New research reveals 91% of organisations claim they are compliant yet a third of their workforce require training, highlighting a competence gap

• 91% of organisations believe they are meeting compliance objectives
• 33% of employees still require additional training
• 90% are confident their compliance activities are effective
• 35% struggle to evidence competence and report inconsistent assessment
• Only 11% say their training is genuinely competence-driven

New research from SkillStation – part of the TTC Group, the competency management experts -reveal a growing disconnect between compliance confidence and workforce capability.  While 91% of UK businesses believe they are meeting compliance objectives, a significant 33% of employees still require additional training. SkillStation warns this emerging ‘focus and reliance on compliance’ is leaving organisations vulnerable to operational inefficiencies and potentially costly reputational damage.

Moving beyond a tick-box approach

Competency management systems such as SkillStation are helping businesses move beyond a ‘tick-box’ approach to compliance, by providing a structured way to define, assess and track competence, giving clearer visibility of true workforce capability and readiness.

Across the board, organisations report high confidence in their compliance procedures. SkillStation’s research shows that 90% believe their compliance activities are effective and 65% say they assess competence. Yet over a third (35%) admit they find it difficult to evidence competence and report inconsistencies in assessment across employees. Platforms like SkillStation help standardise competency frameworks, ensure consistent assessment, and provide a clear audit trail of who is competent, not just who has completed training or an eLearning module.

Why compliance doesn’t automatically equal competence

SkillStation’s findings suggest that organisations are prioritising regulatory compliance over genuine workforce competency. This is underscored by the fact that 98% of organisations believe that compliance results in competence, highlighting a misconception between compliance which may provide legal protection and real-world performance.

Darren Race, Managing Director for SkillStation explains, “Our research shows that UK businesses are incredibly confident in their compliance procedures. Workplace competence, however, is telling a different story as a third of employees have training outstanding or unassessed competence. Unless this gap is bridged and mechanisms put in place to check that training has been successful, this misplaced confidence could prove damaging. Afterall, compliance training sets the standards of knowledge and skills required in your staff, while competence checking ensures that those standards are being demonstrated in everyday practice.”

Training approaches may be reinforcing the competence gap

SkillStation also highlights that approaches to training may be reinforcing the problem. While 37% admit their programmes are driven primarily by compliance, only 11% of organisations say that their training approach is genuinely competence driven.

Darren Race concludes, “The glaring gap between the perception or assumption of competence and reality of competence in UK businesses is worrying. Closing the ‘competence gap’ requires a more structured, evidence-based approach to competency management to ensure that staff training translates into real-world capability.

Closing the competence gap through competency management

“As organisations address this challenge, many are turning to competency management systems to gain real-time insight into workforce capability and identify gaps before they become risks. Solutions like SkillStation are helping businesses build more resilient, competent and audit-ready teams, ultimately strengthening employee performance and long-term organisational resilience.”