Guild, the leading talent development company, has released new research highlighting the power of embedding employee learning and development (L&D) directly into the heart of an organization’s business strategy, and uncovers a distinct cohort of forward-thinking HR leaders who are driving this work forward.
At a time when HR is facing rapid AI adoption, workforce reinvention, shifting labor demographics, and skills shortages all while balancing constrained budgets and increased business pressure — there’s never been a more critical moment for HR to prove its business value. Yet, in Guild’s research nearly a third (28%) of CHROs and L&D leaders agreed that L&D investments had unknown, little, or no impact on revenue or profit margin, suggesting the field has a long way to go to be a real catalyst for business growth.
On the flip side, HR leaders who tie learning to their organizations biggest business priorities are 122% more likely to meet or exceed their highest-priority metrics than these laggards. This disconnect highlights the need for HR leaders to champion their own cause and ensure business leaders understand L&D’s contribution to growth. In the words of one HR leader featured in the report, “When you start with business KPIs, you stop being a cost center and start becoming a growth engine. That’s when L&D becomes indispensable.”
The research also revealed strong ties to senior leadership, an investment in soft skills alongside technical skills, and a strategic deployment of data analysis distinguishes high-performing HR organizations. Effective HR leaders are 53% more likely to say the organization’s CHRO collaborates extremely closely with the senior leadership, 31% more likely to say their L&D investments prioritize soft skill development, 40% more likely to report using tech and data analytics to guide L&D strategies, and 27% more likely to say that L&D investments support senior and middle managers’ careers.
“The data is clear and confirms what Guild sees every day in our work with forward-thinking employers: when companies embed learning into their core strategy, they do more than upskill their teams: they unlock performance, agility, and growth,” says Bijal Shah, CEO of Guild.” The HR leaders who are spearheading this charge are not just supporting the business. They are shaping its future.”
