Dive Brief:

• Employers on Comparably's Best Companies for Professional Development list for 2019 were rated anonymously by employees, who evaluated them on their career advancement and growth offerings. Insight Global, a staffing company, topped the list for large employers with 500 employees, and SnackNation, a healthful snack delivery service, ranked number one for small- to medium-sized businesses.
• Comparably asked employees if they are challenged at work; how often they receive feedback on how to improve; how often they get feedback from their manager; if they have a mentor at work; and if their employer provides "meaningful opportunities for career advancement" to generate the ratings. More than 10 million employee ratings were received from 50,000 companies.
• Rounding out the top five large employers were HubSpot, Intuit, Sage and Stanley Black & Decker. For small to medium-sized businesses, Phenom People, Branch, Levelset and Sitetracker made the top five.

Dive Insight:

Companies recognize career development as a powerful retention tool. Employees want to know they're valued, and helping them advance professionally is an excellent means for employers to communicate that belief. In addition to preparing employees for more responsibility or higher-up roles, development is also tied to reducing attrition among millennials in particular. 

Flipping the narrative to present career development as an employee benefit rather than a business demand, as Walmart did, can shift the way job seekers and workers view learning. Even still, organizations continue to increase their learning spend, but many workers are frustrated by the lack of choices available to them. Experts have said it's important for employers to measure and evaluate the results of their learning programs to know when they are effective. Employers have looked to behavioral science, as well, to help them understand what kinds of learning initiatives and platforms will resonate most with employees. Experts in the field have said that creating opportunities for "deep learning," targeting learners who are ready to learn and demonstrating the relevance of the material can help learning sink in. 

Recognition from employees on ranked lists like Comparably's can be validating for learning specialists and talent pros, but it shouldn't stop them from soliciting frequent employee feedback on all these workplace initiatives, too.