In today’s rapidly evolving workplace, organizations face a complex set of challenges: finding and keeping talented employees, developing their skills, and creating environments where people want to stay and grow.
While the “war for talent” that marked the early 2020s may have cooled somewhat, data suggests that workers still hold significant leverage—even as the specific demands and dynamics of recruiting, training, and retention continue to shift.
What can organizations expect in 2025? Let’s take a deeper dive into the numbers.
As organizations continue to compete for talent, it’s essential to understand both persistent challenges and emerging solutions in workforce recruitment. The data reveal some interesting patterns.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), more than three-quarters (77%) of organizations experienced difficulty when it came to recruiting full-time regular positions in 2024.
While this was lower than the 91% reported in 2022, there are some signs that, even as the overall number is coming down, the difficulty is proving stubborn; 47% of HR professionals responding to SHRM’s survey said that it was either somewhat (39%) or much more difficult (8%) to recruit employees than it was a year ago.
When it came to the most common reasons for difficulty in recruiting, a few stood out.
(source)
It’s striking that four of the top five difficulties had to do with job seekers being in a position of strength—indicating that, even if recruiting is getting easier than it was a few years ago, workers are still in a competitive position.
However, hiring difficulties in the service industries, including the foodservice industry, may be easing more than in other sectors—hiring for hourly service workers dropped out of the top ten most difficult positions to fill in 2024 (having placed 3rd in 2022).
Still, 67% of HR professionals said it was very or somewhat difficult to hire these workers, so challenges still remain.
Despite these ongoing challenges, organizations’ responses have been somewhat surprising. Interestingly, many have actually pursued substantial reductions in various recruitment strategies over the last few years.
Some recruitment strategies saw particularly notable declines.
(source)
The pivot away from flexible working arrangements may be the most notable, as remote organizations experienced significantly less difficulty recruiting employees (43%) than organizations with a hybrid (76%) or in-person (83%) model.
| % of organizations that had difficulty recruiting in… | In-Person | Hybrid | Remote |
| 2022 | 92% | 91% | 74% |
| 2024 | 83% | 76% | 43% |
(source)
When it comes to the recruitment strategies that organizations are using, the top ten most used strategies in 2024 were:
In the Hospitality, Food, and Leisure industry, a few recruiting trends stood out as more common than in the economy in general.
| Recruitment Strategy | Hospitality, Food, and Leisure Industry | All Industries |
| Voluntarily including pay ranges in job postings | 59% | 45% |
| Eliminating college degree requirements for certain positions | 34% | 24% |
| Seeking international talent | 18% | 8% |
(source)
The recruitment challenges discussed above point to a critical underlying issue. In the previous section we called out the top five reasons organizations struggle to recruit candidates. While four of them indicated that workers are still in a position of strength, the other had to do with something job seekers may lack—new skills required to fill open positions.
This skills gap appears to be significant. SHRM reported that a quarter of organizations required new skills for full-time regular positions in the last year; but, of those organizations, 76% had difficulty finding qualified candidates.
So what does this mean for organizations heading into 2025? Let’s examine how companies are approaching training and development to address these challenges.
Training and development opportunities matter for employees—and employers would do well to take note, because the data suggest that what matters to employees can have a big impact on outcomes for organizations.
Development opportunities play a big role in workers’ commitment and engagement with their workplace; a recent survey of 1,200 workers found that 58% of people would be likely to leave their organization if they didn’t feel they had enough professional development opportunities.
Younger generations, women, and people of color—and especially women of color—were particularly likely to respond that they would leave if they didn’t have access to opportunities.
(source)
So what does this really mean for organizations? According to LinkedIn’s most recent Workplace Learning Report, the impact could be substantial. When organizations invest in training and development, it can pay dividends in terms of employee engagement and investment in the organization’s success. Seven in ten workers said that these opportunities created more of a sense of connection with their workplace, while eight in ten said it gave purpose to their work.
These findings are corroborated by research from Gallup that indicated that low engagement costs the global economy up to $8.9 trillion—9% of global GDP—while high engagement can contribute to a wide variety of workplace wins, such as:
| Outcome | % Change |
| Decline in Absenteeism | 78% |
| Decline in Accidents | 63% |
| Decline in Turnover (Low-Turnover Organizations) | 51% |
| Increase in Profitability | 23% |
| Decline in Turnover (High-Turnover Organizations) | 21% |
| Increase in Customer Loyalty/Engagement | 10% |
(source)
Workers don’t just want training in order to advance their careers; they recognize that it’s a fundamental part of succeeding on the job. TalentLMS found that two thirds of employees acknowledged the need for developing new skills in order to be successful.
| I need to develop new skills in order to be successful at my job… | % |
| Strongly Agree | 30% |
| Somewhat Agree | 36% |
| Neither Agree Nor Disagree | 14% |
| Somewhat Disagree | 13% |
| Strongly Disagree | 6% |
(source)
When it comes to the type of training employees want, there’s a clear preference for opportunities that support their specific goals and situations. 80% of workers said they wanted personalized training opportunities, while 68% wanted access to non-work-related training focused on promoting well being.
Employees’ preferences seem to be clear. But are they getting what they’re asking for? Research suggests that the answer is… not quite.
The same TalentLMS study found some significant discrepancies in the types of training employees want versus what they’re actually getting.
| Training Area | % who want it | % who get it | +/- |
| Leadership and management | 36% | 42% | +6% |
| Mental health | 35% | 33% | -2% |
| New AI tools | 34% | 29% | -5% |
| Soft skills | 34% | 44% | +10% |
| Digital skills | 34% | 38% | +4% |
| Financial literacy/wellness | 33% | 26% | -7% |
| Entrepreneurship | 27% | 21% | -6% |
| DEI | 27% | 37% | +10% |
(source)
These numbers indicate that employees are interested in tangible skills that contribute to their economic wellbeing and preparedness for an AI-powered future, while they may feel they have sufficient soft skills training.
However, research from the Harvard Business Review reveals that a lack of soft skills among managers and colleagues is the second biggest source of workplace stress, cited by 29% of survey respondents. So while people may think they, themselves, have sufficient soft skills training, a perceived lack in their coworkers seems to be a big problem.
(Note, however, that this lack of soft skills was a distant second to the first place response—overwork, which 72% of respondents cited as a source of stress.)
The impact of managers’ soft skills (or, rather, the perceived lack thereof) is particularly significant, with 96% percent of respondents saying that a manager who doesn’t prioritize their team’s well being could cause team members to consider leaving the organization.
What specific skills are workers looking for in their managers? The top five soft skills employees wish their managers would develop are:
So much for employees’ views on training—what about those involved in determining an organization’s approach to training and development?
A Mercer study asked HR professionals about the approaches to skill development that have been most successful in their organization, and found these results:
| Strategy | % |
| Rewarding skill acquisition | 45% |
| Buying/hiring skilled talent | 42% |
| Paying a premium for employee skills | 39% |
| Promoting experiential learning | 38% |
| Paying for outside learning | 34% |
| Prioritizing internal training | 29% |
| Sharing skills via multidisciplinary teams | 28% |
| Leveraging the gig economy | 21% |
| Acquiring skills via acquisitions/mergers | 20% |
(source)
It’s perhaps striking that internal training ranks so low, given the importance of training on some of the outcomes listed at the start of this section.
When it comes to obstacles preventing skill development, there doesn’t seem to be any secret about the primary barrier: it’s time.
Almost 80% of workers said lack of time prevented them from developing their skills; only 31% said lack of resources was a factor, while 29% said lack of opportunity played a role.
More than half of workers (54%) said getting time off to pursue training and development opportunities was the top way employers could help them develop their skills (this was actually tied for first with increased access to development opportunities in the workplace).
However, employees evidently aren’t waiting for employers to deliver; more than two-thirds (68%) of workers took advantage of opportunities for learning and skill development on their own time in 2023 (a significant increase from the year before, when the number was 57%).
When employers do offer skill development programs, what types do they tend to offer? Here’s what SHRM’s analysis revealed:
| Program | Prevalence | Very Effective at Addressing Skill Gaps | Somewhat Effective at Addressing Skill Gaps |
| Internships | 70% | 26% | 51% |
| Mentorships | 31% | 23% | 57% |
| Micro-Internships | 23% | 26% | 43% |
| Apprenticeships | 21% | 24% | 54% |
| Returnships | 9% | 19% | 65% |
(source)
Of note: despite being the three most effective forms of skill development programs, not many organizations that did not already have mentorship, apprenticeship, or returnship programs were likely to start one
This suggests there may be untapped opportunities for organizations to pursue new development programs, especially given workers’ high demand for opportunities.
Auguste Escoffier Global Solutions helps build high-performing teams by providing the tools, expertise and support to hire, develop, and retain culinary and hospitality professionals.
Employers can access a suite of culinary and hospitality development solutions, including but not limited to:
Work & Learn—a program designed to help employers build a stronger team by helping employees gain access to the education they need. In this program, employees attend Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts online or on campus at either Escoffier’s Boulder, CO or Austin, TX campus, working toward a degree or diploma while remaining employed.
ESource—a learning platform with an extensive catalog of materials that includes quick, on-the-spot training and deeper, assessed learning. Escoffier Global can also customize a pathway specifically to meet your organization’s professional development goals. And companies with existing learning platforms can license our content and incorporate it into their learning management system (LMS) as they see fit.
Custom Services—scaled training for your unique needs. These custom services are crafted to align with the specific requirements of your culinary or hospitality enterprise and include onsite training or training in which Escoffier Global travels to your preferred site; train-the-trainer programs; and consulting services.
While we’ve already seen that workers overwhelmingly say that they’d be likely to leave their workplace if they didn’t have enough development opportunities, that is hardly the only reason. Let’s explore what matters to employees when it comes to staying with an organization.
Nearly half (49%) of organizations struggled to retain employees in the past year, and a few reasons rose to the top:
The flip side of this story is equally revealing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, organizations that did not struggle with retention seemed to chalk it up to their successes in many of the same categories:
Simply put, employees seem more likely to stay when they feel their needs are being met across the board—not just in terms of their professional development, but also their quality of life.
In fact, MetLife’s most recent Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study focused on this point exactly when exploring the relationship between workers and their workplaces. They describe that kind of across-the-board quality of life as being “holistically healthy”—a term that encompasses mental, financial, physical, and social well being.
The data show that employers that care for their employees are more likely to wind up with a holistically healthy workforce—and one that is more engaged, loyal, and productive as well.
| Employees who say they feel… | All employees | Those who feel cared for | Those who don’t feel cared for |
| Holistically healthy | 44% | 57% | 28% |
| Engaged | 72% | 80% | 63% |
| Loyal | 75% | 83% | 66% |
| Productive | 78% | 84% | 72% |
(source)
In fact, the study even uncovered a strong correlation between holistic health and revenue growth in the organizations they surveyed.
| % Growth | Holistically Healthy | Not Holistically Healthy |
| 0% growth or less (negative growth) | 36% | 64% |
| 1-10% growth per year | 66% | 34% |
| 11-25% growth per year | 72% | 28% |
| 26-50% growth per year | 77% | 23% |
| Over 50% growth per year | 85% | 15% |
(source)
Employers don’t wind up with holistically healthy workers by accident; it’s the result of specific policies that create the kind of workplace that employees want to stay in.
However, research by Mercer appears to indicate that, while organizations and their employees may be broadly aligned on the importance of certain priorities, there are some key discrepancies worth noting.
| Employees | HR | HR +/- | ||
| 1 | Job Security | Job Security | 1 | – |
| 2 | Fair Pay | Fair Pay | 2 | – |
| 3 | Work Culture | Work Culture | 3 | – |
| 4 | Learning Opportunities | Well-Being Programs | 4 | +8 |
| 5 | Flex Working | Learning Opportunities | 5 | -1 |
| 6 | Competitive Rewards | Org. Brand/Reputation | 6 | +7 |
| 7 | Workload | Flex Working | 7 | -2 |
| 8 | Coworkers/People | Competitive Rewards | 8 | -2 |
| 9 | Confidence in Org. Strategy | Confidence in Org. Strategy | 9 | – |
| 10 | Health Insurance | Health Insurance | 10 | – |
| 12 | Well-Being Programs | Workload | 15 | -8 |
| 13 | Org. Brand/Reputation | Coworkers/People | 19 | -11 |
(source)
While employees and HR professionals were more or less aligned on most priorities, several significant points of divergence emerged.
This suggests that, all other things being equal, organizations seem to overestimate the importance of more abstract priorities, and underestimate things that cut to the core of a worker’s experience—the amount of work they have on their plate, and the people they spend their days with.
PwC’s most recent Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey puts the gap between what workers value and what they’re actually getting into even sharper relief.
| Criteria | % who say this is very or extremely important | % who moderately or strongly agree they get it | Gap |
| Fairly paid | 82% | 57% | -25% |
| Fulfilling | 74% | 62% | -12% |
| Flexible | 65% | 62% | -3% |
(source)
When it comes to compensation and a sense of fulfillment, workers are far from satisfied.
However, as we saw previously, there’s a clear connection between development opportunities and employee engagement. This means employers have the opportunity to contribute to their workers’ financial well being and their sense of connection to the workplace by offering more opportunities to learn and develop their skills – and, in turn, increasing retention in the workplace.
And the data backs this up. There does appear to be a link between the strength of an organization’s “learning culture” and employee retention—with organizations that have a stronger commitment to learning seeing greater retention.
| Outcome | Baseline Learning Culture | Moderate Learning Culture | Strong Learning Culture |
| Retention | 0% | 27% | 57% |
| Internal Mobility | 0% | 15% | 23% |
| Promotions to Management | 0% | 8% | 7% |
(source)
The importance of skill development becomes even clearer when looking at employees who are considering switching jobs in the near future:
The message here is clear—for employers concerned with workers heading for the exits, creating new development opportunities seems like a top priority.
Employees are eager to learn new skills and want to work for employers who will help them acquire those skills and who provide room for improvement and advancement.
Training and development opportunities matter, and can help you reduce turnover while also improving the overall on-the-job satisfaction.
Escoffier Global can help you attract and retain the best employees for your business. Get in touch with our team for more information on partnering with Escoffier and building your culinary talent pipeline.
For customized training solutions, connecting with externs, or exploring Work & Learn, get in touch with Auguste Escoffier Global Solutions. Find more information and get help creating the custom solution you need to suit your unique business.
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