MORE than 80 per cent of business leaders say their organisations face a gap in sustainability-related skill sets and expertise, according to a report by NTUC LearningHub.
This is despite employees perceiving knowledge and skills as necessary for workplaces to understand and implement sustainability initiatives, the Sustainability for Business Resilience Report 2024 released on Thursday (Sep 19) found.
The report, which surveyed more than 150 business leaders and 350 full-time working professionals, investigates sustainability as a business imperative, the current state of sustainability efforts in organisations, and the critical role of training and certifications.
Although nearly 80 per cent of business leaders felt their organisations had clearly communicated how employees could contribute towards companies’ sustainability goals, one-third (33 per cent) of employees said they lacked confidence in their organisations’ abilities to effectively implement sustainability initiatives.
The key reasons cited for this lack of confidence were unclear sustainability goals (41 per cent), insufficient budgets for sustainability initiatives (34 per cent), and a lack of relevant training programmes (32 per cent).
Commenting on the report’s findings, NTUC LearningHub chief sector skills officer Tay Ee Learn said: “The findings suggest a possible disconnect between business leaders and employees, likely stemming from a lack of common understanding and therefore shared goal in the journey to implement sustainability initiatives within organisations.”
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He added: “Transparent communication is key, but organisations must first develop a clear sustainability road map with defined goals to ensure everyone is aligned.”
Business leaders and employees also held different views on the top drivers behind sustainability initiatives.
While employees viewed cost savings (46 per cent), complying with regulations (44 per cent), and responding to market demand (36 per cent) as the main motivations for implementing sustainability initiatives, business leaders ranked responding to market demand (54 per cent), cost savings (49 per cent), and managing risks (43 per cent) as the top reasons.
About one-third (30 per cent) of business leaders also reported sending employees for sustainability-related training in the past year, but only one in 10 (11 per cent) employees said they had attended such training.
Moreover, nearly half (46 per cent) of the employees surveyed said they did not know such training programmes were available.
However, the two groups voiced similar concerns about sustainability training as 43 per cent of both groups ranked employees being too busy with work to attend training as the top challenge.
Other obstacles to sustainability training that businesses cited were difficulty identifying industry-recognised courses (39 per cent) and relevant external training providers or centres (32 per cent), insufficient budgets for training programmes (36 per cent), and resistance to change among employees (35 per cent).
Meanwhile, employees said that training programmes not being fully funded by their company (29 per cent), having no one to cover their work while they are away for training (28 per cent), uncertainty about their skills gaps (28 per cent), and limited in-house training programmes offered by their organisation (27 per cent) were key challenges to training.
Tay highlighted that organisations can leverage resources such as the NTUC Awareness, Resources, Community Framework – which offers sustainability solutions to employers while facilitating the training of their workers – to address their challenges.
“Investing in the development of their human capital will go a long way to reassure the workforce that they are valued, allowing both organisations and workers to remain competitive in a dynamic landscape,” he added.
