Updated September 2026

Manager engagement has been consistently falling for several years, creating a significant challenge for organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found that manager engagement dropped from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025, a nine-point decline that erased the engagement premium managers historically held over individual contributors. Managers are now reporting higher levels of stress, anger, sadness, and loneliness than the people they lead.

In too many cases, they're stretched thinner than ever, and career development is one of the first things that falls off the plate.

When career conversations break down, it can hurt your entire organization even beyond the management level. Internal mobility stalls, disengagement rises, and top talent might just walk themselves right out the door, with one study finding that 42% of voluntarily departing employees said that management could have done something to keep them — including creating opportunities for career advancement.

In this post, we’ll explain why organizations shouldn’t put the burden of career development entirely on managers and what they can do instead to improve job satisfaction for manager and lower-level employees alike.

Why career development has become too complex for managers to own alone

Managers are often a top factor in employee engagement. Gallup's research, for example, shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in whether employees feel connected, motivated, and committed to their work. And historically, employees have looked to their direct supervisors when it comes to talking about career advancement.

However, the scope of what career development requires has outpaced what any individual manager can reasonably deliver.

Effective career guidance today means the following:

• ●Understanding shifting skills demands across the organization
• ●Knowing which roles are growing and which are contracting
• ●Navigating tuition assistance policies and financial aid options
• ●Identifying the right mix of degree and non-degree programs for each employee
• ●Keeping up with how AI is reshaping job requirements in real time

That’s too much to ask of anyone, especially when managers are struggling with burnout themselves. DI's Global Leadership Forecast 2025 found that 40% of stressed-out leaders have considered leaving leadership roles entirely to improve their wellbeing. When managers are overwhelmed to the point of considering an exit, expecting them to also serve as career coaches is unrealistic and unsustainable.

Critically, though, this doesn’t mean that management doesn’t care — they typically do. Our 2024 Education Index Report found that while 75% of managers want their direct reports to continue with their education or learn new skills, 42% said they don’t feel they have the resources to support their reports in doing so.

Keep in mind that the Bright Horizons 2026 Education Index found that while 64% of employees say their manager is actively involved in guiding their skill development, only 33% report having had a conversation about building relevant skills in the past year. To ambitious workers, this can feel like their career is stalling.

What happens when career development doesn't have the right support

The cost of broken career development isn't always visible, but it has the potential to compound quickly.

As job hugging continues to increase, more employees are staying in their roles out of fear rather than genuine commitment. Organizations see low turnover and assume stability, but underneath, engagement is eroding and growth is stalling while the churn risk stays high.

DDI's research found that high-potential talent is nearly four times more likely to leave if their manager doesn't regularly provide opportunities for growth and development. And according to Zipdo's 2025 Education Report, only 30% of employees believe they have a clear career path at their current organization, despite 75% of HR professionals saying retention is a priority.

So while employees are remaining in their roles for now, they may be disengaged and at high risk to leave as soon as a better opportunity seems good enough to jump ship for, especially if they feel like they can find a new employer that offers more paths to career advancement.

Why intentional career development and education assistance need to be managed at the company level

The data makes a strong case for taking career development out of individual managers' hands and building it into organizational talent strategy.

The LinkedIn 2025 Workplace Learning Report found that organizations with mature career development programs outperform their peers across the board. They're 67% more confident in their ability to retain talent, 75% confident in profitability, and 42% more likely to be frontrunners in AI adoption. Yet only 36% of organizations qualify as what LinkedIn calls "career development champions."

The appetite for growth is there and it's increasing. What employees need is for their organizations to meet them with structured programs, clear pathways, and professional support rather than leaving it to already-overwhelmed managers to figure out one conversation at a time.

When career development is managed at the company level through education assistance programs, expert coaching, and defined career pathways, it becomes scalable, consistent, and accessible to every employee. Managers are freed up to do what they do best: lead their teams.

How to support workforce development without overburdening your managers

The answer isn't asking managers to become career coaches. It's giving them the tools to connect employees with the right resources, while bringing in expert partners to handle the rest.

Here are five strategies to make career development scalable.

Focus on skills gaps instead of performance issues

Managers often default to performance reviews as the primary development conversation. A more effective approach is focusing on skills to build rather than mistakes on the job. Employees are more receptive to development when it's framed around growth.

• ●Offer simple verbiage shifts, like "skills to build" instead of "problem areas," to help managers frame these conversations constructively
• ●Provide tax-free tuition assistance so employees can pursue degree or non-degree programs that bridge skill gaps
• ●Connect employees with resources like EdAssist's Level Up Studio, which offers videos and podcasts on career, finance, and education topics as an entry point for those who don't yet have a clear development plan

Check out our guide, Closing the Skills Gap by Building Workforce Readiness from Within, for more strategies to build internal talent pipelines by leveraging education and career development programs.

Make career conversations part of everyday culture

Managers often feel blindsided when top talent leaves, but career goals rarely come up outside of annual reviews. By the time an employee has accepted another offer, it's already too late.

• ●Schedule regular check-ins throughout the year that focus on development, not just performance and compensation
• ●Share specific questions managers can ask about career goals so development becomes a natural part of regular one-on-ones
• ●Bring in professional support through expert coaching. EdAssist coaches guide workers through career, academic, and financial concerns, giving employees a dedicated resource that doesn't depend on their manager's availability or expertise

Train managers to refer employees to the right resources

Managers don't need to be a one-stop shop for career guidance. They just need to know where to point their team.

• ●Create a Career Resource Toolkit that gives managers a simple reference guide for available programs
• ●Hold manager information sessions and share one-pagers or FAQs so managers are informed without being expected to be experts
• ●Make sure managers know your organization offers education benefits and how to refer employees to get started with tuition assistance or student loan support

Design career pathways that are specific to your organization

Not every company has the same needs, so workforce development should be tailored to your industry and priorities. Stackable, skills-based learning opportunities are increasingly popular because they offer flexibility without sacrificing depth.

• ●Identify your critical or hard-to-fill roles, whether that's frontline needs or strategic succession planning
• ●Establish clear upskilling or reskilling steps for those roles, giving both employees and managers an achievable roadmap
• ●Customize pathways rather than relying on off-the-shelf frameworks, so employees can visualize how to advance within your organization
• ●If you don't want to start from scratch, consider bringing in a partner like EdAssist to help design career pathways that align with your workforce strategy

Communicate education benefits like a product launch

Many organizations have strong education benefit programs that employees and managers simply aren't aware of. This limits the impact these programs were designed to achieve.

• ●Treat your education benefits like a product launch. Share details in all-hands meetings, post on internal sites, and make information accessible when employees are ready to explore
• ●Share communications regularly through internal channels, not just during onboarding or at program launch
• ●If you have an education benefits partner like EdAssist, ask about their customer marketing support. EdAssist helps with internal marketing to make these programs visible and easy to access for both managers and HR

Creating internal visibility prevents employees from feeling like they need to look outside the organization for growth.

Start building career development into your workforce strategy

Career development is too important to leave to chance and too complex to leave to managers alone. Organizations now need to treat career development as a company-level function with dedicated infrastructure, expert support, and clear pathways that every employee can access.

Then, when employees go to your managers, they can start the conversation, make suggestions if they have any, and then refer the employee to detailed company resources for clear guidance.

Want to build future-ready talent? Get in touch to explore how EdAssist can help you build an education benefits program that takes the pressure off your managers and gives your employees a reason to stay and grow.