New research from SHL reveals the talent visibility gap that’s costing employers their best people, fuelling turnover and unnecessary external hiring
As businesses race to close skills gaps and complete AI transformations, many are still defaulting to external hiring – even as recruitment becomes more crowded, costly and difficult to navigate. New research from SHL, the global leader in talent insight, suggests the skills they need may already be sitting unseen inside their own organizations.
The disconnect is stark. Two-thirds (66%) of workers believe they will have to leave their current employer to advance their career. Yet the same workers are telling their organizations, clearly, that they don’t want to.
The findings come from SHL’s Talent Mobility at Work in 2026: The Hidden Workforce report, based on a survey of over 2,000 employed adults across the U.S. and U.K.
Workers Want to Grow, But Most Expect to Leave
More than eight in 10 workers stated they would retrain to secure a more senior role (83%) or a different role altogether (82%). And almost nine in 10 (89%) would sit through a formal skills assessment to demonstrate what they can do.
SHL argues that many employees have the behavioral skills, potential, and appetite to learn and advance, and points to a corporate talent visibility issue. This disconnect is evident in the 84% of workers wanting their employers to proactively show them internal opportunities that match their skills and experience.
Commenting on the findings, Lucy Beaumont, global senior vice president of product and design at SHL, said: “The striking thing about this research is how willing people are to prove what they can do. Employees are saying, ‘assess me, develop me, show me where I could go next’. Yet organizations continue to invest time and money searching the external market for individuals with skills and experience that they may already have.”
Managers Struggle to See What their People Can Do
SHL’s research points to a structural blind spot: managers may be aware of employees’ wider capabilities, but those skills are not fully understood or used. Only 42% of workers say their manager fully understands their skills beyond their current role. Among workers who believe their skills are underused, one in five say their manager doesn’t even know those skills exist, leaving talent hidden in plain sight.
The challenge is not only visibility. Nearly a third (31%) of workers cite managers not wanting to lose good people as a top barrier to moving internally – suggesting organizations may be inadvertently holding on to talent in ways that limit mobility.
Yet the instinct to look outside the organization persists: Yet many workers still see external hiring as the preferred path, with 59% of U.S. workers and 49% of U.K. workers saying their employer still favors outside candidates over internal development.
Beaumont encourages organizations to move beyond education credentials, job titles, and inferred or self-reported skills, towards a more objective, data-driven view of the workforce, grounded in assessment insights.
“Leaders need to look at their people through a different lens to see beyond the job they currently do today, Beaumont added. “With a science-backed view of skills and reskilling potential in individuals and teams, they can make smart, better-informed decisions in an AI-powered world of work.”
The Cost of Not Looking Inward
Organizations that don’t connect their people to internal opportunities risk disengagement, costly turnover, and stalled growth.
The engagement impact is already visible in the data: nearly 80% said the prospect of career advancement increases their fulfillment and engagement at work. And with many workers believing they need to leave their employer to progress, failing to create visible internal pathways risks losing talent that is willing to grow.
Beaumont concluded: “The biggest missed opportunity for leaders and businesses today is overlooking the talent they have. The next era of workforce strategy needs to bring greater visibility, helping leaders to see, develop, and mobilize the skills their organizations already have.”
Learn more about the survey findings and the SHL Talent Mobility at Work in 2026 report. To find out how SHL can help you set a new standard for skills development and workforce planning that benefits both employees and organizations, visit: shl.com/talent-mobility.
