Scott Blumsack, Monster SVP of Research and Insights, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss Monster’s latest polling data regarding workers concerns on their hard and soft skills and looking to employers for training.

Video Transcript

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- According to a recent Monster survey, 86% of workers feel their professional growth has stalled due to the pandemic. Well, Monster is out with a new poll focusing on workers thoughts about skills training. And here to talk about is Scott Blumsack, Monster SVP of research and insights. Scott, it's good to see you again. So I was looking over this latest survey, looks like more than half of workers, 56%, concerned about the future of their work due to a skills gap. Talk to us more about that and who in particular is feeling that the gap is widening?

SCOTT BLUMSACK: Yeah, no, thanks so much for having me. It's great to see you again. Yeah, you're right. In our latest survey we did find that over half of the respondents are worried that the skills that they currently have aren't the right fit long-term for the roles that they're in. And we saw it pretty broad based across all different types of roles and all different types of industries. The biggest concern that we saw was really around those technical skills on, sort of, the hard side, so do they have the right technical or computer skills to be unable to perform in their jobs. And on the soft side, do they really have the right managerial, leadership, or communication skills to continue to succeed in their current role?

- And how did that break down in terms of demographic? Was it the older set, which is what I might imagine, saying that they were concerned about a skills gap regarding technology or not?

SCOTT BLUMSACK: So there was a little skew of that from a demographic perspective of the older set, but it really was-- it was surprisingly broad based.

- Now, what about workers who are looking at this glass half full and saying, you know what, if my employer were to get me these skills, if I were to somehow acquire these skills to close the gap, I would feel comfortable with my job. I would stay where I am.

SCOTT BLUMSACK: Yeah, that was one of the really interesting things that we found from this survey was that 45% of the respondents said they were more likely to stay with their employer if they offered them skills training. And it really just speaks to the fact that, you know, during the pandemic, you know, employees really want to be supported by their employers in their career progression, and don't feel like they're, sort of, alone out on an island, and really continuing to build those skills, which is obviously one of the key benefits of being in an in-office environment to have that, sort of, face-to-face ability to continue to build those skills. In a remote environment, really continuing to prioritize that is really important for employees.

- Did they talk at all about working remotely and how that has impacted their ability to keep up with their skills. I mean, the fact that they're not physically there on the job doing what they would normally do day in and day out?

SCOTT BLUMSACK: Yeah, no, absolutely. That's a continued theme that we've been hearing from employees from throughout the pandemic is the fact that they're not in that in-office work environment. First, in some cases, it limits their ability to some of those really formal opportunities to build skills. But it also limits their ability to have those, sort of, informal more mentorship opportunities that you-- that can be benefited from an in the office type of an environment. And so, you know, when now that everybody is remote, really prioritizing, kind of, both those elements is really important.

- I know that just-- aside from this survey, Monster takes a look at just the labor force. And there was talk about how more and more people felt comfortable leaving the jobs they had because they felt pretty confident they could get another one or perhaps a better one. Are you seeing that trend continuing, especially now that we're seeing the Delta variant spread the way it is and lots more companies, you know, saying we're not going to call you back to the office just yet?

SCOTT BLUMSACK: Yes, you know, despite what we've seen from a Delta variant perspective around slowing, in some cases, the return to the office, there's still-- there's a significant demand for candidates. And we still operate largely in a candidate scarce environment. But I think it's really important for candidates to remember that's not a license to not do their homework when it comes to looking at another job. They really need to focus on the skills that they have and how those skills can apply to the jobs that they're interested in.

- All right, Scott Blumsack of Monster, always insightful stuff. Thanks so much for being with us.