Resolving The Great Resignation: Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard discusses tech skills development on Sky News

In 2021, more workers than ever before left their jobs, seeking greener pastures at other organizations. The Great Resignation continues to drive turnover, internal mobility and the emphasis that companies must find ways to retain talent at all levels. It’s safe to say that in 2022, this trend is continuing given that, according to the soon to be released Pluralsight State of Upskilling report, more than 50% of technologists think about leaving their jobs at least once a month. 

As technology continues to increase in complexity, demand increases for skill sets that simply did not exist ten years or even ten months ago. There is an ever increasing tech skills gap across all industries and, because of The Great Resignation and a shortage of available talent, companies have come to understand that success needs to come from within. Providing upskilling opportunities and tools to your employees isn’t a benefit that’s nice to have, it’s a necessity. In order to hit goals and increase productivity, organizations need to become creators of talent, not just consumers of talent. 

Barriers to upskilling

Providing not just upskilling tools but also upskilling time is essential to the employee value proposition. When you improve the overall experience of your employees, you also improve their interest in staying with your organization. As you’ll see in the State of Upskilling report, reasons why technologists aren’t upskilling vary but they all center around lack of support from their employers. 

Lack of time, tight budgets and unawareness of what’s available all lead to people not learning the skills they need to grow as an individual and help your organization hit goals. 

The cost of hiring vs. upskilling

Another factor that technologists report is that their employers tend to focus on hiring to solve for these skills gaps which is problematic for several reasons. First, as mentioned above, there isn’t enough available talent to both solve for attrition and the new skills needed to succeed. Additionally, as we shared in our 2022 Tech Forecast report, it costs roughly 250% of a technologists salary to hire and onboard new employees. Comparatively, it costs around $1200 (US) to upskill existing employees.

So what is the solution to this ongoing problem? Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard recently appeared on the Ian King Live program on Sky News to discuss how Pluralsight is helping major companies across the globe, including BT and Deutsche Bank, to combat The Great Resignation by investing in their skills development.