6th February 2025
Strong learning cultures correlate with business growth. Why is that?
Insights from the EF Corporate Learning Maturity Report | 2025 Edition
Our recent study found that businesses that place high priority on their company culture, especially around learning, are thriving. Why is the correlation between business success and company culture so strong?
The identifiers of a ‘strong’ company culture differ from company to company, particularly when it comes to company values around learning and development. How do you pinpoint what defines company culture in your organization?
“For our programs to enable people to grow, it can not only be learning. You need to connect the dots. You really need to socialize the learning and be part of a community. You need to be able to put this into practice on the job, and you need to learn in the job. And this has evolved in a way that now it’s part of our culture of learning.”
What is a ‘culture of learning’? Who is responsible for it?
A corporate culture of learning is best described as an environment in which development of employees is encouraged, empowered, and supported at all levels of the business. This includes training initiatives, such as language learning programs, but extends to policies of open communication and feedback, as well as a growth mindset for individuals and the company as a whole.
Directors and managers at the highest level are the spokespeople of and ultimately own company culture, but the responsibility doesn’t stop there. Every single employee must be onboarded and trained in the learning culture, ensuring that they are committed to building themselves and setting expectations for their personal development. As part of this journey, managers must be trained to identify opportunities for growth in their direct reports and encourage them to keep taking steps in their development. It is in this key career journey that HR managers have a particular responsibility in global organizations to cultivate a lasting culture of learning.
What is the business impact of having a strong culture of learning?
The incentive for businesses to offer training programs to employees is clear; skilled employees are the biggest asset for any company’s success. But how does that relate to company culture?
According to our latest research, company culture is not only vital to the success of learning and development initiatives, but is also closely linked to meeting overall business objectives. The EF Corporate Learning Maturity Model, which measures the development level of corporate language programs, uses company culture as a key indicator of their likelihood to succeed. It does this by assessing how embedded language training programs are in company culture, as well as their role in performance and overall business goals – highly ‘mature’ programs demonstrate the strongest links is each case. This is because the success of any training program is dependent on the company’s commitment to delivering it effectively across the organization, which requires active strategies for engagement and nurturing a mindset towards growth.
In fact, the largest companies we surveyed in terms of headcount and revenue rank highest in these metrics of company culture. This suggests that a strong culture of learning is more vital to businesses the larger they grow.
High maturity programs, besides their influence on a company’s culture of learning specifically, also correlate with an overall positive company culture. Furthermore, 0% of companies with high or very high maturity programs responded that they did not prioritize company culture.
This emphasis on company culture has a significant impact on employee well-being, providing them with a sense of security and a value in their career journey. Employee engagement is therefore far greater in companies with high maturity than in low maturity programs (92% vs. 38%, respectively). This explains why only 1% of companies with highly developed language programs have experienced a decrease in headcount over the past year, while 91% have experienced an increase. In other words, a culture of learning correlates very strongly with employee retention and growth.
Meanwhile, a culture of learning also empowers businesses to meet greater challenges by preparing their workforce for the future. That is why 90% of organizations with high maturity language programs actively invest in R&D, against only 1/3 in those with lower maturity levels. Likewise, 85% of very high maturity programs exist in businesses that have expanded to 2+ new markets in the past 24 months, against 39% of their low maturity counterparts. A growth mindset, driven by a culture of learning, is therefore crucial in developing a workforce that is capable of driving innovation and successfully tackling the challenge of market expansion.
How can HR managers contribute to building a culture of learning?
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Very often it is up to HR departments to take the first steps in developing a rich environment of corporate learning. Indeed, great companies are built on people as much as they are on products or services, which puts the needs of employees at the forefront of achieving business success.
This new report proves that learning has a significant impact on talent pipelines and employee experience, and that this becomes increasingly true the larger a company grows. This places HR at the epicenter of a huge opportunity; the opportunity to positively influence employee and business growth through a culture of learning. And remember, offering learning initiatives is only the first step; it is the culture that brings learning to life.
“We’re thinking about business need. Role need. Engagement need. Cultural need. Connection need. This is the whole scale that we're operating in. [...] Just offering a training program isn't enough. You need to really think a bigger picture of why and what and how does it all connect together.”
Interested in learning more? Download the EF Corporate Learning Maturity Report
