How to Reduce Employee Turnover Through Career Development (Complete Guide)

How many customer support teams have you ever heard of boasting a 3% turnover rate?

No, we didn’t miss a digit. The average on teams like that is still around 30% or higher. But Diego Lugli of Pirate Ship shared this shocking statistic with HeyTaco, and we had to take a closer look. What’s different here?

Plenty, including peer recognition. But part of their rich, sociable, pirate-themed company culture includes a growth program. 

That’s why we’re exploring how to reduce employee turnover through career development alone. Why it matters, what it includes, and advice from leaders who swear by it.

TL;DR: You have to be willing to train them so well they could leave.

Why career development is an underutilized retention lever

Workplace studies are full of paradoxes, and this is one of the starkest. 

Lack of career development and internal opportunities are the #1 cause of turnover. Gallup reports that only 52% of employees have growth and development opportunities at their current job. A much higher percentage of companies claim to offer growth and development than that figure. 

Where’s the disconnect? Here are a few reasons why companies (and even employees) underutilize it:

• “Growth” applies solely to promotions. Meanwhile, there are current-role skills and lateral moves left untouched.
• Manager burnout and manager-related turnover are rising. An entire segment of a company misses out when one manager has no time or energy for career coaching.
• Companies qualify knowledge libraries and internal documents as a development program. There’s no individual path to follow, just material to consume. 

Career development vs. career pathing for employees

The disparity in responses between employees and employers may come down to their understanding of what development is. Employees may not think their former job developed them because they didn’t have sufficient career pathing. Employers may wonder why their clearly laid-out career pathing didn’t count.

There’s a strong argument to be made that career development and career pathing for employees should go hand-in-hand. A hybrid situation where skill-building is part of the pathway works for smaller or flatter teams without much room to move.

Building a career development program for employees

Step one: Align goals with skill needs. Step two: Gather feedback and ideas. Step three: Establish individual development plans. You can find or generate such checklists anywhere. 

Our idea of a complete guide to career development uses real-life examples and lessons from teams who did it. Here are the tips and stories they’ve shared with us.

Inventing internal mobility. 

Diego Lugli shared how the need for experienced outside talent led to some complaints from existing employees. The demand for growth was there. So, he started an internal internship called The Pirate Cadet Program, and here’s exactly how he did it:

1. The initial planning phase. During annual planning, department heads share what back-burner or short-term projects they could invite a cadet to do.
2. Internally promoting the program. Pirate Ship has a hub called Crestpoint where available cadet roles are posted like real jobs. 
3. Purposeful approval. When someone applies, their manager ensures the new role aligns with their career path. They’re not just taking a break from their usual grind.
4. The six-month rotation. The employee spends up to several months developing their skills on a real project.
5. Measurement and tracking. A cadet’s host manager mentors them, sets OKRs, holds regular check-ins, and gives feedback.

The program helped boost growth scores on engagement surveys by 15 points. It’s worked so well that next up is a mentorship program called Scallywag Academy. 



Make learning part of the culture. 

"When people come on our team initially, we fully reimburse for any certifications. A lot of people are like, ‘Is there like a budget yearly, monthly?’ And I'm like, ‘No, go to town, do it’...our average engineer has six certifications."

Sam Reilley is the VP of People & Culture at BSC Analytics, a remote team of high-performing engineers. The certification support is the first thing hires may notice about their learning culture, but there’s much more to explore.

BSC isn’t interested in simply growing skills. They’ve built an entire culture around cultivating experts and thought leaders. If you gather enough expertise and certs, peers can nominate you into the All Five Club, complete with custom jackets and cool vacations.

There are also Shark Tank-style innovation challenges and Lightning Talks, where engineers share their most fascinating work. Honestly, go ahead and listen to the full episode for a complete breakdown of a top-to-bottom learning culture. 

Remember that confidence is a skill. 

Smaller teams that need top talent can find themselves doing backflips to stay competitive. Many successful leaders, like Lav Crnobrjna of Vacation Tracker, stay ahead by building the confidence of people who are already sitting right there, waiting for a chance.

In fact, his former junior marketing hire is now a leader. "When you give them their first shot, they're very loyal to you after that,” he observes. Crnobrjna also doesn’t shy away from coaching inexperienced people on the basics, down to writing a professional email. 

Another example. Today, Sarah Russell is the Director of People Strategy Practice at 512Financial. But earlier in her career, she was chosen to be a peer coach. “Being seen and called out for that was really empowering. It helped me recognize and grow into skills I naturally had."

Let them fail. 

We naturally develop more resilience and courage in our careers as we stick with them. Failure is what helps organizations and employees alike learn to tolerate risks and develop ownership and accountability. It can even reveal larger systemic issues.

Career development programs for employees usually plan for failure. They’ll keep tasks low risk and put guardrails in place. But it’s also worth presenting the more unhinged school of thought from Carl Smith at Bureau of Digital, who wants his employees to “fail epically.” He let a new manager take a massive risk with a wealthy client and watched as the worst-case scenario unfolded.   

You should ask, why the hell would he do that? The bigger the failure, the bigger the impact. Failure shaped his career ascent; Smith himself once made a $3 million mistake on the job. “I never did that again.”

Now, no one really recommends this approach (even Carl). It still stands to reason that in some cases, people’s skills will only stretch and grow as far as they’re allowed to fail. If you want a lesson to be fully absorbed, make it a memorable one. You wouldn’t feel very accomplished if you slam-dunked a basketball from the top of a ladder propped against the hoop.

Measure managers by their people's growth. 

One ancillary, underrated benefit of growth and development opportunities is that they reveal good managers. "One of the measures of my success is how are my team members, how are my direct reports progressing?” says Sanket Merchant of PeakSpan Capital. “Are they getting promoted? Are they continuing to grow? If they get promoted, I've done my job."

Even so, be sure to define growth beyond promotions. Greater independence in handling challenges and broader responsibilities are a few additional examples. Yet even this can be too procedural and scorecard-bound for some teams. Just ask:

• Who on the team got better?
• Who moved on and why?
• Would team members work here all over again?

Managers who can answer these questions are more likely to be growth-oriented, and less likely to be talent hoarders. Which brings us to our final, most critical, most overlooked growth and development program principle.

Throw a going-away party. 

Companies that celebrate when employees outgrow roles and move on are places people recommend. Even if someone feels encouraged to go, qualities like that are natural turnover reducers.

"Treating your teammates so well that they want to stay, but training them even better that they can go work anywhere. I want people on my team that want to be here,” says Lloyd Fobi, Senior Technology Leader at St. Charles Health System. “And if this is not where you want to be, it's also my responsibility to get you to where you want to be. And then I have to celebrate you there."

For Pirate Ship, seeing team members move on to something better is proof of program success. "When you develop talent internally, sometimes that means that talent has to move on because the business doesn't have enough roles for them,” admits Lugli. “That's an unfortunate thing, but it's also a celebration because that means that our programs did well."

Why some growth & development programs fail

Learning how to reduce employee turnover through career development asks you to put yourself in their shoes. Underwhelming program results or participation often come down to these five factors. More than that, here’s what it feels like.

1. Assigning more work without more time.

Homework, yuck. Development that expands into personal time isn’t right for every type of role. It’s also the reason managers don’t support programs. Some are already overburdened.

Fix: Protect a few hours a week for the opportunity, for both manager and employee.

2. Launching without manager training or buy-in.

It basically feels like going over a manager’s head to do an HR thing. Why did they never mention it? Am I not good enough for it? 

Fix: Managers prepare and announce. Only then can it really launch. 

3. Promising promotions and raises that never arrive.

This is a smash-hit recipe for high voluntary turnover. People who complete steps and then get stiffed don’t trust you, ever. 

Fix: Even if these things are on offer, frame it as “readiness for,” not a “guarantee of.”

4. Reserving growth and development for high performers.

A great way to grow an employee’s capacity for resentment and ensure “lesser” performance stays in the basement. 

Fix: Every role and performance level should have a next step or specific skill to build on.

5. Never measuring the program’s progress.

If it looks like you forgot and just let it sit there, why would anyone join? 

Fix: Check participant retention rates against company averages quarterly. Take a tip from Pirate Ship in ensuring assigned projects are relevant to individual goals.

Reinforce learning & celebrate achievements with recognition.

There’s no better excuse for a ton of last-minute tacos than a going-away party. Employees know that growth and development are for “whole-team good” and not “company-only gain” when it’s reinforced with recognition every step of the way. 

"HeyTaco is a more grassroots way to get everyone's contributions recognized — especially the little things, like helping respond to an incident late at night or giving really insightful feedback. Those are the things that often go unseen."

• Kalinda P., Software Developer II, HeyTaco User

Learn more about the impact of celebrating everyday wins. 

Retention and career development FAQ

What is an internal mobility program? 

Internal mobility programs provide structured ways for employees to move into new roles, projects, or teams within the company. Manager support and job postings with clear eligibility terms are important. Internal mobility reduces turnover by giving employees new challenges and more job experience.

Does training employees make them leave? 

Sometimes, but more often, the opposite is true. People leave jobs when they feel stuck. Training alone isn’t the answer; it works best alongside career pathing, internal mobility, and recognition. This strategy shows that a company is both investing in an employee and showing them where to go.

How do you build a learning culture? 

By not making it an extra work task. Public and social is the way to go. For example, let people give Lightning Talks where they can be a teacher for 10 minutes. If you budget for certifications, don’t make approval complicated. Celebrate learning and growth in communication channels frequently.

How should managers be measured on developing people? 

Start by looking at outcomes. How many of their people made an internal move in the last year? Are there any active development plans? And of course, how do their team’s turnover and retention rates compare to the company average?

What do people want besides more money?

Clear expectations, growth opportunities, and for their work to be seen and valued. Clear expectations encompass everything from compensation and promotions to daily tasks. Growth and development give them more chances to do meaningful work. Being recognized affirms purpose and belonging.