Here’s a stat that should make every leader pause: Two out of three Talent leaders say their workforce isn’t highly adaptable to change. Think about what that means for a moment. When markets shift, priorities change, or new opportunities emerge, most organizations are running on teams that struggle to keep up. If your people can’t adapt, your organization can’t either.

The Problem Is Clear

The 2024 Lighthouse Research & Advisory Learning, Skills, and Talent Mobility Study surveyed 1,172 employers and 1,000 employees, and the numbers show just how unprepared most workforces really are for change.

65% of leaders think they personally handle change well, but only 37% say the same about their workforce. Employees see it even more clearly: just 13% say their team is highly adaptable to change. There’s a huge gap between how leaders see things and how prepared their teams actually are.

Three Problems Blocking Agility

The research shows exactly why employees struggle with change:

1. People are trained for their current job, not what’s coming next. 
   Only 16% of employees feel their company helps them develop skills for the future. The rest are trying to keep up as things change around them.
2. Training feels like a box to check, not actual development. 
   When employees don’t get the right training, they’re five times more likely to say their company cares more about business results vs. helping people grow.
3. Skills conversations don’t happen regularly. 
   Workers who haven’t talked about their skills with their manager in the past year are twice as likely to feel uncertain about their future at the company. No ongoing conversation means no clear path forward.

What Companies with Growing Revenue Do

So what separates companies that are growing from those that aren’t? It comes down to how they prepare their people: 

Companies with growing revenue compared to those with declining revenue look completely different when it comes to workforce readiness. 46% versus 18% have workforces that handle change well. 75% versus 43% have cultures that actually support development. 39% versus 16% give employees real control over their career direction.

What’s clear is that when you invest in preparing people for change, they perform better when it happens. Employees who get proper training are 86% more likely to say they can adapt when needed.

What This Means

You can’t build agility with people who aren’t prepared for change. The companies that are growing understand this — they’re investing in their people first, and the business results follow.

For the complete research findings and methodology, download the full Learning, Skills and Talent Mobility Study. 

Roberta Gogos

Roberta Gogos is an HR Industry Go-to-market Leader and Analyst. She has been behind the scenes at market-leading companies to help them shift market narrative, influence buyer behavior and expand into new markets. She is known for her ability to turn strategic vision into measurable execution through positioning, storytelling, and operational rigor.

Since 2024, Roberta has been focused on industry research used by investors, corporate leaders, and vendors to assess technologies and inform M&A decisions, improve GTM, enable sales, inform product development, and develop thought leadership.

She has 20 years of experience in marketing, positioning, and strategy, with 10+ years of that being directly related to talent and the workforce.