For years, employee development has followed a familiar pattern: HR designs structured programs, employees complete assigned learning and managers reinforce it during scheduled moments like performance reviews.
That model isn’t broken. But it is increasingly out of sync with how work actually happens.
Roles evolve quickly. Tools change constantly. And in the last two years, the rapid adoption of AI has only accelerated that pace, reshaping workflows, decision-making and skill expectations almost overnight.
Yet development systems remain largely static, generic and HR-driven—activated at fixed moments rather than embedded into daily work. New research from Go1 highlights the growing gap between how development is designed and how it’s actually experienced. Nearly half of employees (47%) needed development support multiple times in the past month. But only seven percent turned to a learning platform first when they needed help.
Instead, most turned to a colleague or manager.
Development is already happening in the flow of work. The question is whether our systems are built to support it.
Here are five ways employee development needs to evolve.
1) Move from “learning programs” to real-time support
Employees don’t wait for the annual training calendar to encounter skill gaps.
In our research, the top triggers for development weren’t formal career milestones. They were changes to tools and company processes and changes in an employee’s role. That reality has intensified as AI-powered tools reshape how work gets done, forcing employees to adapt continuously.
As a result, 83% of employees say they expect development and performance support to arise naturally in their workflow rather than as a separate process.
HR leaders should treat this as a design principle: development must be continuous, accessible and responsive—not episodic.
2) Stop relying on legacy systems as the “front door”
Learning platforms are designed for governance and scale. But they are rarely where development starts.
When employees need help, two-thirds turn to a person first. Only seven percent go to a workplace platform as their first step.
Employees prioritize speed and relevance. If support requires logging into a separate system and waiting for approvals, it loses to quicker alternatives—asking a colleague, searching online or increasingly, using AI tools embedded in their workflow.
Development can no longer rely on a destination model. It must surface within the tools employees already use.
3) Make development context-aware
Most organizations have invested in personalization through competency models and role-based pathways. But employees are asking for something more specific.
Across roles and industries, employees say development feedback is most useful when it is directly related to their current work and aligned to their goals. It is least useful when it feels generic or disconnected from day-to-day responsibilities.
As work becomes more dynamic and as AI changes tasks within roles, static personalization isn’t enough. Development needs to reflect what someone is working on right now, not just who they are on paper.
Context is what makes learning actionable.
4) Make managers the drivers of development—without adding more to their plate
Managers already feel responsible for development: 95% say they’re accountable for building their team’s skills. But employees don’t always experience that support in the moment—46% say they rely primarily on their own judgment to identify growth opportunities.
Managers are most likely to step in when something forces the moment: a performance issue, a career conversation or a new responsibility. Day-to-day coaching is harder to sustain when time is tight and development tools sit outside the flow of work.
To close the gap organizations need to make it easier for managers to act on development as needs emerge. That means giving them simple, practical ways to guide growth in real time—without requiring extra systems, extra admin or extra process.
When managers are equipped to make timely development decisions, employees feel supported sooner—and HR gets more consistent development at scale.
5) Expand development beyond traditional eLearning
Finally, development can’t be limited to eLearning alone. Employees build skills in many ways – and after years of digital overload, many are craving learning that feels more human and practical. That often means offline or blended learning, not just another course in a catalog.
To support this broader view of growth organizations need more flexible ways to enable and manage development. HR teams should be able to support a wide range of learning experiences while maintaining visibility and governance—without creating friction through long approval cycles or disconnected systems. One way Go1 supports this shift is through Go1 Pay, which helps organizations fund development beyond traditional courses. And the shift is already happening: nearly 70% of Go1 Pay spend today goes toward offline experiences, reflecting how modern skill-building increasingly happens through real-world learning.
The bottom line
Work has become more dynamic—and development systems have to become more dynamic too.
That means moving from static programs to continuous support, from generic pathways to guidance that reflects real work and from HR-owned processes to development that’s easier to activate across the business.
The organizations that evolve now will build more adaptable teams, more confident managers and development cultures that feel genuinely human—blending digital learning with real-world experiences that help people grow in ways that actually stick.