Data and insights on the HR investments that drive business impact

Executive summary

HR trends show that leaders champion the value of people-first strategies, but demonstrating their business impact remains a challenge. 

With growing pressure to prove ROI and prioritize effectively, businesses need clear insight into which people programs truly drive results.

This report provides that clarity. 

Based on HR insights from 293 HR and C-suite leaders across the US, UK, Europe, and Australia, it looks at the effectiveness of common HR investments, from onboarding and leadership development to wellbeing and DEI&B initiatives. 

You’ll find a prioritization framework, outcome-aligned recommendations, and a program-to-impact heatmap to support strategic decision-making. 

Building a case for budget? Refining your people strategy? Trying to close the gap between intention and impact? This report is designed to help you invest smarter.

It’s not just about doing more, it’s about doing what works.

This report gives you:

• A practical breakdown of the five most common people program areas
• A prioritization model to help businesses decide where to focus first based on strategic goals and resource availability
• Recommendations for improving outcome measurement
• Guidance on aligning people initiatives with performance metrics

How to use this report:

• To shape your 2025 HR strategy and budget
• As a talking point in discussions about performance, engagement, and inclusion
• As a tool to make the case for stronger people-first practices backed by outcome data

Introduction: The ROI challenge in people programs

Support your team, and look out for their wellbeing. That’s been a consistent message from HR and people teams for a long time. 

Thoughtful onboarding, leadership development, and wellbeing strategies are all well-used tools in the HR toolbox—and they’re used with intent.

But intent alone isn’t enough.

We’re in a time where budgets are scrutinized and performance is paramount. As a result, leaders are faced with a difficult task: proving the measurable value of their work and linking it to better business outcomes. 

Which programs actually contribute to engagement, productivity, and retention? 

Which initiatives are worth scaling—and which are quietly underperforming?

This report was created to answer those questions. By analyzing feedback from nearly 300 HR and business leaders across multiple regions and company sizes, we’ve identified the programs that deliver meaningful outcomes for the organization—and the ones that often fall short.

You’ll find insights across five key areas:

• Onboarding
• Leadership development
• Skills development
• Employee experience
• Wellbeing and DEI&B

Together, these insights form a practical roadmap to help HR teams focus their time, energy, and investment where it matters most.

Key insights snapshot

Here’s a quick overview of the most important takeaways from the data, ideal for skimming or executive reference. Each insight reflects a broader pattern identified in the survey results.

• Onboarding is the most consistently impactful initiative
  Thoughtfully designed onboarding improves early engagement, retention, and cultural alignment, and serves as an early intervention point for identifying organizational friction.
• Leadership development offers the broadest impact across outcomes
  High-potential development tracks, mentorship, and crisis training boost team collaboration and performance.
• Guided skills development outperforms self-directed learning
  Coaching and on-the-job training consistently outperform e-learning and LMS platforms in terms of effectiveness and business outcomes.
• Manager-led wellbeing initiatives are far more effective than passive perks
  Wellness check-ins and workload conversations outperform policies like “no-meeting days” or limiting after-hours emails.
• DEI&B initiatives succeed when structurally embedded
  Pay equity reviews and policy reform outperform awareness-focused efforts like climate surveys or bias training in perceived impact and sustainability.

These insights inform the prioritization framework and recommendations that follow—let’s take a closer look.

A deep dive into people program categories

Onboarding: The cornerstone of experience

We always keep a close eye on HR trends—and even set a few of our own. Out of all the people programs we analyzed, onboarding stood out as the top HR trend in 2025. 

Businesses that invest in thoughtfully structured onboarding report stronger early engagement, smoother cultural alignment, and higher long-term retention.

Unlike diagnostic tools like engagement surveys, onboarding functions as a real-time intervention. It doesn’t just capture sentiment; it actively shapes the new hire experience, sets expectations, and reveals friction points early on.

Why it matters:

• Early experience heavily influences long-term engagement and performance.
• Strong onboarding acts as a “forcing function” for cross-team alignment on tools, culture, and ways of working.
• It helps identify gaps in manager readiness, role clarity, and operational consistency.
• It offers opportunities for direct and immediate interventions to improve employee experience and outcomes.

Key findings:

• 90 percent of respondents reported a positive impact from onboarding programs.
• 40 percent said onboarding made a significant positive difference, more than any other initiative across all categories.

Strategic takeaway:

If your organization is facing challenges with engagement, retention, or culture, onboarding is the fastest and most effective way to start addressing these issues. It sets the tone, uncovers deeper issues, and builds trust from day one.

Helpful tips To prove onboarding impact, try tracking: Job readiness scores in the first 90 days. Use a survey to determine if employees are feeling productive, rate the onboarding program as comprehensive and relevant, and assess whether the job they are doing is consistent with what they signed up for. Make sure you ask those with low scores what further assistance they need and support managers in providing it. Employees who agree with these sentiments are three to four times more likely to be high performers at their one-year mark.  Time-to-productivity benchmarks. To find your specific productivity benchmark, identify one or more specific skills or outputs that indicate productivity (for example, produce a specific deliverable without manager assistance). Use a survey or project tracking data to determine how long the majority of employees took to hit that mark. Bear in mind that quality onboarding should maintain or shorten that time, and on average, employees should reach productivity within about 8 months. First/second-year retention rates. Research suggests employees decide to leave a job within the first six months, and job searches can take an average of five months (changing with the strength of the labor market). In growth economies, you’ll see challenges in onboarding and selection, as well as high turnover rates within the first year. In more difficult economies, second-year retention rates will be more insightful. Ideally, mapping your monthly attrition will help you pinpoint exactly where the turnover occurs and identify the critical moment when people begin their job search.

Leadership development: building the culture from the top

Leadership development is one of the most versatile and impactful investments an organization can make. Done right, it boosts team performance and strengthens culture. 

The strongest outcomes were linked to high-potential talent tracks, mentoring, and crisis management training. These programs offer a healthy mix of structure and practicality. 

In contrast, initiatives like emotional intelligence training and 360-degree feedback had more mixed results, especially in cultures where behavioral change isn’t actively supported.

Why it matters:

• Leaders shape team dynamics, psychological safety, and performance expectations.
• Leadership quality has a direct impact on retention and engagement.
• Poorly supported development programs can backfire, especially when feedback isn’t acted on.

Leadership development programs

*Graphs do not always sum to 100% due to rounding error.

Key findings:

• 83 percent of respondents saw a positive impact from high-potential tracks.
• Emotional intelligence training had the highest “no impact” rating (27 percent) and was most likely to backfire when not backed by structural accountability.

Strategic takeaway:

Leadership programs need to go beyond training and be reinforced by clear expectations, effective modeling, and consistent consequences. The best development efforts are integrated into the culture, not just the calendar.

Helpful tips Manager effectiveness ratings before and after program participation. Ask direct reports to rate their manager’s communication, feedback quality, supportiveness, and decision-making both before and after the program. Significant shifts signal that the training is translating into real-world behavior change—look for consistent improvement across teams, not just individuals. Team engagement or performance deltas. Compare engagement survey results or team KPIs for those led by program participants vs. those who haven’t yet participated. Strong programs create ripple effects: improved psychological safety, faster execution, and better cross-functional collaboration.  Promotion and succession metrics. Effective leadership pipelines show up in accelerated promotions, fewer stalled careers, and stronger internal fill rates. Track how many participants in high-potential tracks are stepping into new roles—and how well they perform once there.

Skills development: Guide growth, don’t just offer options

Skills development is essential for performance and agility, but not all approaches are created equal. 

The truth is that while e-learning and self-service platforms offer flexibility and scalability, they often fail without structure or support. 

The most effective strategies are guided learning through coaching, on-the-job training, and personalized development plans. These approaches help team members not only build new skills but also apply them meaningfully in their roles. However, great coaches and mentors are rare, making those approaches difficult to scale despite their impact.

Pairing e-learning to scale basic training with coaches and guides to provide context and purpose would be the ideal balance. 

Why it matters:

• Skills gaps can hinder productivity and innovation.
• Without guidance, team members may feel overwhelmed or disengaged by open-ended learning options.
• Coaching and mentorship promote real-world application and accountability.

Skills programs

*Graphs do not always sum to 100% due to rounding error.

Key findings:

• Coaching sessions had the highest-rated impact (88 percent positive).
• E-learning platforms yielded significantly lower outcomes (70 percent), particularly when not integrated into day-to-day work.

Strategic takeaway:

Self-paced content is useful, but structured guidance ensures real impact. For lasting skills development, blend scalable learning tools with coaching, feedback, and clear application pathways.

Helpful tips To show real skills growth, track: Time-to-application. Ask employees how soon they used a new skill post-training. A fast application demonstrates relevance and good support, while long gaps may indicate unclear expectations or conflicts between new and existing processes that need to be resolved. Confidence and impact. Measure how confident employees feel using new skills and how much it has improved their work. Misalignment signals where additional coaching may be beneficial. Drop-off rates by format. Compare completion rates for e-learning vs. coached or guided learning. High drop-off often indicates that content lacks structure or feels disconnected from real-world applications.

Employee experience: from moments to momentum

Employee experience programs aim to foster connection, motivation, and long-term growth; however, their impact varies depending on how these initiatives are designed and delivered. 

The strongest outcomes came from initiatives that were structured, proactive, and people-centered.

Why it matters:

• Experience drives discretionary effort, satisfaction, and retention.
• Programs like onboarding and recognition establish trust and connection early.
• Data-only approaches (like engagement surveys) often fall short without follow-through.

Employee experience

*Graphs do not always sum to 100% due to rounding error.

Key findings:

• Onboarding was the top performer, with 90 percent reporting a positive impact and 40 percent citing a significant improvement.
• Celebrating employee milestones also scored highly, with 84 percent reporting a positive impact.
• Career coaching was the least commonly implemented (just 56 percent of companies), despite its potential to drive long-term engagement.
• Engagement/NPS surveys underperformed—25 percent of respondents reported that they had little to no impact, and only 19 percent experienced significant gains.

Strategic takeaway:

Experience programs must go beyond measurement. Action, not just insight, builds trust. Prioritize onboarding, recognition, and career development to create lasting experiences. If you consistently struggle to take action on a challenging issue, consider whether it is an inherent aspect of your business strategy or culture. 

If it’s unlikely to change, incorporate that reality into your culture by selecting employees who can manage the issue and articulate to your team why it’s a necessary tradeoff for achieving your goals. Own your entire culture, especially the pieces you are unwilling or unable to change.

Helpful tips To measure what really impacts employee experience, track: Follow-through rates. How often are insights from surveys acted on within 30–60 days? Without action, trust can be damaged.  Recognition frequency and reach. Measure how often employees are recognized and whether this recognition is consistent across teams. Sporadic praise can do more harm than good if it feels unfair or performative. Use AI to review shoutouts and other public praise to identify themes in what your organization celebrates and what it tends to ignore. Promote recognition themes that align with the culture you want to foster. Milestone impact. After key moments (such as onboarding and promotions), run quick pulse checks. Ask if the moment felt meaningful and reinforced connection, as those are the building blocks of long-term experience. Long-term trends in these relationships can be examined to determine whether employees with higher experience scores also exhibit greater performance ratings, goal achievement, or retention.

Wellbeing: should be manager-led, not policy-pushed

Wellbeing programs are increasingly common, and their effectiveness depends on how they’re delivered. Passive policies may tick a box, but the real gains come from manager-led engagement that addresses workload, stress, and day-to-day experience.

Why it matters:

• Wellbeing is directly linked to productivity and retention.
• The manager/team member relationship is a key lever for psychological safety.
• Misaligned efforts (like wellness perks without support) can create frustration rather than relief.

Wellbeing programs

*Graphs do not always sum to 100% due to rounding error.

Key findings:

• Encouraging regular wellness check-ins with managers had the most significant impact: 81 percent reported a positive effect, with 23 percent citing a substantial improvement.
• Passive policies, such as “no-meeting days” and limiting after-hours communication, underperformed: ~62 percent saw a benefit, but around 10 percent reported that these actually made things worse.
• Workplace flexibility received a mixed reception. While 80 percent reported benefits, 9 percent said it negatively affected their experience, likely due to a lack of structure or poor implementation.

Strategic takeaway:

Wellbeing must be integrated into team dynamics, not isolated in HR policies. Equip managers to have meaningful check-ins and adjust expectations, workloads, and deadlines, rather than just encouraging time off. Often, small changes that can only be seen at the manager level can have a significant impact (for example, scheduling work meetings with the team’s personal commitments in mind).

Helpful tips To gauge wellbeing impact, track: Manager-led check-ins. Monitor how often managers have wellbeing conversations and whether team members feel they’re useful. Remember, quality matters more than frequency. Perceived workload fairness. Ask employees if their workload feels manageable and aligned with their capacity. Rising stress often manifests here before burnout sets in. Engage employees in focus groups to explore ways to better structure their work, ensuring it creates less conflict with personal commitments and activities that motivate them. Uptake vs. outcome. Track usage of wellbeing perks and whether users report feeling better supported. Normally, high uptake with low impact means you’re solving the wrong problem. On the other hand, low uptake with high impact means you are addressing an issue that is important to a subpopulation of employees.

DEI&B: Structural change over symbolic action

DEI&B programs are essential, but surface-level efforts, such as awareness campaigns or surveys, often fall short, while structural initiatives, like pay equity and policy reform, deliver a more consistent and credible impact.

Why it matters:

• DEI&B influences culture, engagement, and employer brand.
• Poorly implemented initiatives can be perceived as performative or even divisive.
• The most effective programs are those backed by systems, accountability, and long-term thinking.

DEI&B programs

*Graphs do not always sum to 100% due to rounding error.

Key findings:

• Pay equity reviews were the top-rated initiative, with 75 percent reporting a positive impact and 20 percent citing significant improvement.
   
• Inclusive hiring panels were also strong performers, with 73 percent reporting positive outcomes, but 10 percent noted negative impacts, likely due to unclear decision-making processes.
• DEI&B climate surveys and anonymous bias reporting were the least effective, with only 55–56 percent of respondents reporting positive results. Around 9–10 percent said these efforts made things worse.
• DEI&B was also the area most difficult to demonstrate ROI, creating challenges for internal buy-in.

Strategic takeaway:

DEI&B efforts must move beyond messaging. They must focus on policy, equity, and structural fairness, ensuring leaders are equipped to lead inclusively with clarity, confidence, and accountability.

Helpful tips To track real DEI&B progress, first, be clear about what you hope to accomplish—improved employer branding, enhanced innovation, reduced turnover among specific groups, etc.  DEI&B programs have numerous potential effects, and being clear on your goals is the first step in measuring them. Once you know what you want to get out of your DEI&B program, you can monitor: Policy-driven changes. Measure impact from structural actions like pay audits or inclusive hiring, not just sentiment scores. For example, do you find that pay is well-aligned with performance regardless of gender? Reality is just as important as sentiment. Representation trends. Track diversity across seniority levels as well as overall headcount. Examining diversity metrics from the application stage to senior leadership can help illustrate where your talent pipeline begins to narrow, allowing you to focus efforts on identifying obstacles that restrict the advancement of quality employees.  Perception gaps. Compare how different groups rate fairness and inclusion. Big gaps reveal where lived experience doesn’t align with intent and where action is most needed. Begin by focusing on issues that everyone agrees are a problem, but which disproportionately harm a few groups.

Program-to-outcome alignment

Which HR programs drive real results—and where? This heatmap condenses survey data into a clear visual snapshot, illustrating how each initiative aligns with key business outcomes, including performance, engagement, and retention.

It’s your shortcut to smarter investment: see what works, where it works, and why it matters.

So, the heatmap shows what’s working. The next step is to turn that insight into a clear, prioritized plan for action.

Strategic recommendations: Where to invest first

Not all people programs offer equal return on all things. This section outlines a clear, two-tiered framework to help HR teams prioritize based on impact, ease of execution, and strategic alignment.

Tier 1: Foundational priorities

These programs deliver a consistent, measurable impact across performance, engagement, and retention.

1. Onboarding

The most effective overall program. It sets the tone for culture, identifies early issues, and boosts long-term retention.

Action: Standardize onboarding and integrate early feedback loops.

2. Leadership development

This is strongly linked to collaboration, retention, and culture, and is easier to justify to leadership.

Action: Focus on high-potential tracks, mentorship, and real-time learning wherever possible.

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3. Guided skills development

Remember that coaching and on-the-job training outshine scalable tools like LMS platforms.

Action: Pair basic training with flexible tools and more advanced development, complemented by coaching and structured feedback.

Tier 2: Culture and capability builders

These programs support long-term transformation and sustainability.

4. Wellbeing (manager-led)

It’s true that the best outcomes come from active manager engagement, not standalone policies.

Action: Train and empower leaders to have ongoing conversations about their wellbeing and adjust workloads as needed

5. DEI&B with a structural focus

Policy-driven efforts outperform awareness-only initiatives and reduce the risk of resistance.

Action: Prioritize equity audits, policy reform, and inclusive decision-making frameworks for the best outcomes.

It’s important that you don’t try to do everything at once. Start where the impact is clearest, then build toward a more integrated and sustainable people strategy.

Conclusion: Your people strategy, prioritized

The findings in this report are clear: when people programs are designed with intention and supported by structure, they deliver real business value.

Across the data, a consistent theme emerges—impact depends on focus and execution. The most successful businesses don’t invest in everything; they invest in the right things, in the right order.

For HR teams and business leaders, the path forward is not about doing more; it’s about doing what works. This report offers the data, framework, and strategic clarity to guide that journey.