Only half of employers provide adequate digital training: report

Employees are training themselves to learn more about AI.

Amidst the push for employers to invest and adapt new technologies, only 51% of firms in Singapore are providing adequate digital training to their employees to take advantage of these technologies and increase productivity, according to Randstad’s Workmonitor Q4 2018 report.

“Employees and job seekers in Singapore are aware that they need to upskill to take advantage of these opportunities that come with technological advancements and new innovations,” Randstad highlighted, further citing that 72% of the respondents believed that their employers should provide them with the right training to acquire these skills and increase productivity.

The report which surveyed 400 employees and job seekers in Singapore found that over half or 58% of the respondents revealed that their employers were investing in new technologies within the artificial intelligence (AI) field such as machine learning, robotics and automation. A majority (81%) of the respondents were aware they would need to acquire new skills to stay relevant in a digitally-led environment, with 89% willing to personally acquire such skills to guarantee their employability.

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According to the Singapore Business Federation’s (SBF) latest national business survey which polled more than 700 firms, companies are not investing enough into employee training, with only 15% having done so in 2018. Unsurprisingly, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were less inclined to invest into training on the back of the high cost of investment, and possibly lower profit expectations amongst SME business owners.

SBF’s survey also noted that 29% of firms in Singapore were worried about retraining their employees in digital capabilities.

That being said, 80% of Singapore’s workforce are optimistic that digital technology will present them with new opportunities as country amps up its efforts to become a smart nation. More than seven in ten (74%) agreed that such emerging technologies will have a positive impact on their job in the next five to 10 years.

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Nevertheless, job satisfaction in Q4 increased two points to 60%, although the percentage of respondents who were actively looking for a job inched up from 9.4% to 9.6%.

“Approximately 22% of the respondents said that they had changed job in the last six months, a decrease from 28% in Q3,” Randstad noted. “This decrease is expected in Q4 as employees tend to stay on to receive their annual bonus.”