New report shows experience gap, not skills gap, is the 'hardest' for organisations
Employers across the world are increasing their experience requirements for entry-level jobs as they lament the lack of experience of their recent hires, according to a new report.
Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends revealed that 61% of employers have increased their experience requirements in the past three years. In fact, most entry-level jobs now require at least two to five years of experience.
The higher requirement from these jobs is a response from organisations that observe a lack of experience in their new hires, according to Deloitte.
Two-thirds of managers and executives in its poll said most of their recent hires are not fully prepared, with experience being their most common failing.
Deloitte said this indicates that organisations across the world are struggling to find experienced talent that they need.
"In this new world, the gulf that is hardest for organisations to close is not the skills gap — it's the experience gap," it noted.
"This experience gap — the gulf between what employers demand and what workers bring — presents a thorny and ever-present riddle: Workers can't get jobs without having the required experience. But they can't acquire the necessary experience without a foothold job or equivalent opportunities."
Experience is traditionally seen as the length of time an individual has spent executing relevant tasks, according to Deloitte.
However, it noted that time spent is a "proxy" for what leaders really need from employees.
"What leaders really need from experience in today's environment is an expanded definition: the ability for workers to apply skills, knowledge, and human capabilities in context — under real-world conditions and external constraints — to create outcomes," the report read.
It added that leaders need employees with skills, such as curiosity, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving, that can be transferable across multiple contexts.
But who is responsible for building experience? More than seven in 10 workers (72%) and executives (73%) believe that organisations should do more to provide opportunities to gain experience.
According to Deloitte, one way to bridge the experience gap is by reimagining work itself.
"Leaders can start by redesigning roles to enable workers to practice judgement and accelerate experience over time," it said.
They can also rethink how they find candidates by sourcing from external pools that provide ingredients of experience.
"Pair sourcing with experiential learning to help create talent pools composed of candidates who have the judgement and adaptability that typically come with experience," it said.
It offered the following approaches for sourcing:
