SHL Report Finds Hidden Skills Are Undermining Internal Mobility

SHL’s Talent Mobility at Work in 2026: The Hidden Workforce report suggests employers may be overlooking existing employees’ skills while competing for external talent. Based on a survey of 2,036 employed adults in the United States and United Kingdom, the research found that 83% of workers would retrain for a more senior role, while 82% would retrain for a different position. Yet 66% believe they must leave their current employer to advance their careers, highlighting a disconnect between employee ambition and internal mobility practices.

Workers Are Willing to Reskill, but Career Paths Remain Unclear

Organizations investing in AI transformation and workforce development face a dual challenge: identifying emerging skills requirements and finding people capable of meeting them. External recruitment remains one way to fill gaps, but SHL’s latest research suggests employers may not be fully assessing the capabilities already available within their workforces.

The talent assessment company surveyed 2,036 employed adults across the U.S. and U.K. in June and July 2026. According to the findings, 83% of respondents would retrain to secure a more senior position, and 82% would retrain for an entirely different role. Almost nine in 10, or 89%, said they would complete a formal skills assessment to demonstrate their capabilities.

The willingness to participate in assessment and development contrasts with employees’ expectations about career progression. Two-thirds of respondents believe they will need to change employers to advance, while 84% want their organizations to proactively identify internal opportunities that match their skills and experience.

The findings point to an opportunity for HR teams to make internal career paths more visible and connect workforce development with business needs. However, stated willingness to retrain does not automatically translate into completed training, successful redeployment or readiness for a specific position.

Managers May Have an Incomplete View of Workforce Skills

A central issue identified by SHL is the limited visibility managers have into employees’ capabilities outside their current responsibilities.

Only 42% of workers said their manager fully understands their skills beyond their existing role. Among employees who believe their skills are underused, one in five said their manager does not know those skills exist.

Traditional talent management processes often rely on job titles, previous experience, qualifications and manager assessments. These indicators can help organizations evaluate candidates, but they may not reveal transferable skills, behavioral capabilities or the potential to learn unfamiliar tasks.

SHL Global Senior Vice President of Product and Design Lucy Beaumont argued that employers should move toward a more evidence-based understanding of workforce capabilities. Assessment data, she said, can help leaders look beyond employees’ current roles when considering development and internal opportunities.

For HR technology providers, this creates a potential role for skills intelligence, behavioral assessments and talent mobility platforms. These systems can help organize information about employee capabilities and connect it to internal vacancies, learning programs and workforce planning. Their value, however, depends on the quality of the underlying data and whether managers use the insights to make meaningful decisions.

Manager Incentives Can Restrict Internal Mobility

Technology alone may not resolve the problem. SHL’s survey found that 31% of workers identified managers’ reluctance to lose strong employees as a major barrier to internal movement.

This creates a structural conflict. A manager may want to retain a high-performing employee in a critical role even when that person could contribute more elsewhere. If internal transfers are treated as a loss for the originating team, managers may have little incentive to support career progression across departments.

The research also found differences between the two markets in perceptions of recruitment practices. Fifty-nine percent of U.S. workers and 49% of U.K. workers said their employer favored external candidates over internal development.

These are employee-reported perceptions, rather than direct measurements of hiring decisions across all organizations. Even so, they highlight the importance of transparent internal recruitment policies and incentives that reward managers for developing talent, not simply retaining it.

Career Development Has Engagement Implications

The report links career progression with employee engagement and fulfillment. Nearly 80% of respondents said the prospect of advancing their careers increases their fulfillment and engagement at work.

For employers, the potential business implications include retention, continuity and the time required to fill specialist roles. Internal mobility may allow organizations to redeploy institutional knowledge while giving employees opportunities to develop new capabilities. It can also support reskilling when job requirements change through automation or AI adoption.

These benefits are not guaranteed. Internal candidates may still require training, and some vacancies will need expertise that the organization does not possess. A sustainable workforce strategy must balance internal development with external recruitment rather than treating either approach as a universal solution.

Skills Intelligence Becomes a Workforce Planning Priority

SHL’s findings reinforce the growing emphasis on skills-based workforce planning. Instead of treating an employee’s current job as a complete representation of their capabilities, organizations can use structured assessments, skills inventories and career frameworks to identify potential matches across teams.

The next step is connecting that information to practical opportunities: visible internal vacancies, targeted learning, fair selection processes and manager accountability for employee development.

For HR leaders navigating AI-driven changes, the challenge is not simply finding people with new skills. It is determining which capabilities already exist, where they can be applied and what development is needed to close remaining gaps.

SHL’s survey suggests that many workers are willing to participate in that process. Whether employers can translate that willingness into greater internal movement will depend on the quality of their skills data, the credibility of their career pathways and their willingness to change the systems that govern talent decisions.

Market Landscape

Skills-based workforce planning and internal talent mobility are becoming important elements of HR technology strategy. Skills assessments and talent intelligence tools can help employers identify transferable capabilities and connect employees with internal opportunities. SHL’s survey highlights a perceived gap between workers’ willingness to retrain and their confidence in advancing within their current organizations. The findings are based on employee responses and do not independently demonstrate that skills assessment technology alone improves retention or reduces recruitment costs.

Top Insights

• Workers are willing to retrain: 83% would retrain for a more senior role, and 82% for a different role.
• Internal career paths lack visibility: 66% believe they must leave their employer to advance.
• Skills remain under-recognized: Only 42% say their manager fully understands their capabilities beyond their current role.
• Manager incentives can obstruct mobility: 31% identify managers’ reluctance to lose good employees as a barrier.
• Career growth matters for engagement: Nearly 80% say advancement prospects increase their workplace fulfillment and engagement.

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