As many HR leaders face a more budget-constrained environment, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to defend important people initiatives — let alone champion new investments. And whether you’re looking to protect your talent investments from budget cuts or get buy-in for new programs, you have to go above and beyond in proving their value.

When it comes to education benefits that fuel talent mobility, there’s plenty of data on program outcomes. Check out this infographic on the 5 proven ways career mobility drives ROI to see the numbers on talent attraction, retention, mobility, and more.

Employees participating in Guild’s Learning Marketplace were 2.3x less likely to leave their employer in the last 12 months relative to non-members.1

But education benefits don’t just drive talent outcomes. They are also key to driving business outcomes.

To see how, hear from three innovative HR leaders on exactly how education benefits and career pathways are driving their organization’s strategic priorities and initiatives in the real world.

1. Chipotle fuels restaurant growth with upskilling and mobility.

Chipotle is well known for its culture of career mobility. It’s part of their secret sauce and a major recruitment tool — employees and prospective employees alike know they have the opportunity to move up at the company.

They invest continually in growing talent development programs because they see the returns — not just in terms of talent attraction and retention, but in facilitating Chipotle’s mission. A culture of mobility helps them open new stores and provide a consistent customer experience — all key to their growth and brand.

"This year we're going to open close to 300 restaurants. And in order to effectively staff that and be able to support our culture and our brand and our Food with Integrity mission, we need to prepare our future leaders to be able to staff those restaurants. So opportunity, upskilling, mobility is really important to be able to facilitate our mission of growth."

Daniel Banks, Director of Global Benefits, Chipotle

2. Bon Secours Mercy Health builds life-saving healthcare talent with priority career pathways.

The healthcare industry is in a talent crisis, and yet staffing facilities is a matter of life and death, as Allan Calogne, Chief People Officer of Core Operations at Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH), put it at Guild’s 2023 Opportunity Summit.

Levi Loverkamp, Chief Workforce Planning Officer at Bon Secours Mercy Health, discusses the health system’s solution to the talent problem: priority career pathways for employees built in partnership with Guild.

"We've seen incredible outcomes as we project every year what our challenges and what our supply and demand is gonna look like. We are already exceeding in most of our priority roles the goals we have set to grow folks into these pathways.”

Levi Loverkamp, Chief Workforce Planning Officer, BSMH

3. OSF HealthCare differentiates their employer brand with education benefits.

Education benefits don’t just help employees grow their careers — they give organizations a competitive edge in tight talent markets. When companies are able to be an employer of choice, they can attract, retain, and develop the talent needed to drive business growth and innovation forward.

Jacki Fugitt, Vice President, HR Shared Services and Strategic Partnerships, OSF HealthCare, shares how the health system approaches employee experience and talent management as core strategic priorities.

“The entire Guild platform is crucial to that strategy and that goal. And so not just fully funded education…but the entire Guild experience of Career Accelerator and career coaching and student coaching, that is a key part of our strategy in maintaining and sustaining a status of employer of choice.”

Jacki Fugitt, VP of HR Shared Services and Strategic Partnerships, OSF HealthCare

Bonus: Beyond business outcomes – education benefits change lives for individuals.

While the numbers and strategy behind your investment in education matter most for making the business case, it’s important not to lose sight of the impact your decisions around programs and policy have on employees.

Watch Kiera Fernandez, EVP and Chief Community Impact and Equity Officer at Target, interview Janice Anglim, Guild learner and Executive Team Lead - Specialty Sales at Target, about her career path and how the company’s fully funded education and career opportunity program opened doors to growth that changed her life.

"You don't always get the opportunity to do things like [Target and Guild's career mobility program] when you're a frontline worker. So a company that does that for you is a company you're going to want to work hard for. This is life changing ...because it opens up a lot of opportunities for me."

Janice A., Guild learner and Executive Team Lead, Specialty Sales at Target