Employers were attacked yesterday for overlooking their most effective weapon - their own staff.
Too many firms failed to make the best use of their workers and were not investing enough time and money into developing employees, it was claimed.
The skills development organisation Skills For Business said the shortage of skilled workers in the UK could be eased if companies had decent schemes to train and develop staff.
Research among 13,000 employers for the organisation showed that more than half were unable to recruit properly trained workers and a third said their own workers lacked certain skills.
Lesley Giles, of Skills For Business, said: "Businesses aren't necessarily thinking of internal staff development as the first step to combat skills issues.
"Employers, especially smaller ones, are aware of the importance of staff development but they don't know where to start planning and are not sure where to go for help.
"They are also worried that investing in training might lead to staff being poached."
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