Why upskilling tech employees is better than hiring externally

The rising cost of hiring and increased job complexity means it's more important than ever to retain skilled staff in 2026.

By Adam Ipsen

Dec 3, 2025 • 4 Minute Read

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In 2026, hiring for IT talent is now the last resort, not the first one. Nearly nine in ten organizations (89%) now say hiring is more expensive than upskilling for IT roles, according to Pluralsight’s latest Tech Skills Report. That’s up from nearly half (49%) the year before, a sizable jump.

Why the sudden jump? There’s more than one reason, all adding up to make hiring for IT roles an increasingly unappealing option for key decision makers.

1. Hirings costs went up in 2025, while upskilling costs dropped

Hiring has always been more costly than keeping staff, especially in IT. However, in countries like the US, the number of US companies paying $5k or more per hire has jumped by 75% year-on-year (49% to 86%). Meanwhile, nearly three in four companies (73%) paid less than that figure to upskill their IT staff.

Average cost of upskilling vs hiring by region

2. Hiring new staff nearly always takes longer than upskilling existing employees

Hiring has never been a quick process, especially with IT roles; on average, it takes ten days longer to hire for an IT role than other roles. But the vast majority of companies—nearly nine in ten—said it took longer to hire than upskill in 2025, a 81% jump on the year before.

Tech leaders should look within: identify colleagues who have tenacity and drive, who have an interest in technology, and invest in them. Train them, and give them time within work to train.

Mike McQuillan

Pluralsight Author, Head of IT at Halls, and Data and Software Development Specialist

3. Rising job complexity makes it easier to train business-relevant skills

Tech professionals are being expected to have a wider range of skills to solve business challenges and successfully deliver on projects, according to Pluralsight’s latest Tech Forecast:

Software engineers were once expected to be experts in programming and knowledgeable in cloud computing. Now, they need to know how to securely use, implement, and verify the work of AI systems.

Cybersecurity specialists suddenly need to have enough knowledge to mitigate AI’s novel risks and new attack surfaces while defending against increasingly automated and AI-personalized attacks.

Data scientists are shifting to think like systems engineers and work with temporal data to build production-ready AI systems.

Cloud computing professionals who can build, deploy, and secure AI systems within cloud environments are suddenly in demand—a task requiring diverse skills.

With this rising list of requirements, the number of candidates who fit the bill shrinks. Instead, it makes more sense to upskill existing staff who are a proven culture fit to fill any gaps, and focus on retaining them.

Identify the superstars in your own team, think about who already has an interest or talent for the skills that you need in your org over the next 3 – 5 years. Help your people to recognize their own talents and encourage them to develop the skills you need. Give them access to the tools they need to succeed, the training, and the time to learn.

Faye Ellis

AWS Community Hero, Pluralsight Principal Training Architect – AWS, and Cloud Expert

4. Finding and nurturing internal talent is easier and builds loyalty

Compared to other professions, tech professionals are hired internally at more than double the global average. There’s a long-standing precedent for this; it’s easier to poach staff who have successfully demonstrated their soft skills from traditionally entry-level roles (like IT help desks) or from tech-adjacent professions (like information and project management or UX design).

There’s a long-standing link between increased career mobility and job satisfaction, which means offering these opportunities increases the likelihood these hires will stick around, reducing costly staff turnover. Likewise, offering upskilling opportunities also positively impacts job satisfaction.

Conclusion: Make growing your talent a priority in 2026

With growing role requirements and inevitable staff attrition, tech leaders, HR, and L&D teams should coordinate to source and nurture IT talent internally, creating a culture of continuous upskilling. Meanwhile, external hiring should be considered only after putting out the call for internal candidates, looking seriously at staff outside of traditional tech roles and considering if they could be upskilled into a potential fit.

To learn more about trends like this one that may affect your organization in the year ahead, read Pluralsight’s 2026 Tech Forecast, a report based on predictions from 1,500+ tech insiders, business leaders, and Pluralsight Authors.