Brandon Hall Group™ had the opportunity to attend Guild’s analyst briefing last week where they shared their vision for talent development and the evolution of their product suite. As they celebrate their 10th anniversary, it’s clear that Guild has transformed from a tuition reimbursement provider into a comprehensive talent development platform with impressive reach and impact.
The Evolving Talent Development Landscape
During the briefing, Guild emphasized how organizations face persistent talent shortages that extend beyond simple skills gaps. With AI transforming roles across industries, employers must pivot from buying talent off the market to developing their existing workforce through strategic approaches that deliver real skills and build internal mobility pathways.
Guild’s Senior Principal of Talent Strategy and Mobility, Matthew J. Daniel, highlighted three critical aspects throughout the presentation: high-quality education, data-driven talent intelligence and robust employee support, all in alignment with business strategy. These pillars form the foundation of their approach to workforce development.
Guild’s Market Position
The briefing highlighted Guild’s significant growth, with substantial expansion in both employer partnerships and member engagement. What sets Guild learners apart is their participation in deep, credentialed skill development, both through long- and short-form learning programs.
This approach has yielded remarkable results: in the last decade, Guild has enabled nearly 100,000 role changes for employees, directly supporting businesses’ ability to fill in-demand positions. Today, Guild partners with employers across industries representing approximately 70% of the U.S. GDP, including companies like Chipotle, Discover Financial Services, Hilton, Target, UCHealth and the Walt Disney Company.
Guild works with dozens of enterprise employers across multiple industries who report strong returns on their education investments. Participants show markedly higher retention rates and mobility into in-demand roles compared to non-participants, which has led many employers to expand their Guild relationship after initial implementation.
Distinct Solutions
Guild presented their expanded product suite, which now includes distinct, tailored solutions:
- Guild Grow: Their flagship education benefit offering that provides curated programs from their learning marketplace. This solution includes direct payment options that remove financial barriers for participants. Guild has begun offering this internationally, with plans to expand and serve more of the global workforce over the coming years.
- Guild Skill: For targeted learning needs, this solution enables employers deploy specific programs to close acute skills gaps for particular employee cohorts rather than enterprise-wide deployments.
- Guild Academy: Following their acquisition of Nomadic last year, this solution enables customized learning experiences that can be tailored with company-specific content. Guild mentioned they’re developing academy offerings focused on management and leadership as well as manufacturing excellence, created with input from employer partners.
Data-Driven Talent Intelligence
A significant focus of the briefing was Guild’s approach to talent insights. They’re leveraging partnerships with Lightcast (a leading labor market analytics provider) to provide learning partner-verified skills reporting, allowing employers to track skill development with confidence. This stands in contrast to traditional learning platforms that rely solely on AI-inferred keyword tagging for skills identification.
Guild also demonstrated their AI Impact Analysis tool, which helps employers analyze AI’s impact on their workforce. The tool examines job titles, employee counts and job descriptions to identify which roles face disruption risk and recommends learning pathways to build both AI and durable skills.
Comprehensive Learning Marketplace
Guild’s Learning Marketplace has expanded dramatically, now featuring more than 2,000 high-quality, flexible programs spanning 138 distinct areas of study, representing a more than 1,600% increase from its earliest offerings. This breadth enables employers to address diverse skill needs across their organization while giving employees options that align with their career aspirations. Nearly two-thirds of Guild learners are pursuing targeted skill development, reflecting the evolving demands of a workforce shaped by rapid technological change.
In the last year alone, Guild supported 1.4 million members through its employer partnerships, demonstrating both the scale of their platform and the growing demand for strategic skill development.
Real-World Impact
The briefing included several compelling examples from different industries:
- Target: After implementing Guild Grow, the national retailer saw significant engagement in the first year (90% from frontline roles), much lower turnover among participants, and 3x higher promotion rates among hourly employees. Their SVP of Talent noted the program has moved them “beyond shoulder tapping” to systematic growth opportunities.
- Chipotle: As an early adopter, the major restaurant chain has seen program participants become 6x more likely to advance into management positions, with most restaurant management roles and field leadership positions now filled by internal talent.
- Global Financial Services Firm: At a leading financial institution, Guild participants show impressive mobility, with nearly half experiencing career advancement. Notably, most were associate-level employees or below, and a majority identified as ethnically diverse.
- Bon Secours Mercy Health: The major healthcare provider found that 61% of new hires cited the education benefit as a factor in joining, registered nurse participants were over 4x less likely to leave, and the program delivered more than $2 ROI for every dollar invested.
Brandon Hall Group™ Analysis
Having observed the education benefits space for years, it’s clear that Guild has successfully transformed traditional tuition reimbursement from a standard benefit into a strategic talent development tool. Their B Corp status ensures aligned incentives across stakeholders — employers, learners and education partners.
Several aspects of Guild’s approach stand out:
- Focus on credential-based learning: Guild emphasizes programs that develop demonstrable skills through sustained engagement.
- Human support model: The personalized human coaching actively supports learners to drive higher persistence rates that are critical for long-term programs where completion is often challenging.
- Data-verified skills: Their approach provides legitimate skills verification rather than self-reported capabilities, creating trusted data that enables true skills-based talent management.
- Measurable business outcomes: Unlike many learning and development investments, Guild delivers clear ROI through retention, internal mobility and attraction metrics.
As organizations navigate talent challenges and AI transformation, Guild’s comprehensive approach offers a proven alternative to the hire-and-fire cycle. Their focus on durable skills and verified capabilities provides a foundation for sustainable talent strategies that benefit both employers and employees.
