Professional Development: The Top Driver of Employee Engagement
TL;DR: Professional development is the top driver of employee engagement, with 94% of employees stating they would stay at their job longer if their company invested in their growth. Companies should invest in comprehensive, customizable training including AI upskilling and leadership programs as cutting these leads to reduced growth and contributes to the massive annual cost of employee turnover.
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Professional development has skyrocketed to the top of the list of drivers of employee engagement, with 94% of employees saying they would stay longer at their job if their company invested in professional development.
Other statistics that back up professional development as the VIP employee engagement measure include:
- Professional development (71%) significantly outpaces remote work (63%) and GenAI tools (55%) as the top driver of employee engagement (DHR Global, 2026)
- 9 out of 10 millennials say training opportunities are very important to them (Gallup, 2019)
- 70 percent of workers say they would consider leaving their job for one that invests in training (Lorman, 2021)
Why is Professional Development Important to Employees?
If all of this data had come out in the last year, you may be tempted to form the opinion that professional development emerged as the top employee engagement perk because people were upskilling to look for another position. However, much of this data is from a few years ago, when the labor market was surging in white-collar jobs.
It has more to do with why most people work in the first place: advancing their careers and increasing their earning potential. Savvy employers will cultivate this desire to learn and grow and use it to drive profitability by increasing employee engagement and reducing turnover, which McKinsey says costs a median S&P 500 company $480 million per year.
Turnover costs are not minor, and are reason enough to offer professional development even before stacking up all the productivity gains. In fact, first-year turnover is the costliest, according to SHRM. If you aren’t engaging new hires in professional development in the first year, you run the risk of losing them entirely.
The Cost of Cutting Training: Why Employers Cut Professional Development First
Despite consistent data showing that professional development matters most to employees, employers traditionally cut training programs when revenue is low. The “why” is simple: ongoing training is a big-ticket item that can be easily eliminated, with the assumption that it will return when revenue is up.
However, this is a mistake. Just like marketing cuts lead to reduced sales, training cuts lead to reduced growth and less stable earnings, according to McKinsey. In fact, investing in training when revenue is low can help turn the situation around by equipping employees with essential skills in things like AI tools, retraining redundant employees to take on new roles rather than losing them, and generally giving staff more confidence to take on new markets and technologies.
How Professional Development and Continuous Training Boost Employee Engagement
There are several ways that continuous professional development improves employee engagement.
1. Purpose and Connection
Purpose and connection are important to most employees. According to the 2024 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, eight out of ten workers said that learning adds purpose to their work.
2. Reduces Anxiety Over Stagnant Skills
“Can’t you do it with AI?” is a statement everyone has heard from a manager by now. The answer is almost always yes, but how does one perform that particular task with AI? Not knowing can make even the most credentialed worker feel behind the times and reduce their confidence.
The 2025 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report says that 39% of all employees will need reskilling by 2030. This could mean anything from AI skills for current roles to a complete career redesign. If your staff is subscribed to a continuous learning program, your company is already ahead of this curve.
3. Increases Employee Trust
When your people see that you are invested in their futures as a business, their trust in your business grows. At a smaller level, employees are more likely to trust managers who support skills development, fostering a better relationship and inspiring loyalty. Don’t forget: 94% of workers would stay longer at their job with professional development, and a large part of that is tied to trust.
What Kind of Training do Employees Want?
The “set it and forget it” video and checkbox training we all did in the 2010’s won’t do the trick anymore. Employees want comprehensive, fact-rich training that advances them in their careers, helps them do their jobs better, and positions them for growth.
1. Credentialed Programs
A program that confers hard academic or professional credentials will always be the top goal for any employee. These will generally be college programs in their field of choice or courses that lead to professional certifications. These will also typically be the most expensive programs.
2. AI Upskilling
The need for AI upskilling is something that employees, managers, and executives can all agree on. However, it can be tough to find the programs that you actually need in the onslaught of everything that’s offered. Here’s our guide on how to find exactly what you need for your organization.
3. Niche Training
Apart from the professional development that falls into the two above categories, your staff wants training that will help them in their current roles or retrain them for new ones internally. This can range from free courses offered by tech solutions they use every day to job shadowing with other staff to cross-train on tasks across different departments.
4. Leadership Training
Leadership training isn’t just for managers. It can give juniors the confidence they need to push through projects with less supervision and prepare non-managers to take on a management role if one comes up at the company.
Most importantly, training should be customizable for each employee. Workers and their managers should design a plan that propels them forward, rather than expecting all staff to take courses that some may not feel engaged in.
It also needs to be designed to require only a few hours per month of commitment, so it doesn’t negatively impact job performance. In the case of college courses and professional certifications, employees can typically be asked to complete the coursework outside of regular work hours, considering the investment the company is making.
Do you want to discover the ROI of your professional development courses? Consider an employee productivity monitoring solution like Prodoscore. Our solution will show you increases in employee engagement, employee turnover risk, and many other previously unmeasurable workforce analytics that your business can’t afford to be without.
