ScopeAT

Worried about holding on to your most talented employees? You’re not alone: Nearly nine out of ten (88%) organizations are concerned about employee retention, according to the 2025 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report.

The cost of losing top talent goes beyond replacing employees — it includes the loss of essential institutional knowledge and business skills. At the top of the list of at-risk skills, according to the report, is business strategy, the ability to set goals and adjust to changing market forces. Other skills that are most frequently lost when key people leave include strategic planning, sales management, and project planning.

Fortunately, organizations have a powerful tool for improving retention: learning. By focusing on employee learning and career development, organizations not only make their people future-ready but also boost engagement and loyalty. In fact, according to the report’s survey of learning and development (L&D) and HR professionals, providing learning programs is the respondents’ No. 1 retention strategy. 

The Workplace Learning Report and accompanying playbooks on Measuring the ROI of Learning, Building Agile Approaches to Upskilling, and Fostering Internal Mobility are packed with actionable tips and insights from experts that can help you do just that. Here are three ideas from the reports that talent development leaders can start putting into practice to set your employees — and your organizations — up for success.

1. Make leadership training a nonnegotiable

What’s the most popular career development program? If you guessed leadership training, you’re leading the pack. According to the Workplace Learning Report, 71% of companies that see business value in career development (called “career development champions” in the report) offer leadership training.

The Coca-Cola Company, for one, takes a well-thought-out, strategic approach to selecting, training, and supporting its leaders, says Tapaswee Chandele, Coca-Cola’s SVP of global talent, development, and HR system partnerships.

It starts with Coca-Cola’s “leadership model,” a clear set of expectations for its leaders: “Be the Role Model,” “Set the Agenda,” and “Help People Be Their Better Selves.” These principles are taken into account when choosing and evaluating leaders.  

Coca-Cola uses rigorous assessments for selecting employees for leadership roles and has robust leadership training programs. The Coca-Cola Leader Lab, for instance, aims to develop frontline people leaders by giving them the skills they need to grow in their careers. Targeted at Gen Z, the lab offers “bingeable” video modules that teach leadership skills like critical thinking and adopting a coaching mentality.

Coca-Cola’s approach to developing and supporting leaders “helps set our people managers up for success by enabling them to better coach, remove roadblocks, and align priorities around the work that matters most,” Tapaswee says. “Over the past three years, we’ve seen significant improvements in how our managers and senior leadership are rated by our people, along with overall satisfaction working at Coca-Cola.”

2. Launch “AI mentorship”

Mentorship programs have long been a great way for organizations to nurture talent, boost employee retention, and improve employer brands. It’s no surprise then that among career development champions, 55% have mentorships, according to the Workplace Learning Report.

But now companies are seeing a new benefit from pairing seasoned employees with early-career workers: AI upskilling.

Chipmaker AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) has set up mentorships in which junior tech employees are paired with senior managers who help them brush up on in-demand skills. These arrangements have been particularly helpful in teaching “deeply technical AI” skills, says Mark Pearson, corporate vice president of talent, culture, and community at AMD.

Mark says he’s seen “a willingness to learn” in this format especially among Gen Zers. There’s a bonus too. As mentors and mentees bond over AI lessons, they’re building lasting relationships that can help younger workers advance in their careers.

For more advice, check out the LinkedIn playbook on Building Agile Approaches to Upskilling. 

3. Find new ways to showcase ROI

One of the major pain points addressed in this year’s Workplace Learning Report is the difficulty talent development leaders face in demonstrating the value of learning and career programs to the C-suite.

Ruth Gotian, chief learning officer at Weill Cornell Medicine, knows this problem well. Physician leaders at Weill Cornell often want to see hard numbers that demonstrate the return on investment of learning programs. But quantitative results are sometimes hard to gather, especially when learning programs are at an early stage.

Nonetheless Ruth has arrived at a formula for demonstrating ROI at Weill Cornell that all talent development leaders should consider adopting:

• Impact stories: Track both positive customer outcomes and employee advancement that can be tied to upskilling programs. One of Ruth’s favorite outcomes is when a physician who is feeling stuck in their career regains momentum after joining a learning program.
• Employee testimonials: Give employees a platform to publicly speak to the benefits of career development initiatives. 
• Manager observations and feedback: Capture testimonials from managers about the impact upskilling has had on their team’s work. 

“Investing in employee development is not merely a solid retention strategy,” Ruth writes in an article in Forbes, “but a catalyst for organizational success.”

For more, check out the LinkedIn playbook on Measuring the ROI of Learning.

Final thoughts:

Are you ready to face the challenge of upskilling the workforce of the future? This year’s Workplace Learning Report can be a valuable tool for fostering a culture of continuous learning.

Uncategorised