3 Ways Employee Career Development Boosts Your Bottom Line
It’s easy to see how career development programs benefit employees — but there are surprising benefits for employers too.
According to LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report, organizations that are “career development champions” — organizations that embrace initiatives such as leadership training, internal job boards, mentorships, and continuing education — are outpacing nonchampions on multiple indicators of business success, including:
- Confidence to be profitable by 11 percentage points (75% vs. 64%)
- Confidence to retain talent by 17 percentage points (67% vs. 50%)
- Leading or accelerating on generative AI (GAI) adoption by 15 percentage points (51% vs. 36%)
These findings provide a compelling argument for why talent leaders need to highlight the importance of career development to the C-suite. As Chris Foltz, chief talent officer at IBM, says: “The more we invest in our employees learning and building their own career strategy, the more we capture that value in the future.”
Read on to learn more about how investing in employee career development boosts your bottom line.
1. Championing employee career development helps attract the candidates you need to succeed
What do organizations need to do to secure top talent? LinkedIn data points to career development.
Career development champions are more likely to have powerful employer brands that engage quality hires. According to LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting 2025 report, companies known for offering employees the opportunity to learn new in-demand skills are 9% more likely than their peers to attract quality hires.
A growing number of candidates — especially those who are the most valuable to employers — are prioritizing professional growth when considering jobs. A study commissioned by Amazon found that nearly nine out of 10 employees said that if they were looking for a new job, it would be important for their potential employer to offer a strong skills development program, an abundance of career growth opportunities, and ways for them to progress toward a different job or career track.
Not surprisingly, Amazon has taken the lead in employee career development, investing more than $1.2 billion in skills training, with the goal of helping workers move into high-paying, in-demand roles. Amazon’s Career Choice program offers employees a variety of education and skills training opportunities, including prepaid college tuition, pathways programs, and career coaching.
“As we strive to be ‘Earth’s best employer,’” says Jay Shankar, VP of global talent acquisition, “Amazon is breaking down barriers to education access.”
2. Career development champions are more likely to hold on to top talent
According to the 2025 Workplace Learning Report, 88% of organizations are concerned about retention — with good reason. Losing top talent impedes business success, leading to higher recruitment and training costs, lower productivity, and workplace disruptions.
The good news: Offering workers the chance to develop their skills is a great way to keep them from leaving. In fact, the report reveals that providing learning opportunities is the No. 1 retention strategy for organizations.
Upskilling, coaching, and internal role changes help people feel valued, engaged, and more likely to stay with their organization. “Employees are saying, ‘I expect you as an employer to help me keep up, and if not, I’m going to go somewhere else,’” says Josh Bersin, global HR industry analyst.
Walmart has seen firsthand how career development programs boost retention. The retail giant’s Live Better U (LBU) program, which offers Walmart and Sam’s Club associates access to free education, training programs, and career guidance, not only helps workers move ahead in their careers, it also fosters loyalty. In fact, Walmart hourly associates participating in LBU leave the company at a rate four times lower than nonparticipants.
“Opportunity is part of Walmart’s DNA,” says Josh Allen, group director of frontline learning at Walmart, in the report. “It’s a win-win: Associates are moving up into careers with greater responsibility and higher pay, while Walmart is filling key roles that help us deliver for customers and members.”
3. Career development champions are more likely to be trailblazers in GAI adoption
The rise of GAI is rapidly changing the types of skills organizations will need to succeed, with 70% of the skills used in most jobs in 2015 expected to change by 2030.
The trend poses major challenges to employers who must ensure that their workers can keep up with GAI innovation. Nearly half (49%) of learning and development professionals say their executives are worried that their employees don’t have the right skills to execute their organizations’ business strategy, according to this year’s Workplace Learning Report.
Interestingly, career development champions are far more confident about their ability to adapt to GAI than their peers. More than half (51%) describe their organization as leaders in GAI adoption compared with 36% of those with weaker career development programs.
One explanation: According to the Workplace Learning Report, “progress toward career goals” is the No. 1 motivation for employees to learn. That means organizations that focus on developing their employees’ careers are more likely to have workers who are agile, adaptable, and open to mastering the critical GAI skills employers will need to compete in the future.
Teradyne is one employer that’s moving quickly to prepare its workforce for the AI age. In a case study shared in the Workplace Learning Report, Kelly Salek, director of talent development at Teradyne, explains how the company compressed its 12-month core curriculum program into 45 days to keep up with demand for new skills. At the same time, the company has fostered a culture of continuous learning, strengthened its employee career paths, and focused on boosting learner engagement.
“We embraced an iterative approach with our strategy — gathering weekly feedback from functional leaders and tracking real-time data on learners’ interests and skills,” Kelly says. “By bringing stakeholders in at every step and embracing progress over perfection, we’ve helped Teradyne become more adaptive and agile.”
Final thoughts
As Al Dea, founder of The Edge of Work, says: “Organizations cannot develop and grow if their people don’t develop and grow.”
It’s up to talent leaders to show their C-suites the strong correlations between investments in employee career development and positive business outcomes.
And to reap the full benefits of career development, you will need robust ways to measure the success of these programs. Some of these steps include:
- Identifying your organization’s business goals
- Defining and measuring the relevant metrics
- Communicating progress toward these metrics
To learn more, check out LinkedIn’s Playbook on Measuring the ROI of Learning.
