Nearly three quarters of businesses (72%) say workers should gain more skills in order to compete in the marketplace.

Around half of the respondents, disagree, however believing that skills levels are sufficient for current needs.

According to research by Manpower of around 3,200 UK employers, this difference of perception affects both performance assessment and the emphasis upon flexible working hours.

Research by the Recruitment Confidence Index and the CBI confirms the view that companies believe the marketplace is suffering a skills shortage. The skills gap is increasingly driving the trend for flexible working. As many as 84% of organisations believe it will help to retain skilled workers. In ten years time, 70% of employers plan to offer such programmes.

Whilst two thirds of employers (68%) state that staff performance will increasingly be assessed by productivity and output, just over a fifth (22%) of staff consider this likely.

These differences of opinion extend into the debate about retirement age. Over half (52%) of employers want to retain workers past the age of 65 to plug the skills gap, while more than eight out of ten (81%) of staff plan to leave their jobs at 65.

In response to this research, Mark Cahill, Managing Director of Manpower UK, commented: “Being ahead of the game and understanding how workers want to work will be how the most desirable employers will set themselves apart in the future. It will be those companies that attract and retain the strongest skills and best quality people.”