The training function has continued to gain traction as a key contributor to the business in recent years. In fact, LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report found that since 2022, the percentage of L&D professionals working closely with other executive leaders has grown by over 16% in the last year alone. Organizations recognize the importance of employee training and development and are closely holding their internal teams accountable for leading this charge. And with the C-Suite being numbers-focused, L&D leaders are being tasked with quantifying something that has been historically difficult to measure. While sales teams and other revenue-producing roles can easily tie their efforts to business growth, training’s impact is rarely so black and white.
The uncertain state of the economy makes this measurement effort even more urgent, as all functions in the organization are being asked to prove the value of their work and the tools they use. This L&D ROI blog series will cover the spectrum of learning effectiveness measurement: Why we measure, what we measure, and of course, how we measure. This first post will make the case for why uncovering learning’s impact on the organization is critical.
Proof Of Performance Improvement
Employees are truly at the heart of any training effort. Growing your employees’ knowledge and skills makes them stronger contributors of the business and helps them grow in their careers. While managers play an important role in the development of employees, training teams are also responsible for supporting them. By looking at certain employees’ performance over time – both high and low performers – and tying that back to training received helps L&D teams draw conclusions about the effectiveness of their programs.
Skill Gaps & Needs Analysis
Identifying where people need extra support is one of the most critical aspects of training measurement. When employees fail to grasp certain aspects of their daily jobs, they are at risk of making costly mistakes. For services positions, that could be handling a customer scenario incorrectly and losing business. For high-stakes industries like healthcare, medical staff could incorrectly perform a procedure and put someone’s life on the line. While it’s been difficult to measure what people know and don’t know at a moment in time, modern learning technologies offer access to that information – from a high-level, organizational view, all the way down to the individual level. Armed with this data, managers can more effectively coach employees and L&D teams can refine their programs.
Employee Retention & Satisfaction
Employees who receive effective training are more likely to feel valued and competent in their jobs, which leads to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover rates. Since organizations have shifted to an employee-first model in recent years, this is another area that L&D teams can leverage when proving value to executive stakeholders. Correlations can be made between training support received by different employees. Look at what the departments are doing in terms of training for your most engaged employees and apply those best practices to other functions in the organization. Regularly assessing training’s impact on the employee experience can help L&D create engaging and valuable learning experiences while solidifying their seat at the table.
Productivity & Cost Effectiveness
Measuring the impact of training can help L&D teams assess not only how they are adding value to the organization but how well their departments are functioning internally. This enables them to make informed decisions about processes, resource allocation and team logistics, as well as helps to justify budgets. Training teams can use this data to boost their own productivity while simultaneously improving the quality of their programs to better support the organization’s goals.
