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The Importance of Employee Development for Retaining Top Talent
While employee tenure consistently decreases year after year, attracting and retaining top talent is a major priority for growing businesses. Many are turning to employee development opportunities—leveraging benefits like tuition assistance, employer-sponsored training, and mentoring programs—to better support each team member’s professional growth.
What is Employee Development?
Employee development is about helping team members grow professionally. This can include skills development through formal training or education, attending industry conferences, or setting up mentoring programs.
A Bright Horizons study found that 74% of workers are interested in learning new skills or pursuing additional education, and 99% of Gen Z workers want to invest in upskilling. Workers feel pressure to adapt to a changing workplace, and they look for opportunities to level up. These opportunities can boost retention, engagement, and job satisfaction.
Why is Employee Development Important?
Top talent is typically ambitious and driven. These employees want to stay competitive and perform at their best.
Highly productive workers are motivated by opportunities to improve their professional skills, which, in turn, can make them more engaged, valuable, and likely to stay with your company.
Nearly half (49%) of workers would look for employment elsewhere if there’s no opportunity for career advancement. (Source: Randstad)
Let’s look how employee development drives these benefits.
1. Boosting Employee Engagement
Employees notice when organizations invest in their own professional growth. They feel valued and are more likely to stay committed to the company’s future.
In fact, 70% of workers say learning improved their sense of connection to their company, and 80% say it adds purpose to their work.
Wize Tip: Regular learning and development programs can significantly increase employee satisfaction and engagement, helping to create a motivated and loyal workforce.
2. Supporting Employee’s Individual Career Goals
The best employee development programs align with individual career goals, making it easier to engage and retain top talent.
For example, two employees may have different goals—one might want to become a nurse practitioner, while the other aims to become a manager. By supporting both paths, you’ll be able to retain both employees longer.
Wize Tip: Create personalized development plans to support employee career growth and enhance retention.
3. Improving Employee Retention
Employees who are given growth opportunities tend to stick around. An SHRM study found that 76% of workers said they’d be more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training.
90% of organizations are pivoting towards providing learning opportunities as a key retention strategy (Source: LinkedIn)
As businesses pivot toward learning opportunities as a retention strategy, employees are more likely to see a future with your company.
4. Increasing Employee Productivity
Employees who develop new skills feel more confident in their work, leading to higher productivity. They’re also less reliant on managers for guidance and may be able to accomplish their tasks more efficiently.
Providing training in areas like AI can help employees automate key tasks and work more efficiently. In fact, 80% of workers want to learn how to leverage AI, but many don’t know where to start.
5. Increasing Company Profitability
Higher employee retention saves costs and helps retain organizational knowledge. When employees become more productive, they also become more efficient, driving company profitability—and avoid the high costs of employee turnover.
Investing in upskilling helps close skill gaps, allowing businesses to build a workforce that evolves alongside changing industry needs.
“Many industries are evolving quickly, and employees may need on-the-job training to keep up.”
– Sid Upadhyay, CEO & Co-founder
6. Attract Top Talent
Learning and development programs don’t just retain talent—they help attract new talent too.
A Gallup study found that 66% of workers ages 18-24 ranked learning new skills as a top job perk. Additionally, 48% said they would switch jobs for better learning and development opportunities.
Helpful Strategies to Incorporate for Effective Employee Development
There are plenty of ways to support ongoing learning and development to your team members, and the following strategies will help you get started.
- Regular employee training: Ongoing training keeps employees engaged and prepared for new challenges, especially in fast-evolving industries.
- Mentorship & coaching programs: These programs foster continuous learning, help build leadership skills, and strengthen relationships between team members.
- Personalized career development plans: Custom career plans increase engagement and retention by aligning company goals with individual career growth.
- Internal promotions & career advancement: Offering promotions and career advancement opportunities motivates employees to stay and grow within your organization.
“Opportunities for team members to attend relevant conferences, obtain certificates, or even get cross-department training could open new doors for them while keeping them on your payroll.”
– Marisa Ramirez, Director of People Operations
How to Incorporate Employee Development on a Limited Budget
Employee development initiatives can range from free or low cost (leveraging free resources for internal training) all the way to very expensive (such as tuition assistance for eligible employees). If you’re on a tight budget, there are plenty of great ways to offer more L&D benefits to keep your team engaged.
- Leverage free or low-cost online training: Platforms like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning offer free or affordable courses.
- Cross-departmental training: Teach employees skills from different departments to increase versatility, transparency, and engagement.
- Peer-led learning: Encourage team members to lead workshops and share their knowledge with colleagues.
- Maximize internal resources: Use in-house experts to train employees and avoid external costs.
How to Measure the Success of Employee Development Programs
Measuring success comes down to two key factors: employee feedback and business outcomes.
Use surveys to gauge how employees feel about your development initiatives, and track metrics like engagement, retention, and productivity to see the impact. You can also ask for suggestions about future initiatives they may want to see moving forward.
Monitor performance reviews and skills adoption to ensure your programs are making a difference.
Questions to ask yourself
These questions can help you determine what changes you need to make to foster the kind of employee growth and development you hope to see.
- Is your team’s career growth being nurtured to support stronger internal recruitment efforts?
- Are there any key skill gaps you’re working to bridge within your workforce?
- Are individual performance reviews showing measurable improvement across the team?
Wize Words
Employee development is directly tied to higher retention, job satisfaction, and loyalty. With Wizehire’s platform, you can not only hire top talent but also support retention through employee development initiatives—even on a budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Increase worker participation in your learning and development efforts by ensuring they know about the program to begin with. Include information about L&D benefits in your employee handbook, and use internal communications to heavily promote optional upcoming training.
Managers and HR teams can work with team members and provide suggestions based on their individual goals. If a manager knows that a current team member wants to eventually be promoted to a team lead, they may offer suggestions about skills to develop or allow the employee to take charge on a project to build their portfolio.
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