TalentLMS, a leading employee training platform, today released its 2026 Annual L&D Benchmark Report, which shows a growing trend of employees saying they’ll look for another job if their company does not provide them with training opportunities. The survey reaffirms that training is no longer a “nice to have”, but a business necessity, with 73% of employees confirming that training would make them stay longer.
The findings paint a picture of a workplace caught between the urgent need to upskill and the forces holding progress back.
One long-term trend (comparing this year’s responses with two previous annual reports) reveals the share of employees who said they would look for another job if their company didn’t provide training opportunities was on the decline from 41% to 24%, then climbed again to 35% in the most recent report. Yet more than half of employees say workloads leave no time for development.
Other key themes that emerged in this year’s study show that HR managers believe AI will open new roles and automate outdated ones. Specifically, 70% of HR managers plan to open new AI-related roles in the next year, yet 47% say their AI training is aimed at making jobs easier to automate. Also, HR managers think they are delivering on AI training, with employees disagreeing (a nearly 20-point percentage gap).
“The data sends a clear signal that employees want employers to invest in learning and development,” says Dimitris Tsingos, CEO of Epignosis, parent company of TalentLMS. “That requires top-down strategies and learning that empowers everyone — from the receptionist to the CEO — to help people grow, and build AI competencies that keep companies and talent ahead of innovation.”
Other key findings reveal how performance demands are increasing, squeezing the time available for learning.
- Two-thirds (65%) of employees say their company has increased performance expectations in the past year.
- Nearly half (45%) of employees feel pushed to deliver more at work.
The data indicate that employees are signaling that training directly influences whether they stay or leave. At the same time, HR leaders recognize its power but struggle to make it a sustained priority. With workloads limiting learning time and AI introducing both opportunity and anxiety, the mandate for the year ahead is clear — protect time for development, close the perception gap between leaders and employees, and embed AI literacy across every level of the organization.
