September 22, 2025

Career Development and Employee Experience: The New Differentiator in Talent Retention

By David Dungay

People don’t leave jobs on a whim. More often than you’d think, they leave because they can’t see a future. That’s why career development & employee experience now sit at the centre of retention.

There’s proof that professional development matters. LinkedIn data shows that 94% of employees would stay longer if their company invested in their growth. Internal mobility tells the same story: when people move into new roles within three years, their chance of staying jumps to 70%. Without that move, it drops to 45%.

If you want to keep talent, you have to show them a path forward. But it can’t just be a generic training catalogue. It needs to be personalised professional development: lateral moves, new skills, leadership tracks, and clear frameworks that managers can use in everyday conversations.

Without all that, disengagement starts to creep in. It begins as frustration and ends as attrition. You can see it clearly in moments like onboarding, where more than half of employees walk away disappointed, and many never recover from that first impression.

For any business to grow, career development & employee experience need to go hand in hand.

Why Career Development Differentiates EX & Retention  

Retention has become a real problem for most organisations. The cost of replacing an employee is growing, skill shortages make it harder to find replacements, and every missing team member leads to disruption for teams and customers.

What keeps people isn’t only pay or perks, but the sense that they are moving forward. That’s where career development & employee experience connect most directly.

Surveys show that 64% of employees feel disengaged, and nearly a third link that disengagement to limited opportunities for advancement. That disengagement leads to turnover. Since most companies are having trouble finding skilled candidates these days, building capability internally through structured development is much easier than trying to “fill the gaps” after people leave.

Career pathways also send a cultural signal. Employees who see transparent frameworks and realistic next steps feel that their organisation invests in them. That sense of fairness is just as important as the progression itself. Without it, career conversations become ad hoc, managers avoid the topic, and people start to look elsewhere.

The link between career development & employee experience is clear: when growth is visible, retention strengthens. When it isn’t, engagement slips, and replacement costs mount. For leaders, the choice is whether to treat growth as a structured part of the employee journey or to keep paying the price of turnover.

The Evolution of Personalised Professional Development  

Not long ago, professional development meant the same training course for everyone. A new manager would get the standard pack of workshops. A mid-career employee would be sent on the same leadership course as their peers. It made sense because it was easy and efficient. But the results were rarely great. People went through the motions, but they didn’t really grow.

That approach feels out of place now. Employees expect the same thing from their careers that they expect as consumers: choice. Career development & employee experience need to be flexible, not fixed. A catalogue of generic training won’t cut it.

People want to see clear options that match their goals. The evidence? Only about 25% of employees feel confident about their career path right now. Most feel they’re figuring out their growth alone.

You notice it in everyday work. A lot of people feel they could give more in another role, but only a small share say their company makes it easy to retrain or move across teams. Without that kind of structure, opportunities slip by, and eventually people leave.

Growth isn’t just about going up a straight ladder anymore. It happens sideways, too, through short projects or by picking up new skills that open different routes.

Frameworks That Make Career Development Drive EX  

Career growth doesn’t always follow a clear path. People might pick up skills along the way or stumble into a promotion, but without a clear structure, the experience is uneven. Some employees thrive, while others feel overlooked. That inconsistency is what makes career development such a powerful lever in shaping the overall employee experience.

There are three areas where structure makes the biggest difference:

1. Career conversations that happen regularly and lead somewhere.
2. Development plans that connect goals to real opportunities.
3. Path models show people that there’s more than one way to grow.

Each of these plays a role in how career development & employee experience feel day-to-day.

Career Conversations (That Happen Often)   

Ask around any office and you’ll find plenty of employees who haven’t talked about their future with their manager in months, sometimes years. These conversations get lost in the shuffle of deadlines and performance reviews. The absence creates doubt.

Managers often find it easier to keep career conversations going when they have something simple to lean on. GROW is one option, standing for Goals, Reality, Options, and Way Forward, and it gives a bit of structure without being overbearing. Others prefer SBI, which is Situation, Behaviour, Impact, or STAR, which is Situation, Task, Action, Result, because they make feedback less fuzzy.

In the end, the model matters less than the habit. A quick chat every month about development shows employees that their growth matters. When that happens regularly, trust builds, and trust is what convinces people to stay.

IDPs With Real Impact  

Individual Development Plans should chart progress, but in many companies, they’re written once and forgotten. The most effective IDPs do three things: they identify a target role or skill, spell out the gap between today and tomorrow, and map out projects, mentoring, and learning to close that gap. Follow-up is what matters.

When managers revisit the plan, ask about progress, and adjust it as roles evolve, the IDP becomes a living document that reflects employee career growth.

Kolibri Games is a case in point. By introducing structured reviews and competency frameworks, they saw a nearly 50% increase in satisfaction with career opportunities. When paths are visible, people engage.

An IDP works best when it’s tied back to daily work. A stretch assignment here, a cross-functional project there, feedback in the moment, all of these bring the plan to life.

Career Path Models: More Than Just a Ladder  

For years, the career ladder was the default. You put in the time, got promoted, and eventually managed a team. For some people, that still works. But if management is the only option, many employees feel boxed in.

What people want is choice. Some want to lead, others want to go deep in a craft. Many are curious to try out new roles before making a big move. When companies offer different paths, career development & employee experience feel fairer and more personal.

There are a few ways to make this real:

• Leadership tracks for those who want to manage.
• Expert tracks for people who want to master a skill or discipline without becoming a manager.
• Lateral moves that let employees step into another function and build breadth.
• Short projects or “gigs” where someone can test a new area without leaving their current role.

Technology helps by showing the options clearly. Internal mobility platforms, for example, map skills across the organization and highlight open projects or roles. Instead of waiting for a vacancy, employees can put their hand up for opportunities. Managers can also spot hidden skills when staffing projects.

Implementation Guide: Building a Career-Focused Culture  

Every company says it wants to keep good people. The test is whether employees can actually see a path forward. That path doesn’t appear on its own. It has to be designed, talked about, and updated as the business changes. Otherwise, “career development” becomes just another promise people stop believing.

Step 1: Baseline & Listen  

The easiest mistake to make is to design new programs without asking people what they think of the old ones. Employees usually have a lot to say. Some will talk about managers who avoid career conversations altogether. Others will point to unclear promotion processes or to opportunities that feel reserved for a select few.

Getting this kind of insight doesn’t need to be a long project. A short survey with a few straight questions, plus room for comments, can surface the main themes. If you add a snapshot of existing skills and the gaps that stand out, the overall picture becomes clearer.

Listening well does more than collect information. It tells employees that their perspective matters before any changes happen.

Step 2: Define Skills & Paths  

Once you have a baseline, the next step is to show people what’s possible. Most employees want to know two things: what skills are valued here, and what options those skills open up. If they can’t answer those questions, career development & employee experience feel improvised.

You don’t need a 200-page manual; just a clear map of role families, the skills tied to each level, and examples of sideways moves are enough to start. Maybe a data analyst can try a rotation in operations. Maybe a customer service lead can step into learning design. Making those adjacencies visible helps people imagine futures they might not have considered.

Transparency makes all the difference. If you’re vague or inconsistent with advancement criteria, frustration grows fast. Publishing guides, checking them for fairness, and updating them regularly helps maintain the system’s credibility. Since access to opportunity isn’t always equal, equity checks should be there from the start, across gender, location, and hybrid status.

Step 3: Equip Managers  

Ask people what slows their growth, and many will say the same thing: silence from their manager. It is not usually a lack of care, but a lack of confidence about how to start the discussion. Some managers worry about raising hopes they cannot meet, and others fear they’ll say the wrong thing. Giving them a few prompts and the time to use them can change that. Simple questions like “What would you like to try this year?” or “Which skills do you want to build?” are often enough. These talks work best when they are part of the schedule, not squeezed into the end of a performance review.

FlexJobs took this seriously. Managers began holding regular check-ins, supported by a platform that made progress visible and transparent. The effect was less about the software and more about the rhythm it created. People felt seen, and managers felt more confident leading the conversation.

Step 4: Deploy the Technology Stack  

Career growth shouldn’t be hidden behind closed doors. Yet in many companies, the only way to hear about opportunities is through chance conversations. Technology helps bring it into the open.

Platforms that map skills against open roles make the paths visible. Internal marketplaces let employees raise their hands for projects outside their team. Learning tools suggest the courses or resources that close the gap between today’s skills and tomorrow’s roles.

These systems don’t replace a good manager. They give managers and employees something concrete to work with. Instead of a vague “we’ll see what opens up,” the discussion can point to real projects or skills that matter right now. That’s what turns career development from a slogan into part of the everyday experience.

Step 5: Pilot the Experience  

It’s tempting to roll out big changes everywhere at once. But culture shifts rarely work that way. A pilot gives you proof.

Start with one team. Give them updated development plans, mentoring options, maybe a chance to try out short-term projects. Then watch. What do people actually use? What feels useful, and what falls flat?

The beauty of a pilot is that it creates early stories. When employees in that first group talk about how they landed a stretch assignment or found a mentor, others will want the same. That pull is far more powerful than a company-wide memo.

Step 6: Measure and Prove ROI  

Talk to any executive and sooner or later the question comes up: Is this worth it? Career programs sound good, but without evidence, they’re often first on the chopping block when budgets tighten.

The trick is to measure both the small signals and the big outcomes. On the front end, track whether people are having career conversations, building development plans, or joining mentoring programs. Those little signs tell you if the system is working.

On the back end, watch what really matters: internal moves, retention, time to proficiency, and the cost of hiring from outside versus promoting from within.

At lg2, a creative agency, turnover in the production team dropped below five per cent after managers leaned on pulse surveys and regular one-to-ones.

Stingray saw more than 70% of employees take part in surveys, logged over a thousand recognitions in six months, and used what they learned to adjust commuter benefits and wellness support. The stories show a pattern. When a company measures growth, follows through on what it finds, and tells employees what changed, engagement turns into longer careers, stronger results, and a workplace people recommend to others.

Step 7: Scale and Communicate  

Pilots serve a purpose, but the real impact comes when career development spreads across the whole organization. Scaling is not simply about adding software or tweaking policies. It is about creating a shared language around growth. Communication is central to that process.

Employees want proof that the feedback they share results in action. A simple update that shows what was heard and what was done often carries more weight than a glossy campaign. Leaders can reinforce this by telling authentic stories, like the analyst who stepped into operations, the call center agent who tried training, or the manager who prepared a successor.

Dashboards and metrics still have their place, but they’re for leadership. What employees notice most is whether their managers talk about development in everyday conversations, and whether opportunities are visible without having to ask quietly on the side. Scaling, at its core, is about normalizing those habits across the business.

Career Development: The Crucial Pillar of EX  

Retention doesn’t come from perks or quick fixes. It happens when people believe they have a future where they are. That belief is built through clear paths, honest conversations, and everyday signals that growth is taken seriously.

The evidence speaks for itself. Employees who move into new roles internally are far more likely to stay. Teams that feel their skills are developing show higher engagement. Companies that measure and act on career feedback cut turnover and raise performance. The opposite is true as well: when development feels unclear or unfair, disengagement creeps in, and replacement costs climb.

Career development & employee experience are not two separate strategies. They are the same conversation. Done well, they create a cycle: employees feel supported, they grow, and they stay. The business gains stronger skills, lower hiring costs, and more committed teams.