Best Employee Development Software for 2025 and Beyond

Nearly nine in ten millennials say career growth is a top priority when choosing a job. That alone should be a wake-up call: if you want to attract (and keep) top talent, you need to take employee development seriously. 

The right tools help people grow, stay longer and actually enjoy their work. Today, we'll walk you through over a dozen of employee development software tools that can help you take career growth to a brand new level.

TL;DR

Employee development software tools are essential for building skills boosting engagement and supporting career growth.

The market offers plenty of employee development software. Our shortlist lays out the options—training, coaching, recognition, performance tracking.

Many tools work even better together. You can connect them through Zapier to automate workflows—like sending certificates after a course or tracking progress across platforms.

Employee development: statistics

Is employee development important? Probably more than you think.

What’s in it for companies? Quite a lot. Organizations that invest in employee development see up to 24% higher profit margins and are twice as likely to retain talent. When employees grow, so does the company. Development-rich workplaces don’t just create happier teams—they deliver better results.

Yet despite the clear benefits, many organizations are still falling short:

Only 36% have mature development programs with measurable impact

A third have no structured initiatives at all

And employees notice—reporting gaps in skill-building, career planning and on-the-job learning

Employee development is a competitive edge. The companies treating it like a core growth strategy are—and will be—the ones pulling ahead.

Best employee development software tools: Overview

You want people to grow? Give them the right tools. Here’s the best employee development software to test out—many offer free trials, so you can see what fits your team before you commit.

Here's a brief overview of the online employee development software options listed in this article:

Certifier

Cornerstone

Betterworks

Kajabi

TalentLMS

360Learning

BetterUp (Grow)

Exec

Workhuman

Livestorm

LinkedIn Learning

Udemy Business

Learn Amp

HR Partner

Unrubble

Calamari

01 Certifier

You might not think “digital credentialing” when building an employee development plan, but maybe you should. Certifier isn’t a course platform or an LMS. It’s the layer that gives your employee development efforts meaning. The reward. The proof. The reason people finish what they start.

Certifier is a complete credential management software that lets you create and issue secure, verifiable digital certificates from start to finish. 

Certificates are fully branded, fully customized and ready to share across platforms like LinkedIn. It's an easy way to add structure and recognition to corporate training without overhauling your entire L&D stack. Just plug it into what you’re already doing.

Instead of employees forgetting a workshop the moment it ends, you give them something to show for it.

That boost of external validation motivates completion and makes internal trainings feel more official. You can track renewals, monitor skill updates and stay compliant, especially in industries where proof of qualification matters.

Features worth noting:

Editable templates that don’t look like boilerplate

Drag-and-drop certificate visual editor with full brand control

Secure certificate hosting and fraud prevention

Bulk issuance and instant delivery

A simple dashboard to track credentials, update data and restrict access when needed

It’s a cost-effective way to turn “optional trainings” into something employees actually value—simply because it ties learning to their professional identity.

Certifier won’t run your onboarding process or create your training content. But it makes what you already have more effective, memorable and shareable. For HR and L&D teams who want completion rates to rise and learning culture to stick, that’s a smart move.

Create and Send Digital Credentials

Take your digital certificate making to the next level.

Start for free

02 Cornerstone

Most HR platforms stop at compliance and record-keeping. Cornerstone tries to do something bigger: connect development, data and decision-making across the whole employee experience.

At its core, it's an all-in-one system that pulls workforce data into a single source of truth. That means fewer spreadsheets, fewer silos and a clearer view of who’s ready to grow, what skills are missing and how to support every employee’s path forward for current and future roles.

With built-in tools for performance reviews, succession planning and learning management, it’s a true development engine. The platform offers self-service forms, point-in-time reporting and advanced user records.

And Cornerstone Galaxy, its AI-powered suite, adds intelligent recommendations for internal mobility, skills-based development and performance tracking at scale.

Pricing is available on request, but this is a platform built for companies serious about people development, not just people management. If you're hunting for employee development plan examples that go beyond theory, Cornerstone’s tools are designed to make those ambitions real.

03 Betterworks

Betterworks doesn’t just update your review process; it transforms how employee performance and development truly happen. Employees set clear goals, share progress during ongoing check-ins and give and receive feedback—all in a rhythm that aligns with real work, not a once-a-year form.

Powered by AI, Betterworks offers tools like Feedback Assist, Conversation Assist and Goal Assist—which suggest unbiased input and generate well-aligned goals based on past performance and career aspirations. These signals make coaching feel relevant, actionable and timely.

Employees and HR teams gain full visibility with progress tracking, performance analytics and dashboards that connect feedback, career goals and developmental plans.

Reporting and review workflows can reduce the time spent on performance management by up to 75% thanks to automated AI suggestions.

Employee training and development software platforms

These are employee training and development software tools that help with structured learning and content delivery.

04 Kajabi

When you're building an employee development plan, you need a clear, organized structure. Kajabi is an easy-to-use e-learning platform that helps you create structured learning pathways, breaking complex training into manageable modules. 

With this e-learning software for employee development, you can design step-by-step courses, set milestones, and use built-in quizzes to measure employee progress.

Kajabi helps your team stay on track with easy-to-follow course outlines, automatic reminders, and progress dashboards that show employees exactly where they stand. 

It’s employee learning and development software that simplifies tracking who has completed training and who needs extra help, making employee skills development organized and effective. Pricing starts at $71/month for small teams, scaling as your needs grow.

05 TalentLMS

If your idea of launching an employee training program involves weeks of prep, coordination headaches and blank stares from learners—TalentLMS changes that approach.

This employee career development software is built to get your team up and running fast. Set up your account in seconds, import users, assign training and start delivering learning experiences right away. 

With a clean interface and mobile-friendly design, even the least tech-savvy team members can log in and get learning.

AI helps speed up course creation by auto-generating text, visuals, quizzes and other training materials. Add in TalentLibrary™—a ready-made content hub for soft skills—and you can provide employees with a full library of learning paths from day one.

From onboarding to performance tracking, this is one of the best employee training software HR teams use to support personalized learning and continuous growth.

Pricing starts at $119/month for up to 40 users, making it a strong contender for companies that want great employee engagement without enterprise bloat.

06 360Learning

If your L&D team still owns every training course, you’re doing it the hard way. 360Learning is employee training and development software that lets internal experts—not just HR—create and share learning content that reflects how your teams actually operate. 

It’s a shift that supports real employee development and encourages people to grow by teaching what they know, within peer-to-peer learning.

AI helps turn everyday materials, like a doc or screen recording, into usable training in minutes. That kind of speed matters when you're rolling out updates or onboarding new hires in fast-paced roles.

It’s especially useful for frontline training. Teams can access learning on any device, anytime they need it, with no delays. If you’re trying to support growth in roles that don’t sit behind a laptop all day, this platform actually makes it happen.

The Team plan starts at $8 per registered user/month for up to 100 users, with no setup fees and full access to resources and support.

Larger organizations can upgrade to the Business plan, which includes advanced integrations, technical support and the flexibility to scale collaborative learning across employee and partner training use cases.

Employee career development software platforms

Platforms focused on personal growth and career advancement.

07 BetterUp (Grow)

Employees often don’t need more theory—they need guidance that sticks. BetterUp Grow™ becomes a quiet powerhouse. It connects your team with a global bench of 4,000+ certified coaches who help people push past surface-level training in their career development.

BetterUp helps with creating personalized growth plans and tracking real change in performance, mindset and readiness. Just ask the U.S. Air Force. They used BetterUp to build agile, resilient leaders across ranks—and within four months, saw a 13% lift in mission preparedness and higher long-term career commitment.

BetterUp enables organizations to support both personal and professional development in one platform.

It’s extremely helpful anywhere that growth matters more than content consumption — but anyone who’s tried to scale development beyond a few high-performers knows how hard that is.

BetterUp makes it possible. It meets people where they are, adapts to their career aspirations and gives HR the tools to track learner progress without micromanaging it.

08 Exec

Often, when companies talk about leadership development, it ends in a slide deck.

Exec flips the script with a hands-on, AI-powered coaching platform that builds real skills through real scenarios.

Employees practice feedback and negotiation through interactive AI roleplays guided by AI hyper-realistic, voice-based training simulations that mirror real-world conversations in sales, management, customer service and beyond.

Then, they sharpen their approach with expert human coaches.

Employees engage with lifelike AI characters, get instant feedback and refine their approach in minutes. It’s extremely valuable for developing leadership and people management skills at scale. You can assign custom scenarios, track progress with analytics and integrate it into your LMS or CRM.

From onboarding to performance management, this custom employee software development fits into any stage of your employee development plan. 

Exec is very cost effective—pricing starts at $10/month for individuals and $30/month per seat for teams, with enterprise options available. It’s modern, practical and built for the conversations that actually shape careers.

09 Workhuman

If only recognition happened more often than once a year! Workhuman brings it into the everyday, using Human Intelligence™ to help companies build cultures where gratitude and growth go hand in hand.

As the world’s leading social recognition platform, it drives real impact: higher engagement, stronger performance and lower turnover.

For HR teams building out employee development goals, Workhuman offers a smart layer of reinforcement. Recognition moments are tied to values, tracked over time and linked to broader performance insights, so they are more than just feel-good gestures.

Among key features for employee development, one that really caught our attention is Inclusion Advisor, an industry-first, AI-powered assistant that identifies unconscious bias in real time as employees write recognition messages.

It's micro-coaching at the moment it matters, encouraging people to revise their language.

According to Workhuman, 75% of users choose to adjust their message when bias is flagged.

While it’s not a learning management system, it integrates well with training programs and fits neatly into any development plan. Pricing is custom, but companies using Workhuman often see ROI in the form of stronger culture and improved retention.

10 Livestorm

If your employee development software wishlist includes live training, interactive workshops and webinars, consider Livestorm.

It’s a browser-based employee training and development software that offers interactive polls, real-time Q&A sessions, breakout rooms and built-in analytics to track participation and impact.

Livestorm is online employee development software that helps move from passive watching to active participation. Prices of this e-learning software for employee development begin at $79/month for up to 100 live attendees, perfect for small- to mid-sized teams, with enterprise plans available for larger organizations.

11 LinkedIn Learning

If you think the only knowledge on LinkedIn comes from posts in your feed, you’re missing the good part. LinkedIn Learning gives teams access to thousands of expert-led courses designed to support real skill development initiatives.

Employees can pick up technical skills, master soft skills or finally guide their own career development—all at their own pace. HR teams love using it alongside performance reviews and training plans to track skill development, course enrollment and progress.

Teams don’t need to switch tools: through Microsoft’s Viva Learning, LinkedIn Learning content and completion tracking show up directly inside Microsoft Teams, making learning part of the daily flow for engaged employees.

LinkedIn Learning, a custom employee software development, offers business plans based on the number of seats, with flexible pricing tiers for small teams or enterprise rollouts. Most plans include admin dashboards, analytics and integration options right out of the box, with no extra add-ons required.

12 Udemy Business

Udemy Business is a full-fledged skills development engine built for fast-moving teams. The real strength lies in its flexibility. You can mix on-demand courses with hands-on technical labs and cohort-based leadership programs.

With Pro plans, teams don’t just watch, but build real-world projects. And if you're running large-scale initiatives, Udemy’s professional services team helps tailor learning paths to your goals.

AI training is front and center. New packages focus on helping every employee, from non-technical roles to data pros, understand and use AI responsibly and effectively. Udemy Business offers team plans for smaller groups and enterprise-grade solutions for global rollouts.

With personalized paths, strong admin features and support that actually shows up when needed, it’s a smart move for companies taking employee development seriously.

Employee development tracking software pieces

Data-driven tools for monitoring growth, feedback and performance analytics.

13 Learn Amp

Most platforms claim to support employee development... until you try stitching together four different tools for learning, feedback, OKRs and onboarding. 

Learn Amp doesn’t ask you to choose. It fuses learning, engagement and performance management into one seamless system, so your team can focus on growth instead of juggling logins.

What makes this custom employee software development stand out? For starters, the platform’s artificial intelligence systems builds personalized learning paths based on roles, skills and employee feedback. From pre-boarding to long-term career paths, learners access training when and how they need it—whether it's live sessions, video conferencing or self-paced modules.

That flexibility is especially helpful for monitoring progress and boosting employee engagement across distributed teams.

You’ll find pre-made templates, professional training content and development tools that support everything from onboarding to professional growth. Employees can complete online training, track goals and get real-time feedback, all without leaving the platform!

Pricing is available on request, but if your team is tired of cobbling together point solutions, Learn Amp’s unified approach can actually support a better work life for everyone.

14 HR Partner

Most development plans fall apart before they even start... usually because no one knows what employees actually want. HR Partner fixes that by letting you build custom forms to ask the right questions up front.

Not some rigid template. Your questions. Your format. Stored where it belongs.

Want to know who’s eyeing a management track? Who needs mentoring? Who’s bored and halfway out the door? Ask once—cleanly—and tie the answers to performance goals, training checklists and review cycles that actually go somewhere.

HR Partner is not a big HCM suite, so you shouldn't feel overwhelmed. Plans of this employee development software start at $86/month for up to 25 employees, rising to around $135/month for teams up to 250. Every plan includes self-serve setup and ongoing support.

It’s one of the most user-friendly employee training software options out there—perfect for HR professionals looking to build complete training experiences without relying on generic templates.

Employee management software development tools

Operational tools streamlining HR processes so development can thrive.

15 Unrubble

Employee development won’t take place if things are unorganized. When teams are guessing who's in, who's off or who’s already clocked 50 hours by Wednesday, no one’s thinking about growth—they’re just trying to survive the week. Unrubble, a smart employee development plan software, fixes that.

That gives HR and managers space to actually support continuous learning and development, whether it’s adjusting workloads to fit in employee training or spotting patterns that impact job performance.

The mobile self-service app gives employees more control over their time, which helps them stay engaged and take ownership of their own career growth.

The best thing is, Unrubble quietly removes chaos so your development plans don’t fall apart the moment someone forgets to update a spreadsheet. 

Prices of this employee development plan software start at $1 per user/month.

16 Calamari

Calamari isn’t trying to be your entire HR stack. Instead, it focuses on getting the operational backbone right: time-off requests, clock-ins, document workflows and employee records. And it does it well, especially for globally distributed teams who need structure without a learning curve.

You can track attendance across locations, define absence policies per contract or country and plug into Slack, MS Teams, Google, Jira and more.

Employees clock in via browser, mobile or QR code. Managers see who’s in, out or planning vacations.

Each module is priced per employee, starting at $2/month for Core HR, $2.50 for Time Off and $2.50 for Time & Attendance (billed annually, with no long-term lock-in). It’s modular, scalable and comes with onboarding support and API access.

For small to mid-sized teams that want professional-grade HR operations without the overhead, Calamari hits the sweet spot. It gives your team the clarity and consistency needed to support employee growth, not just admin compliance.

Growth starts here—with the best employee development software

The most important thing about employee development isn’t the platform. It’s what you do with it. You can buy the flashiest employee development plan software on the market, but if it doesn’t support real growth, it’s just shelfware. Look for systems that adapt to your team's actual needs.

Test employee career development software tools that support clear career tracks, offer feedback that sticks and help you actually track progress. The goal is to build a culture where learning matters, saves time and moves people forward—without slowing everything else down.