Workforce 2020, a global study performed by Oxford Economics, provides information on better human resources practices and advances towards the creation of talent development strategies for the future of the world’s economy.

The Workforce 2020 report, performed by Oxford Economics and SAP, has identified the main changes the Chilean labour market is facing.

Around 63% of companies stated there are great difficulties when recruiting workers with base-level skills. Other important changes that impact workforce are: globalization of labour supply (60%), increasing number of consultant employees (60%), changes in workers’ expectations (55%) and increasing number of temporary workers (45%).

A very high percentage of Chilean employers (92 %) say they are progressively using more temporary workers and consultants. However, only 40% of them state this situation demands changes in HR policies, including compensations, training and HR technologies.

With business becoming more sophisticated, there are changes in the skills employers demand. The report shows that better training and educational opportunities would benefit both employers and employees.

During the next few years there will be an increasing need of technological skills and around 58% of workers expect to have professional knowledge of such skills in the near future. This is an increase, particularly when comparing with the 27% of workers who currently manage such skills.

It is important to outline that 62% of Chilean workers say their employer provides them with adequate tools to grow and enhance their work performance. However, only 40% of companies claim to offer training programs aimed to develop new skills.

Another interesting fact is that employers state Millennials joining the labour market cause a great impact. The Workforce 2020 also shows that, even though Millennials are different to other generations, they are not as different as companies believe.

As a matter of fact, companies in Chile do not really understand what employees want from them. The greatest incentives for workers are: competitive compensations (77%), access to social media (68%) and more vacation time (61%).  Moreover, 41% of employees say their companies would achieve higher levels of loyalty if they granted access to modern technologies.

However, only 41% of employers claim to provide competitive salaries, while just 42% provide access to social media. There are also mismatches when it comes to flex time, required by 51% of workers and provided by 29% of employers.

There is a variable on which both employers and employees have a similar opinion: leadership. They both state that there is a lacking of leadership and that companies are not working hard enough to develop future leaders.