When you invest in your employees, you're creating new pathways to amplify their impact on your organization. By enabling them to learn a new technical skill, improve their leadership capabilities, or broaden their industry knowledge, you're maximizing the impact of your employees' time, talent and energy at your company.

Lack of career development opportunities, including leadership training and continuing education, is one of the top three reasons for employee turnover, according to The Work Institute. If your business does not have a formal training and development program, there's no time like the present to start one. From company-wide initiatives to individual training, these are some approaches that can help keep employee training and development up to date.

• Learning management system (LMS). An LMS is a software platform used for creating, managing and delivering training content. This approach standardizes employee training by creating a series of modules or lessons that every employee will complete. Employees can access these modules on their own schedule, so learning does not disrupt other workday activities. An LMS can be useful for employee onboarding and ongoing training, such as helping employees up-level their technical skills. For managers, LMS dashboards give a quick top-level view into where employees are in their training process, minimizing the need for time-consuming oversight.
• Virtual employee discussion groups. Staying up to date on the latest industry trends can be a challenge in an already busy workday. If you manage employees, you might occasionally email your team a recent think piece or news article. Identifying and integrating insights from these materials is more successful with a formal process. An employee discussion group, for example, encourages consistent participation and engagement. Consider selecting a monthly theme for topics and discussion. For example, one month the discussion group might focus on customer success best practices and another month's discussion could be on leadership skill development. Consider selecting a group member to lead the discussion group each month, selecting a few articles in advance and thought-starter questions to prompt conversation.
• AI-powered leadership apps. Virtual leadership tools offer employees access to impactful training anytime, anywhere. A range of options is available, including artificial-intelligence-powered apps with push notifications that prompt employees to practice training tips throughout the day with co-workers. As you explore potential solutions, consider how your employees will integrate these apps into their current workday for real-time behavior reinforcement and improvement.
• Virtual conferences. Industry conferences are essential to idea exchange and best practice development. While in-person conferences may be on hold, virtual events are still happening. Some industry conferences also have summaries and keynote slides available from the previous year's events, which can be useful learning resources.
• Mentorships. 80% of millennials consider workplace mentorships, including peer-to-peer mentorship, critical for professional success. If your business does not have a formal mentorship match program, consider creating one. Mentorships could be between senior leaders and new hires, co-workers, or even industry thought leaders outside the company. Think creatively about how these different relationships can help employees learn new skills and gain confidence.