10% of employees have taken up new jobs that do not allow them to work to their full potential, and of employees feel that there skills are not fully utilised in the current position of employment.

On the contrary, the report compiled by the recruitment and HR services Ranstad also found that 23% of staff had up-skilled during the last 18 months as many organisations had put a freeze on new hires,opening up the opportunity for internal staff to take on new responsibilities.

In addition, the employers surveyed had a varied view of what issues were most important to their staff.

Workers ranked the level of remuneration as the most iinfluencial factors in their choice of employer, followed by training and development, a good career path and flexible working conditions.

In comparison the culture of the organisation and the benefits package were rated as the biggest reasons as to why staff would remain at their company.

With a quarter of those employees who are not actively looking for a new job admitting that they would consider changing employers if something attractive came up, Randstad warned that companies “risk losing talented people” if they do not address the “gulf in understanding”.

Brian Wilkinson, head of Randstad UK, said: “For many organisations it will be a fine balancing act between investing to hold on to key staff and minimising the overall labour cost by building in more flexible strategies.

“While organisations are focusing on managing the realities of today, they must not lose sight of the long-term trends which point towards skill shortages, particularly as the number of people of working age declines and the population ages.”