Learning = Loyalty: The One Thing Employees Want Most

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LEARNING = LOYALTY: WHAT EMPLOYEES WANT MOST

Top talent isn’t quitting for higher pay – they’re leaving because they don’t see a future at your organization. When employees – especially high-performers — can’t connect their day-to-day work to real career growth, they’re far more likely to look outside for their next opportunity.

The numbers tell a clear story:

📉 94% of employees say they’d stay longer if their employer invested in their career development.
🤯 Only 1 in 3 employees strongly agree they have opportunities to learn and grow at work.
📈 Internal mobility is directly tied to retention, but only 25% of employees say they are confident about their career paths within the company.

This isn’t just a learning and development issue – it’s a business stability issue. Without clear career development pathways, high-potential talent walks out the door, leadership pipelines shrink, and internal mobility stalls.

But how do you embed continuous learning into the employee experience — and prove its impact on retention, engagement, and business outcomes?

Let’s break it down…

Inside this edition

• Real-world programs from Best Buy, Heineken, and Randstad – showing how continuous learning translates into higher retention, better internal mobility, and stronger leadership pipelines.

• How Deloitte’s 4-Part Continuous Learning Model helps HR leaders embed professional development at every stage of the employee lifecycle

• The key metrics CHROs need to track learning’s impact on retention, career growth, and engagement — and how to build a Continuous Learning Dashboard to prove ROI

🗞️ In case you missed it: Deloitte’s newest attempt to bring employees back to the office, lower-than-expected U.S. job growth, and new AI-powered Google search. 

Continue reading to discover how CHROs can turn continuous learning into their organization’s most powerful strategy…

SUCCESS STORY
📢  INSIDE ABBOTT’S PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Here’s how one company harnessed the power of continuous learning to drive retention…

As one of the world’s most respected healthcare companies, Abbott has built a professional development ecosystem designed to attract, develop, and retain top talent by offering continuous growth opportunities at every stage of an employee’s career.

But Abbott doesn’t just offer training programs – it bakes professional development into its talent strategy, ensuring that learning fuels both career progression and long-term engagement.

🏆 The impact is undeniable: three-quarters of participants stay with the company after the program’s completion, according to Abbott’s Divisional VP of Talent and Strategy – and 500 program alums are in leadership positions.

Here’s how Abbott’s holistic development strategy helps the company build a future-ready workforce – and a culture of loyalty and innovation...

Structured Development: Career Growth at Every Level

Abbott’s Development Programs offer structured, multi-year rotational experiences that blend on-the-job learning, formal education, and leadership exposure, ensuring employees build both functional expertise and strategic thinking skills.

Programs span across functions – from finance and marketing to engineering, IT, and supply chain – giving participants a 360-degree view of the business. The diverse rotations ensure participants develop cross-functional agility and leadership readiness.

Plus, each program is tailored to future leadership needs, aligning professional development directly with Abbott’s long-term talent pipeline strategy. 

Leadership Commitment: Investing in Talent from Day One

Abbott’s professional development isn’t just an HR initiative – it’s a leadership priority. 

At its core, the program is about diversity and continuity. Senior leaders actively participate as mentors, program sponsors, and career coaches, ensuring that development programs are directly connected to real career opportunities within the company.

Leaders provide feedback loops to align development experiences with both personal career aspirations and business needs.

💡 HR Tip: When senior leaders actively champion development, employees see growth as part of the company’s DNA – not just a side benefit.

A Culture of Lifelong Learning: Beyond Early-Career Programs

While Abbott’s early-career programs are a critical entry point, professional development doesn’t stop after the first few years. Abbott has built a continuous learning culture that supports employees at every career stage, offering ongoing skills development and internal mobility opportunities.  

But it doesn’t just drive retention, it drives growth: about 500 program alums are in leadership and management positions.

Continue reading to learn how you can implement your own learning programs today.

SPREAD FOR YOU
📢  A SIMPLE 3-STEP LEARNING ROADMAP TO START IMPLEMENTING TODAY

If anyone was still uncertain, employees don’t just want compensation and pizza parties. They want true opportunities for growth – here’s how to deliver…

Employees (especially high-performers) want to know: Can I grow here? When they can’t see a clear path for growth – or when learning feels like an afterthought – they’re far more likely to look elsewhere.

Organizations that treat continuous learning as a core part of their employee experience create stickier cultures where employees feel invested in their own future inside the organization, not outside of it.

Deloitte’s Continuous Learning Model offers a simple, flexible framework to help CHROs embed learning into the flow of work and career growth — and turn development into a key retention lever.

1. Map Learning to Career Milestones

Employees need different kinds of learning at different career stages — and they want it on demand, not just during annual review season. Deloitte breaks learning needs into three key stages:

✅ Immediate learning: Information employees need to do their jobs right now — tools, processes, quick answers, and task-specific training. 

✅ Intermediate learning: Development to grow within their current role — expanding skills, cross-training, and building capabilities aligned to their career goals. 

✅ Transitional learning: Big-picture development to prepare for future roles — leadership training, lateral career shifts, or entirely new skill sets.

📍Set up a career progression framework for different roles within your organization to help employees visualize their growth and exemplify your commitment to continuous development. Buffer has a comprehensive two-way career framework, which outlines progression for makers and managers, with both vertical and horizontal growth opportunities.

2. Activate the “Four E’s” of Continuous Learning

Deloitte’s model also recognizes that real learning happens everywhere — not just in a classroom or LMS. To build a true learning culture, you need to support development across all four contexts.

Education: Formal learning — workshops, certifications, and e-learning. 

👉 Retention tip: Tie formal courses directly to real internal opportunities so employees see the payoff. 

📍Best Buy has recently started offering free degrees for both full and part-time employees starting from their first day on the job. The program now covers 100% of tuition and fees for a wide range of degrees and certifications, including areas like business, technology, and health care, to help employees gain future-ready skills.

Experience: Learning by doing – stretch assignments, job rotations, special projects.

👉 Retention tip: Use project-based work to showcase internal career paths and build future-ready skills.

📍Heineken offers an International Graduate Programme (IGP). The 18-month traineeship rotates members through different roles – like Marketing, Finance, or Supply Chain – while working on real projects, getting international experience, and learning from industry mentors.

Expposure: Learning from others – mentoring, coaching, professional networks.

👉 Retention tip: Pair high-potential employees with senior mentors who can open career doors and provide insider guidance.

📍Randstad offers mentorship programs designed to support employee development and leadership growth. Their mentorship opportunities allow employees to gain leadership skills by pairing them with senior mentors. New hires are paired with mentors even before their first day to help them acclimate.

The best part? 

Employees active in the mentoring program were 49% less likely to leave – saving Randsad $3K per participant per year.

Environment: Learning through systems and tools – knowledge libraries, search engines, performance support.  

👉 Retention tip: Make sure your internal platforms recommend personalized learning based on employee interests, career goals, and evolving business needs.

📍Palo Alto Networks uses FLEXLearn to deliver a personalized learning experience tailored to each employee’s unique needs and aspirations. The platform provides employees with internal courses and expert-led sessions to build skills that align with employee goals. 

3. Embed Learning into Everyday Workflows

The best learning cultures don’t make development something extra — they make it part of the everyday employee experience. That’s why Deloitte’s model emphasizes learning in the flow of work, career, and life.

✅ Learning in the flow of work: Employees access training and knowledge directly within their workflow – whether it’s a quick how-to guide, an AI-powered recommendation, or a microlearning video. 

✅ Learning in the flow of career: Learning aligns to each employee’s career map, with clear next steps tied to internal roles and opportunities. 

✅ Learning in the flow of life: Learning is flexible and fits around personal schedules, so employees can choose how, when, and where they develop.

📍HR tip: Just because you integrate learning into daily workflows doesn’t always ensure employees will actually want to take advantage of these opportunities. Make it easy and engaging with gamified learning, such as quizzes and leaderboards, to make learning an opportunity instead of a chore.

You know how to create a foolproof learning strategy – but how do you get leadership buy-in? Learn how to tie professional development initiatives to business success below…

HR HURDLES
CONNECTING CONTINUOUS LEARNING TO RETENTION AND ENGAGEMENT

You’ve created a top-notch strategy, but here comes the hard part: proving the ROI is worth it to the C-suite…

It’s not enough to say continuous learning boosts retention – CHROs need hard data to prove it. Organizations that connect learning to internal mobility, engagement, and retention are the ones securing buy-in and budget for ongoing development.

Here’s how to track, prove, and improve the ROI of continuous learning.

1) Track What Matters

Most companies track course completions, but that won’t cut it. To prove ROI, focus on metrics that show how learning drives career growth and retention.

✅ Essential metrics to track:

• Internal promotion & lateral move rates

• Retention rates for learners vs. non-learners

• Learning participation across formal, experiential & relational learning

• Pulse survey data: "Do you see a future here?" and "Do you feel supported in your growth?"

2) Link Learning to Career Mobility

If employees can’t see how learning fuels their career, they won’t engage – and you can’t prove impact.

• Map learning directly to career pathways and internal opportunities

• Track how learners advance faster or access more stretch assignments

• Use talent marketplaces to recommend personalized learning tied to career goals

3) Build a Continuous Learning Dashboard

To make learning a business-critical strategy, combine learning data with engagement, mobility, and retention metrics. Use a dashboard to show how they connect and refine efforts.

✅ Key elements of a comprehensive continuous learning dashboard:

• Learning participation by level & function

• Internal promotion & mobility rates

• Engagement & retention (learners vs. non-learners)

• Exit data: Did lack of development drive turnover?

In the next section… Stay up to date with the latest news – we’re talking office attendance incentives, AI built into your existing data (no uploading dozens of files to GPT), and a cooling job market!

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🗞️ IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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