How leaders are using structured development to cut turnover 30-50% and win the war for talent.
Across Northeast Wisconsin, employers continue to rank “finding and keeping skilled talent” as their #1 or #2 business challenge, according to the 2025 NEW Manufacturing Alliance Vitality Index. Financial institutions and professional service firms echo the same frustration—experienced relationship managers, loan officers, advisors, and operations staff are walking out the door for opportunities that promise clearer career growth.
Salary increases alone no longer move the needle. LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report shows that professional development has overtaken compensation as the top reason candidates accept a new job—and the second-most important reason they stay.
Picture this: You finally land a great supervisor or salesperson after months of searching, only to watch them walk out 18 months later because “there was no real path to grow here.” That single departure just cost you $50,000 to $120,000 once you factor in recruiting, training time, lost productivity, and the hit to team morale.
The companies quietly pulling ahead—the ones posting record profits while everyone else scrambles for talent—have figured out that intentional development is what keeps good people and attracts better ones.
The good news? You don’t need a Fortune-500 budget or a full-time training department. You need a focused, structured plan built around your real business priorities. We’ve compiled what we’ve learned from working with more than forty Northeast Wisconsin companies into a 5-step framework that’s delivering measurable results. Here’s a preview of the first two steps:
Step 1: Align Training to Your Top Three Business Imperatives
Most corporate training fails not because the content is poor, but because no one can explain how it moves a number the CEO actually cares about.
The most successful plans begin with a 45- to 60-minute alignment meeting that includes the CEO or owner, VP of HR, VP of Sales and VP of Operations. The only question on the table: “What three measurable outcomes would make 2026 a breakout year for us?”
In our experience, the answers almost always fall into categories like reducing voluntary turnover by 15–30%, shortening new-hire ramp time, improving sales win rates, building leadership bench strength, or raising engagement scores.
Once these three priorities are written on a whiteboard, every subsequent training decision gets judged against them. This single discipline prevents “random acts of training” and turns development into a strategic weapon rather than a cost center.
Step 2: Map Your People—Identify the Segments That Matter Most
Mid-sized companies rarely need to train everyone at once. The highest leverage comes from focusing on the three to five employee segments that most influence your top imperatives—typically first-level supervisors, mid-level managers, sales producers, or high-potential future leaders.
A simple three-question pulse survey distributed to these groups will surface immediate needs and create a heat map of pain points. The full guide includes the exact questions we recommend and how to interpret the results.
What Else is in the Full Guide?
The complete Leader’s Guide walks you through all five steps, including:
- Step 3: How to design training for behavior change—not just attendance—using an updated 70/20/10 framework and 90-day reinforcement model
- Step 4: Choosing the right mix of ready-to-go and customized content (plus a counterintuitive “Talent Incubator” mindset that’s helping companies attract stronger candidates)
- Step 5: How to measure training ROI like a CFO—four levels of impact tracking that keep leadership engaged and protect your budget
- A ready-to-use worksheet to align your leadership team and accelerate action
Get the Full Guide by Scheduling a 20-Minute Insights Session
We reserve 15 sessions per month for CEOs, HR leaders, and other department heads in Northeast Wisconsin. In this focused conversation, we’ll:
- Share the complete Leader’s Guide
- A ready-to-use 2026 Corporate Training Action Worksheet
- Share best practices we’ve seen from other employers we’ve assisted
No slides. No pressure. Just a productive conversation with your Talent Performance Partner at UW-Green Bay.
Contact us to schedule an “Insights Session” today.
Let this be the year your training strategy becomes one of your strongest competitive advantages.