10 Companies With Exceptional Employee Development Programs

What do exceptional companies all have in common? They recognize that developing their workforce is their greatest competitive advantage. 

While development programs are usually focused on training employees, we’ve seen hundreds of companies accelerate employee development through initiatives like:

• Development plan tracks
• Mentoring programs
• Employee connection programs
• Upskilling/reskilling
• Employee resource groups (ERGs)
• Career pathing

As the labor market grows increasingly competitive, organizations with robust employee development programs, like the ones we’ve highlighted here, will stand out to applicants and help companies build a talent pipeline in the years to come.

👋 P.S. Looking to launch an employee development program in your organization? Book a quick, low-pressure chat with us to learn best practices, insights from top companies, and how Together can help you reach your employee development goals through mentorship. 

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Why your company needs an employee development program

From career to development to employee satisfaction, there are many reasons why companies take time to run an employee development program:

• Upskilling and reskilling employees
• Leadership and management training
• Digital transformation and skill expansion
• Bridging the confidence and readiness gap
• Employee performance support
• Diversity, equity and inclusion
• Improving the success of internship and returnship programs
• Increasing connectedness of teams

Through employee development programs, organizations have been able to do more for their employees. And it pays off. Employees that go through a development program have higher retention rates and engagement levels. 

Simply put, employees want more from the places they work, namely career development, long-term growth, better pay, and greater well-being. And you can use employee development programs to engage, retain, and invest in your team members.

What do the companies with great training programs do differently?

Most development programs only cover the basics: online reading materials or courses, on-the-job training sessions, and once-a-month meetings. But corporate e-learning alone isn’t enough. 

Organizations need to go beyond, providing employees with the tools to do their jobs and also helping them feel challenged, motivated, and ready to take on new endeavors. 

Companies with the best training programs do this by focusing on areas that benefit the business and the employee, such as:

• Employee retention and job satisfaction
• DEIB initiatives that promote a positive work environment
• Visibility of minority employees for leadership opportunities
• Fresh perspectives from junior employees for executives
• Retention of Millennial and Gen Z employees
• Feedback and evaluation to further improve the program
• Support for remote and distributed teams

10 companies with the best training programs

Let’s look at a few examples of how companies have created and managed employee development programs.

1. Heineken

When surveyed, 86% of Heineken senior leaders wanted to connect with junior employees—the next generation—to gain new skills and experiences. This led to Heineken running a reverse mentoring program where junior employees act as mentors to senior leaders and executives. Such a program aims to provide leadership a new perspective on the future of work and areas for growth. 

Additionally, Heineken also runs a global diversity and inclusion program. This program is geared toward empowering colleagues to practice inclusion and embrace the diversity of countries the company operates in. When creating the program, Pascale Thorre, Heinken’s Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Head, conducted a round of 45 introductory interviews to understand how inclusive employees thought the company was and what could to make it more inclusive.

The goal then was to create a program that focused on the “potential needs of [their] people across the full five layers of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs." This meant keeping needs associated with physiology, belonging, self-actualization, self-esteem, and safety in mind. 

“Inclusion starts with open and honest communication with everyone in your company … After all, Inclusion can translate differently in different environments and for diverse people.” – Pascale Thorre, Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Head at Heineken

2. City National Bank

City National Bank has been named one of the ‘Best Employers for Women’ by Forbes. CEO Kelly Coffey was named one the Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance by American Banker. Both honors recognized City National’s employee resource groups and DEI initiatives. 

Within these initiatives, the bank hosts a colleague resource group (CRG) called The Black Colleague Alliance (BCA). Their mission: connecting and empowering Black colleagues to thrive as they “climb toward Black excellence.”

Not only does this CRG support Black employees, the BCA also engages in community outreach. Their programs include financial education, community events, and civic engagements that give Black professionals the tools they need to succeed as individuals and small business owners. 

Other notable resources include sections of their site geared toward underserved populations, such as women and minorities, plus online resources geared toward business owners. 

3. Cooley

Cooley, a global law firm, has been recognized as one of the Best Law Firms for Women and Diversity a whopping 12 times. 

They also created a virtual mentoring program—called Cooley Academy Mentoring Program (CAMP)—geared towards improving their onboarding process. The purpose behind this program is to pair new employees with experienced individuals and bring them up to speed more efficiently. 

Through this program, mentors get to teach, train, and support new hires through mentoring sessions, and prepare them for more complex work. The company used reporting tools to better understand how mentoring relationships were performing through mentorship progress and feedback.

4. CDM Smith

CDM Smith is a full-service engineering and construction firm that provides water, environment, transportation, and energy solutions to clients around the world. 

Their Career Compass program gives employees a clear direction for their career advancement. Employees can set actionable goals, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and align their daily work with their long-term aspirations. 

And it’s been incredibly effective—96% of participants report new gains in confidence, responsibilities, and leadership capabilities. Promotion rates at CDM Smith are a testament to the impact of mentoring on career development: 34% of mentees have received promotions vs. 13% of non-participants. Plus, the company estimates it’s saved $3.2 million due to increased employee retention.

5. Cruise Automation

Cruise Automation cares deeply about internal career development. They want to attract top talent and nurture them to grow further within the company. 

Through their training and mentorship programs, they were able to accelerate employee development by matching new hires with experienced employees. They used templated mentoring agendas with guiding questions, to-do tasks, links to further reading, and other resources so that teams could have meaningful conversations about skills and goals.

After all, a great mentor-mentee match can lead to career-changing opportunities.

6. Amazon

Amazon runs multiple employee training programs under the Amazon Technical Academy to prepare nontechnical employees to move into software engineering careers. These company training programs will help employees feel confident and take on different roles at Amazon and also in other industries. One such program is Associate2Tech where they will train front-line employees to move into technical roles, even if they have no previous IT experience. All training is voluntary.

Regarding fleshing out Amazon’s training program, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of HR says,

“We think it's important to invest in our employees, and to help them gain new skills and create more professional options for

7. Chipotle

Every single year, some fast food brands lose more than an entire workforce. That means they’re constantly scrambling to staff their stores, leaving them less time to focus on achieving their strategic goals.

Chipotle is attempting to buck the trend by betting big on employee development.

In 2018, the company began reinvesting more than one-third of anticipated savings from tax law changes into its employees.

And since early 2020, Chipotle enhanced its employee development plans by adding more than 5,500 remote courses, covering topics as diverse as business, tech, and wellness.

This move is part of a wider initiative that saw the chain introduce an ERG called United Network of Influencers Furthering Inclusion and Ethnic Diversity. The group’s goal is to promote an equal opportunities approach to career growth and development, thereby helping Chipotle build a discrimination and inequality-free working environment.

Key components of the program include:

• Mentoring for minority employees
• Quarterly training sessions to promote workplace diversity and inclusion (D&I)
• Virtual roundtable events featuring high-profile speakers and panels

Discussing the company’s efforts, Chief Diversity, Inclusion and People Officer, Marissa Andrad said in a press release: 

“Our employees are seeking real connection more than ever before, and it's our responsibility to cultivate an environment where they can continue to thrive and pursue their passions with like-minded co-workers, even in a virtual setting.”

8. Marriott International

Marriott International has been consistently named one of Asia Pacific’s best employers, with much of its success tracing back to its focus on employee development.

“Marriott International is a people-first company,” says Natasha Rasheed, Area Director of Human Resources for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. “We believe in taking care of our associates, so they in turn take care of our guests. It’s embedded in our DNA.”

The company’s employee development plans are designed to attract and retain a loyal team committed to the core values of excellence and service. It offers two development programs:

• The Global Voyage Leadership Development program, intended to help recent university graduates 
• The Marriott Development Academy (MDA), aimed at helping aspiring managers acquire the soft skills required for leadership roles

Combined, those programs have helped Marriott International fill more than 55% of leadership vacancies within the Australian market with internal candidates.

Not only that, but the company fosters close relationships with universities to help it attract top talent at a young age. It also places substantial focus on D&I, whether through empowering female leaders or by ensuring local populations can access its training and development initiatives.

9. Compass Group

Compass Group's divisions Eurest and ESFM operate across numerous client locations nationwide. One of their biggest challenges? Fostering meaningful connection and supporting professional development among managers who are scattered across different regions, many of whom worked in isolated environments. 

Compass Group partnered with Together to offer two mentorship programs to their employees: Connect is an evergreen program that allows participants to connect informally, primarily for short-term advice or knowledge sharing. And Grow is a traditional, career-focused mentorship program that provides fresh perspectives and learning opportunities to mentees.

A promotional campaign at the beginning of the year led to a 39% increase in scheduled sessions and over 60 hours of future sessions booked, indicating that participants were finding long-term value from mentoring. Program participants also highlighted how approachable the Together platform felt, how easy scheduling was, and how beneficial the resources were for both mentors and mentees.

10. Spotify

Spotify attributes its success in attracting and retaining talent, as well as its overall growth, to fostering a culture of continuous learning. With a valuation of $73.65 billion, the streaming giant adopts a “growth is not linear” philosophy for career development.

The company supports flexible career paths through initiatives such as:

• Internal mobility programs: Employees can engage in Gigs, Job Swaps, and Permanent Moves, emphasizing skill development over job titles.
• Career support: Regular career mapping discussions with managers, along with career coaching and mentoring, help employees build transferable skills.
• Data-driven learning: Spotify leverages data to identify skill gaps and deliver targeted learning opportunities.
• Cross-functional growth opportunities: Initiatives like an internal job board and Career Week encourage internal roles and cross-departmental collaboration.‍
  

Together, these development programs for employees foster a culture of continuous growth and development.

Types of training and development programs

Development Programs

The goal of a development program is to align the growth of individual employees with your organization’s strategic objectives. Development programs can come in all shapes and sizes, including:

• Leadership development: Prepare potential and current leaders for higher responsibilities
• Technical skills training: Equip employees with specific skills needed to perform effectively
• Succession planning: Prepare future leaders and key roles to ensure business continuity
• Career development: Help employees plan and navigate their career within the organization
• Soft skills development: Improve interpersonal skills, communication, collaboration, and EQ
• DEIB: Foster a diverse and inclusive workplace
• Onboarding: Help new hires get acclimated to the organization, culture, and their roles
• Interns: Help interns find their way and build their careers
• Employee wellness: Support the physical and mental well-being of employees

Mentorship programs

Mentorship programs are a great way to aid and accelerate learning at work. They provide employees with the opportunity to learn from a seasoned leader and become more competent because of it. 

Start employee mentoring programs by getting leaders, stakeholders, and employees on board. Choose a type of mentoring (1-on-1, group, traditional, reverse, and so on) that fits your goals and needs. Once you decide on the type of program, create relevant matches between mentors and mentees. 

If you’re trying to match employees at scale (think 100+ employees), you’ll likely want to use a matching algorithm that automates the registration and matching process.

Colleague connection programs

Peer-to-peer training is another effective way to bring more of a collaborative or social aspect to employee development. 

Technical skills like how to code, follow a procedure, or execute a specialized task can be learned through a course or by following available documentation or internal blogs. But to master these complex skills, employees will benefit more from working alongside a peer mentor. Likewise, they can also learn more abstract skills like how to handle conflict better, balance work and life, or be a better leader. 

Level-up your employee development programs with Together

If you’re planning to work on your own employee development program, remember that it takes more than just building a training program and assigning courses or tasks. Employees must feel empowered to learn for your L&D efforts to pay off.

A development program leveraging Together's software can help you create an intentional and mindful space for employee growth and development.

Book a demo with our team to see how we can support you in your goals.

Employee development program FAQs 

1. What are some best practices for companies with training programs?

As you can see from the examples we’ve shared here, there are countless ways that companies can approach employee training and development—there’s no single one-size-fits-all approach. But the companies with the best training programs do share a few key characteristics. 

• A mix of structure and flexibility. The best programs create structured yet flexible learning pathways that align with both the business’s goals and individual employees’ career aspirations. 
• An emphasis on mentorship. Companies with the best training programs prioritize mentorship and peer learning. They recognize that development happens through relationships, not just formal coursework. 
• Using technology strategically. Effective training programs use technology to scale their programs efficiently. This way, they can track participation, measure outcomes, and make adjustments based on data. 
• Integrating learning into the company culture. Successful companies understand that training can’t simply be a one-off event and see it as an ongoing investment. They build learning into their culture through regular touchpoints and continuous support.

2. What are the most common skills employee development programs teach?

The skills you choose to teach in your employee development program will depend on your particular industry, the skills gaps you identify in your workforce, and what goals or outcomes you’re trying to achieve.

Some employee development programs are more general and cover a range of soft skills—like helping prepare junior employees to take on people management roles in the future. Others are very specialized, like training employees to move into highly sought-after technical roles.

Generally speaking, it’s useful to design programs that build both hard/technical skills and soft skills, because most roles require a blend of both. 

Generally speaking, the World Economic Forum defines the fastest-growing tech skills as: 

• AI
• Big data
• Networks and cybersecurity
• Technology literacy

And the fastest-growing soft skills include:

• Creative thinking 
• Resilience
• Flexibility
• Agility 
• Curiosity 
• Lifelong learning 

3. How do companies with training programs manage administrative tasks like tracking program participation, notifying employees of upcoming meetings, and sharing resources?

While it’s possible for HR or L&D professionals to manage all the administrative tasks of their training program manually, this work can add up quickly. It can also cause problems if a single person was managing everything in spreadsheets and they leave the organization—all that work can be lost and means the person taking over has to start from scratch.

This is why most companies with effective training programs rely on dedicated software platforms to handle administrative work. These tools can automate routine tasks like sending meeting reminders, tracking attendance, and sharing resources with participants. 

Some of these platforms use matching algorithms to connect mentors and mentees based on their skills, goals, and availability. This removes the manual burden of coordinating relationships and frees up a lot of time. 

It’s also common for these platforms to include built-in scheduling tools, progress tracking dashboards, and resource libraries. By automating these administrative functions, HR and L&D teams can focus their energy on program design, participant support, and measuring outcomes rather than logistics.

4. What types of training programs support employee development?

There are many different types of training programs that can support employee development. For example:

• Mentorship programs pair experienced employees with those seeking guidance, fostering knowledge transfer and career growth. 
• Onboarding programs help new hires acclimate quickly to company culture and expectations. 
• Leadership development initiatives prepare high-potential employees and new managers for increased responsibilities. 
• Peer learning programs encourage knowledge sharing across teams and departments, which can break down silos and increase the adoption of best practices. 
• Skills-based training addresses specific competency gaps, whether technical or interpersonal.

Many organizations also implement ERG-sponsored programs that support underrepresented groups and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through targeted development opportunities.

5. What should HR or L&D leaders look for when evaluating employee development companies?

When evaluating employee development companies, look for platforms that offer customization to match your organization's specific goals and culture. 

You’ll also want to find a solution that can cut down on your manual work. For example, some platforms have robust matching capabilities that can connect participants based on multiple criteria like skills, interests, location, and availability. Other time-saving features to look out for include automated scheduling, progress tracking, reporting dashboards, and resource management.

If all goes well, people from throughout your company will be using this employee development platform, so make sure you get a demo and references to evaluate the ease of use for both administrators and participants. 

It’s also important to find a company that offers strong customer support and assistance with implementation and launches. 

Finally, examine how the platform measures success and provides actionable insights, because data will be the key to demonstrating ROI and continuously improving your programs.

6. What distinguishes companies with training programs that drive real results?

At Together, we’ve had the opportunity to work with companies of all sizes and from a broad range of industries on their training programs (you’ve just read about several of them earlier in this article!). Based on our experience, there are a few elements the most successful companies tend to have in common:

Securing executive sponsorship 

When companies secure visible executive sponsorship (which means that executives participate in the program and regularly encourage others to participate as well), this sends the message that training is valued. 

‍Treating learning as an ongoing process

Successful companies don’t see learning or training as a simple box to check—they create a culture of learning by celebrating development milestones, rewarding participation, and making time for growth activities within employees’ regular work schedules. 

‍Collecting data

Finally, companies that have effective training programs track data such as participant satisfaction, completion rates, and skill acquisition as well as business impact metrics like retention, promotion rates, and performance improvements.