Editor’s note: FM Perspectives are industry op-eds. The views expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of Facilities Management Advisor.
In 2026, the skilled trades are facing a reality check that is impossible to ignore: A significant rift has opened between the priorities of organizational leaders and the priorities of their employees, especially as it relates to professional development.
Recent survey data from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reveals that 54% of trade workers plan to upskill this year, intending to participate in more training than they did in 2025. As workers continue to grapple with labor shortages, high retirement, and an increasingly complex job site, this data makes sense—challenging conditions require more expertise.
However, only 17% of skilled trade workers anticipate that increased training for a more skilled workforce will be their organization’s biggest priority in 2026. And this disconnect cannot go unaddressed.
Though organizations may think their focus this year needs to be on hiring, retention, or time-saving AI tools, investing in staff training is actually the foundation for all the above. If organizations truly want to advance their growth in a time marked by historic hardships, they need to listen to the people who experience those hardships firsthand.
If organizations continue to deprioritize staff training while their workforce does the opposite, they forfeit the ability to lead the industry’s revitalization. A resilient future is impossible without a sustained commitment to staff development.
Retention and the New Wave of Recruitment
With a wave of retirements shrinking the skilled trades workforce to record lows, it’s important to prioritize actions that will keep good talent at your organization and in the pipeline.
According to research from LinkedIn, 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career. Though this statistic alone is a powerful representation of training payoff, it’s also only the beginning. Staff training investments can be a win-win situation for organizations and their workers.
- Boosted productivity and job satisfaction: Training increases technical proficiency and digital literacy, allowing workers to feel more confident and effective in their roles.
- Operational efficiency: Empowering individual workers with better skills helps teams accomplish more with less, reducing the risk of systemic burnout.
- Engagement through challenge: Offering variety and interesting technical challenges keeps the workday engaging and prevents professional stagnation.
- Magnet for Gen Z: As the primary force filling the hiring pipeline, appealing to Gen Z—who views upskilling and career transparency as non-negotiable professional requirements—is mission-critical.
- Knowledge preservation: Training initiatives can foster a mentorship culture that bridges the gap between long-term employees and incoming staff, ensuring that decades of critical knowledge is transferred before workers retire.
Craving Digital Transformation? You Need Training
So, if organizations are not focused on staff training investments, what exactly are they focused on? According to NFPA’s survey, 35% of respondents expect their organization’s primary focus in 2026 will be increased technology deployments.
On the surface, this sounds like progress. Amid industry turmoil, investing in hardware, software, and automated systems to streamline operations seems like the best course of action. And while that is true, there is a dangerous paradox at play: Many organizations are investing heavily in the tools while neglecting the talent required to wield them.
The trades are becoming increasingly digital—from navigating EV charging networks and smart grids to mastering high-efficiency HVAC systems—yet the pace of innovation on the jobsite is rapidly outrunning traditional training models. Take the current data center boom, for example. It demands specialized, complex skills that standard trade schools have rarely covered (because the need was never there until now) and that many on the job have never encountered before.
If you attempt to bridge this digital gap without investing in your people, you are essentially purchasing expensive tools that risk becoming obsolete. Training, in this case, is a critical necessity.
Research from McKinsey found that for every $2 you invest in digital, you have to invest $3 in process optimization and $5 in talent and change management. If you apply that ratio to the business cases organizations are championing today, including generative AI and site-level automation, you’ll find that realizing a positive ROI is mathematically impossible without prioritizing your staff.
Ultimately, investing in training is about your company’s scalability. When you move beyond merely buying tools and start building a high-skilled, adaptable workforce, you position yourself for real digitalization, and with that, the ability to pursue complex, higher-margin contracts that competitors without trained staff must pass up. By pivoting your focus from digital deployment to digital proficiency, you aren’t just reacting to the future. You’re building a workforce that can handle whatever the industry throws at it.
Making Smarter Investments
The reality of 2026 is that you cannot automate your way out of a skills gap, nor can you solve for labor shortages and other hardships if you aren’t listening to the people actually performing the work. The disconnect NFPA’s survey reveals is a fundamental failure to listen to the experts on the ground who know exactly what they need to succeed.
Investing in staff training is a holistic survival strategy and the path forward. It drives retention, boosts productivity, and bridges the critical knowledge gap between retiring veterans and incoming staff. Plus, staff training is the true driver of valuable digital investments. Organizations can’t buy the future, but they can invest that money where it will truly payoff: into the people who are building the next era of the skilled trades.
Kristin Bigda is the senior director of product management at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).