Employee development is no longer a nice-to-have. For many employees, the opportunity to grow personally and professionally is a core part of what makes a workplace attractive.
Still, development does not always reach the people who need it. Some employees experience clear opportunities for growth, while others feel left behind or unsure whether they can keep up with future skill demands.
This chapter gives you a data-based view of how Nordic employees experience training, development, and skills readiness today. It helps you understand where organizations are succeeding, where the gaps are, and how development efforts can become more inclusive, targeted, and connected to everyday work.
Where Development Efforts Fall Short Today
The report highlights a clear gap between what employees expect and what many organizations currently deliver.
Employees want opportunities to grow, but access to development is not experienced equally across age groups. Employees over 40 are significantly less likely to see good opportunities for advancement compared to younger employees. This creates a risk that valuable experience is overlooked, and that development becomes too narrowly focused on early career employees.
At the same time, skill needs are changing fast. More than half of employees have had to learn new skills to keep up in their roles, and many are concerned about whether they can meet future demands.
For HR and leaders, this points to a clear task: make development more visible, more inclusive, and more directly connected to the capabilities the organization will need in the future.
