How To Become An Employee Development Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is an employee development manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Geraldine Fitzpatrick-Doria

Employee development managers work towards an improved efficiency of employees in a company by providing training opportunities in areas that prove challenging. They assess the developmental needs of a firm and propose ways to better execute professional duties that allow workers the insight necessary to get creative in challenging professional situations.

Your job will be to research areas and company processes that employees find difficult to deal with, take more time than necessary to accomplish or execute with a higher rate of errors. You will be responsible for designing methods to efficiently educate workers in the areas that you identified as weak and implement these learning methods to improve overall company performance.

A bachelor's degree is generally required as this is a managerial position. Experience in conducting educational programs for professionals is also important to have. There are certifications you can acquire as well, to prove your proficiency as a learning and performance expert. Companies will make it worth your while to invest in this career path, as the average annual salary for this position is $82,458.

What general advice would you give to an employee development manager?

Dr. Geraldine Fitzpatrick-Doria

Assistant Professor, Holy Family University

Having been a teacher for 19 years and an administrator for 15 years prior to entering into higher education I have pages of advice LOL! I would share everything I discussed in question #2. I would also encourage them to never stop learning. Being a life-long learner is absolutely essential for continued success. I would strongly recommend diving deeply into cultural competency and to learn as much as they can both about themselves and the communities they hope to serve. Learning about our bias and our points of viewing the world and learning as much as we can about others creates the conditions to build amazing classroom experiences for our students.

ScoreEmployee Development ManagerUS Average

Salary

5.7

Avg. Salary $73,031

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.1

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.50%

Asian 4.21%

Black or African American 10.45%

Hispanic or Latino 16.50%

Unknown 5.47%

White 62.86%

Gender

female 50.52%

male 49.48%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

6.1

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.2

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an employee development manager

Explore employee development manager education requirements

Most common employee development manager degrees

Bachelor's

66.9 %

Master's

19.8 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific employee development manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Employee Development	19.99%
Training Programs	10.65%
Organizational Development	6.37%
Needs Assessment	6.08%
Customer Service	5.63%

Complete relevant employee development manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New employee development managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an employee development manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real employee development manager resumes.

Research employee development manager duties and responsibilities

Manage the in-house production of eLearning training for staff; consisting of filming, editing and publishing training materials.
Coach leaders on appropriate employee relations practices, helping them to maintain strong working relationships and accountability while avoiding potential litigation.
Create and deploy learning to support the launch of new HRIS systems.
Develop and facilitate highly-interactive classes and events on product and industry knowledge, diversity and business ethics.

Apply for employee development manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an employee development manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do employee development managers rate their job?

-/5

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Employee development manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2019

Pros

Engaging people Change the organization See Organization grow See positive results

Cons

Working long hours