employees, managers and CHROs identify a common obstacle: time away from job responsibilities.

• 89% of CHROs cite time away from responsibilities as the biggest obstacle for their organization
• 37% of leaders and managers see it as their greatest barrier to supporting their employees’ development
• 41% of employees report it as their own top obstacle

There is a need to embed upskilling opportunities into paid working hours. But while time is the most cited barrier, it may not be the most dangerous one.

Employees who face other roadblocks — such as lack of supervisor support, limited learning opportunities or financial constraints — are even more likely to be watching for or actively searching for a new job. Having a supervisor perceived as getting in the way of one’s growth is the strongest predictor of turnover intent.

CHROs recognize the importance of the manager, as about two in five (39%) cite “support from direct managers” as a key obstacle to learning and development within their organization, second only to “time away from job responsibilities.” Managers may become barriers because they lack development themselves. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report finds that less than half of managers worldwide have received management training, but those who have are less likely to be actively disengaged. When managers do not support the development of their people, they risk becoming obstacles instead of enablers — with costly consequences.

The Most Common Trainings Don’t Match the Most Beneficial Skills

When CHROs were asked which skills their organizations need to develop most, majorities identified leadership and management skills and technical and digital skills as most important. Employees view the needs similarly — leadership and technical skills are among the most cited as beneficial for career development, behind only role-specific training.

Yet, the most commonly completed trainings last year were role-specific skills, compliance, and harassment awareness and prevention — trainings that are not as developmental as leadership or technical skills.

This gap presents an opportunity to shift investment toward skills that matter most for long-term success.

Think Beyond Traditional Training

Organizations often focus on traditional in-house training when designing employee upskilling or learning and development. But workers today commonly look outside of these offerings to leverage learning experiences valuable to their current or future role.

Fifty-eight percent of employees report seeking at least one learning and development experience within the past year beyond trainings that their employer formally offered — indicating that many turn elsewhere when internal options fall short.

The most common experiences included:

• external courses on technical skills (18%)
• certification programs (15%)
• professional conferences (14%)
• continuing education (13%)
• engaging with a mentor or coach (13%)

Employers can expand employee development beyond internal training. Several Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award-winning organizations leverage learning outside of formal training programs to help address critical skill gaps and guide employees toward learning. For example, one organization includes a full graduate-degree tuition reimbursement program for future management talent. Another offers an internal, AI-driven talent marketplace that matches employees to open roles, career paths, project opportunities, mentors and personalized learning based on skills data.

Effective upskilling means building a broader ecosystem that connects learning to business outcomes, career mobility and employee purpose.

Conclusion

Strategic talent development remains elusive because organizations have typically not overcome key obstacles, including misaligned incentives, insufficient integration into daily operations, or a lack of shared accountability from leaders, managers and employees.

Yet, there is a business case for getting development right. Companies that innovatively embed development into their HR practices set themselves up to accomplish their long-term performance goals.

Organizations will likely need to expand traditional training frameworks to create a work environment where individuals have abundant learning and growth opportunities that drive business success.