Learning and development has come a long way from its compliance-driven roots. For a long time, L&D's job was straightforward: get people certified, keep them compliant, check the box. That's still part of the focus, but it's no longer the whole story, especially for business services organizations where the expertise employees bring to work is one of the business's greatest competitive advantages.
Today, learning helps attract and retain talent, prepare future leaders, and build the skills employees need to deliver exceptional client experiences and adapt as work continues to change.
Three areas keep coming up as the biggest differentiators for business services organizations building sustainable learning cultures. None of them require a complete program overhaul. Here's what I'm seeing.
1. Meet learners where they are
For the first time in history, workplaces have as many as four or five generations working side by side. That's exciting, but it also creates new challenges for L&D teams. Not everyone learns the same way.
Some employees want in-depth, structured training. Others want a five-minute video they can watch between meetings. It goes deeper with format too. Some people learn best from podcasts, others need visual walkthroughs, and others prefer working through a live scenario.
Many organizations still rely heavily on a single training format, usually because that's how the program was originally built and nobody has revisited it since. If that sounds familiar, it's not a failure, it's simply a starting point. Organizations that offer learning in multiple formats often see stronger engagement because employees can choose the approach that works best for them.
This shift isn't about building an entirely new program from scratch. It's about designing learning that adapts to employees, rather than asking employees to adapt to the learning. That could mean offering a leadership course in three or four formats instead of just one, or letting people choose between a live session or a self-paced module covering the same material. When learning fits the learner, employees are more likely to participate, and more likely to apply what they've learned.
A question worth sitting with: If you asked your employees how they prefer to learn, would your current learning experiences actually reflect that?
2. Connect learning to career growth
Across business services organizations, one theme comes up again and again: employees want to understand what's next. They want growth, development, and visibility into how the learning they're doing connects to their future at the company.
Most organizations have onboarding and required training covered. What comes next is less clear. Employees are often left to navigate their own development, with little structure and less guidance.
The organizations seeing the strongest gains in retention and engagement are the ones that break that pattern.
They build clear career paths that give employees ownership over their own growth, helping people understand what skills they need today, what their next role requires, and how individual contributors can continue growing even without pursuing management.
That last point matters more than it might seem. Career growth doesn't look the same for everyone. Some employees are working toward a leadership title, while others want to deepen their technical expertise. Both paths are valuable, and both deserve meaningful support.
Accounting firm KerberRose is a strong example of this in action. The firm invested in structured development and leadership programs designed for different career stages, rather than a one-size-fits-all path. That approach increased participation in development opportunities and strengthened the connection between day-to-day learning and long-term growth.
The takeaway isn't that every organization needs an identical program. It's that employees engage more deeply, and stay longer, when they can clearly see how the learning in front of them moves them toward a goal they actually care about.
Are there visible growth opportunities for people at every stage of your organization, not just the ones eyeing a promotion, and how is your learning strategy supporting that?
3. Look beyond completion rates
Completion rates still matter. They help confirm that required training gets done. But by themselves, they only tell part of the story. A 95% completion rate tells you people clicked through a course. It doesn't tell you whether anything actually changed as a result.
More business leaders are now asking a different question: not just "Did employees complete their training?" but "What changed because of it?" Did retention improve? Are more employees being promoted internally? Is the organization building a stronger leadership pipeline? Are employees better prepared to serve clients? These are the questions leadership tends to care about because they're tied to business outcomes rather than activity.
We can't neglect ROI. L&D teams seeing the most buy-in don’t always track sophisticated analytics or have the most complex dashboards. Instead, they have prioritized alignment. It can be as simple as identifying one or two concrete business goals and asking how learning initiatives can support them.
Think about your own organization. What's a business goal or team OKR this year that your L&D work is actively supporting? If nothing comes to mind right away, that's worth sitting with. It might be a sign to better align learning with a larger business initiative.
That's what makes measurement meaningful. Small, deliberate connections between learning and business outcomes tend to compound into real momentum over time.
One change, starting today
None of this requires reinventing your learning program overnight. Building a stronger learning culture happens through consistent, small improvements over time.
As you think about your own organization, pick one opportunity that stands out. Maybe it's expanding the formats your learning is available in. Maybe it's creating more visible career pathways. Or it might be shifting how you measure success so completion isn't the only number you can speak to.
Whatever you choose, focus on one change you can realistically start making today.
Continue the conversation at Camp Reinvent
Join us this summer for Camp Reinvent, a free four-week guided program for business services learning leaders.
You'll evaluate your learning strategy, hear how peers are approaching today's workforce challenges, and complete practical exercises designed to help move your organization forward.
Along the way, you'll earn a badge recognizing your commitment to building a more prepared, future-ready workforce.
Reserve your spot at Camp Reinvent today.
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