Talent and Skills - The Vital Ingredient

Talent and Skills – The Vital Ingredient

More than seven out of ten scaleups say that access to talent is vital, or very important, to the continued scaling of their business. When force-ranked, access to talent remains the biggest challenge faced by scaleups.

Scaleups employ a mix of graduates (62%), post-graduates (46%), PhDs (19%) and school leavers (30%). Half of them offer work experience and one-third of them offer internships or apprenticeships.

Among those who do not currently offer apprenticeships, a lack of resources (53%), suitable work (48%), or knowledge on where to find suitable candidates (43%) are the biggest barriers. Those who do not currently offer work experience identified very similar barriers.

Critical thinking and service orientation are the most important future skills. 79% of scaleup leaders rank critical thinking as one of the top three skills, indicating that they are looking for employees that can objectively analyse a situation and make a decision. 61% of employers rank service orientation as one of the top three future skills, indicating that they want employees who can anticipate, recognise and meet the needs of others. Scaleup leaders also seek cognitive flexibility (50%) and emotional intelligence (49%).

Scaleups attract international talent, with 57% employing staff from the EU and 32% employing staff from outside the EU. More than half (54%) those currently employing staff from the EU say it is vital or very important for them to continue to be able to do so; just under half (46%) of those employing staff from outside the EU say the same.

Page URL: https://www.scaleupinstitute.org.uk/articles/talent-and-skills-the-vital-ingredient/

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