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Employees may value learning while still struggling to understand where it is taking them. New research shows a gap between knowing which skills matter personally and seeing a clear organizational strategy, career destination, and opportunity to apply learning. L&D can close that gap by making employee development pathways visible, relevant, and connected to real work.
An employee can complete a strong course, apply a useful skill, and still have no idea what the organization is preparing for next. That disconnect matters because learning activity and development clarity are not the same thing.
The 2026 State of Learning and Development report from Perceptyx offers a useful view of the problem. Based on a July panel of 2,992 employed people across North America and Europe, the report found that 74% know which skills they personally need to develop. Only 56% see a clear organizational learning strategy for the next one to two years.
The difference is even more pronounced by job level. Seventy-five percent of executives reported seeing a clear learning strategy, compared with 43% of individual contributors.
This does not mean employees need access to confidential workforce plans. It means they need enough direction to understand which capabilities matter, why development is relevant, what opportunities it may create, and how they will use new skills in the work.
The Perceptyx findings are not a story of universal training failure. Many respondents reported positive experiences: 73% said learning produces lasting behavior change, and 71% said it helps people perform their jobs more effectively.
The weaker signals appeared around the system that surrounds learning. Just 61% saw programs connected to broader business priorities, 58% said employees had enough time during work for development, and 59% saw career opportunities for themselves within the organization.
That distinction is important. A well-designed workshop may solve an immediate problem. A library of courses may provide broad access. Neither automatically shows employees how their development connects to future roles, lateral moves, expanded responsibilities, or changing business needs.
Perceptyx organized its findings around four practical questions: Where are we going? Why does it matter? Where can it take me? How will I use it?
Those questions can become a useful test for any major learning initiative.
Employees need a plain-language view of the capabilities the organization expects to matter. A list of trendy skills is not enough. Leaders should connect those capabilities to specific changes in customers, technology, operations, regulation, or strategy.
Learning should help employees understand the work problem it is intended to improve. TTA’s guide to building a learning and development strategy that supports business goals explains how to connect capability priorities to measurable organizational needs.
Development does not always lead to a promotion. It can prepare someone for a lateral move, broader responsibilities, a project assignment, a new technology, or stronger performance in the current role. Organizations should make these possibilities visible rather than allowing employees to assume that a traditional upward move is the only meaningful outcome.
Employees need practice, manager encouragement, and opportunities to apply the capability. The report found that among employees who said learning improved performance, 82% also said their manager encouraged application. That relationship is correlational, but it reinforces a practical reality: the environment after training shapes whether learning remains useful.
Learning strategy often lives in planning documents, budget discussions, capability models, and leadership presentations. Employees experience it through smaller signals.
They see which programs receive time and attention. Additionally, they hear whether managers discuss development during regular work. They notice who gets selected for projects after completing a program. They learn whether a new capability leads to a meaningful opportunity or simply another badge.
To make employee development pathways clearer, L&D and business leaders can:
TTA’s learning strategy consultants help organizations turn business priorities into a practical framework for people, programs, technology, and measurement.
L&D dashboards often focus on participation, completion, satisfaction, and assessment scores. Those measures can be useful, but they overlook whether employees understand the development system itself.
Consider adding questions such as:
These measures can reveal a different kind of gap. Employees may like the learning while remaining uncertain about its direction.
The central lesson from the new research is straightforward: providing learning is not the same as providing a visible development path.
Employees need to understand what the organization is preparing for, how their skills connect to that future, and where they can apply what they build. When those connections are clear, learning becomes easier to prioritize and more relevant to both performance and growth.
Use TTA’s Corporate Learning Strategy guidance to assess whether your programs form a coherent system employees can understand. Speak to a Learning Advisor if your organization needs help turning workforce priorities into clear development pathways.
It is a visible connection between capabilities an employee can build, the learning and practice available, and the roles, projects, responsibilities, or performance outcomes those capabilities can support.
They do not need every planning detail. They need enough clarity to focus their development, understand why it matters, and see how new capabilities connect to work and opportunity.
Managers can discuss priority skills, recommend relevant practice, create opportunities to apply learning, give feedback, and connect employees with projects or responsibilities that use developing capabilities.
Ask employees whether they understand future capability priorities, see links between learning and business needs, recognize available opportunities, and receive time and support to apply new skills.
