Amid the “great resignation,” curiosity has emerged as an increasingly important skill for employees, according to a new study by analytics company SAS, based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS conducted a global survey of close to 2,000 managers from six countries – the US, the UK, Brazil, Germany, India and Singapore - and also partnered with LinkedIn to analyze conversations surrounding curiosity on its platform. The result: The SAS Curiosity@Work Report, which shows that curiosity is being sought by employers more and more to address some of the biggest challenges facing organizations right now, from improving employee retention and job satisfaction to creating more innovative, collaborative and productive workplaces.

According to the LinkedIn data, year-over-year there has been a 158% increase in engagement with posts, shares and articles mentioning curiosity, 90% growth in job postings that mention curiosity, and 87% growth in the mention of skills related to curiosity.

The managers surveyed agreed that the valuable benefits of curiosity include greater efficiency and productivity (62%), more creative thinking and solutions (62%), stronger collaboration and teamwork (58%), and greater employee engagement and job satisfaction (58%).

Most managers agreed that curiosity is particularly valuable when innovating new solutions (62%), tackling complex problems (55%), and analyzing data (52%), making it an important trait for fueling data insights and integration.

However, more than two in five managers admitted they feel only somewhat or not equipped to identify curiosity in job applicants (47%), and direct reports (42%). Even if managers feel they are equipped to identify this trait, many say it is challenging to develop curiosity in employees who don't naturally have it (47%) and they struggle with connecting curiosity to job performance (47%) and business impact (43%). The full report provides some solutions.

For a video on curiosity at work, click here

To download the full report, click here

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