Today, business leaders are taking a keen interest in employee learning and development (L&D) programmes, and with good reason. Organisations must attract and retain top talent while equipping employees with the skills needed for the next era of work. In this competitive landscape, all eyes are on the business impact of L&D.
As senior executives prioritise L&D to achieve organisational goals, the pressure on L&D teams to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of their work is growing. With L&D increasingly in the spotlight, relying on metrics such as course completion rates is no longer enough. Instead, L&D leaders must show how learning initiatives align with business objectives and deliver positive outcomes.
What’s at stake?
The UK’s skills shortage is a major cause of anxiety for senior executives. According to recent LinkedIn Learning research, 57% of L&D professionals say their C-suite is concerned that employees lack the skills needed to execute the organisation’s business strategy – a challenge particularly pressing for companies eager to accelerate their AI ambitions. But that’s not the only issue keeping senior leaders up at night.
Addressing the skills attrition associated with employee turnover is another top worry. With 85% of UK organisations concerned about employee retention, 61% are prioritising L&D programmes that offer employees learning opportunities designed to boost engagement, productivity, and career growth.
With so much at stake, where the future agility and viability of the organisation are concerned, it’s clear that L&D needs to be a top business priority. It’s vital that L&D professionals can both build a strategy that serves the needs of the business and clearly communicate the value of L&D to business leaders.
Relying on metrics such as course completion rates is no longer enough.
Step 1: Clarify the L&D strategy
To create a cohesive L&D strategy that delivers the outcomes that matter, L&D leaders must first take a step back and evaluate the business context and required goals.
For example, if the organisation’s goal is to improve employee retention by 10% over the next two years, that should be the focus. Alternatively, if the pressure is on to address skills gaps and prepare for future operations, these development priorities will help shape the strategic plan.
Understand business priorities
Cohesively tying learning outcomes to business KPIs is a cross-functional effort that requires buy-in from business stakeholders. To this end, L&D leaders will need to understand the top priorities of functional heads of department and get to grips with the knowledge, skills, and abilities the workforce needs right now and in the future.
Align L&D goals with business strategy
Once the business context is clear, L&D leaders can then start to build a learning strategy targeted to deliver these required changes. As part of this process, they will need to create a plan identifying how each learning input will benefit learners and how specific skills acquisition will boost employee performance and overall achievement of business goals.
Define measurable learning outcomes
This ‘logic bridge’ will prove critical for defining learning objectives and identifying the data points that need to be gathered and analysed to benchmark progress. Alongside tracking ‘what’ learners are doing, this data will provide actionable insights into the impact of learning on behaviours and performance.
Step 2: Communicating outcomes
Whether the goal of the L&D strategy is to improve employee retention, increase sales, or boost customer satisfaction scores, L&D leaders must ensure they have the data to demonstrate before and after results. Once this data is gathered, it’s a matter of presenting it to business leaders in a way that showcases the organisation’s return on its L&D investment.
Focus on business-relevant metrics
While metrics such as learner engagement, course completions, and feedback are important, they won’t demonstrate the real business impact of learning. For business leaders, metrics like sales targets, net promoter scores, and employee and customer retention are what truly matter. That means L&D leaders need to leverage qualitative and quantitative data – or both – to show the current and projected impact of learning.
Use data to tell a compelling story
Importantly, this isn’t a ‘one and done’ activity. Learning leaders must regularly update senior decision-makers on the achievements and impact of L&D programmes. By tracking impacts such as performance reviews, employee productivity, retention rates, and even deals closed, L&D leaders can connect the dots and provide evidence on how L&D is helping to deliver on both short- and long-term business objectives.
Continuously refine and improve
While knowing where to start with learning measurement can feel challenging, getting this process right will ultimately help promote the direct link between L&D programmes and business success. L&D leaders should use this feedback to refine their approach, ensuring that each programme evolves to meet the organisation’s changing needs and goals.
L&D: A recognised business partner
With L&D under greater scrutiny, L&D leaders need to demonstrate the value of their programmes. With a business-needs-focused strategic plan and data to back up the results, learning leaders can demonstrate purpose and connection to employees – ultimately generating positive business outcomes. Whether that’s enabling career development initiatives that help retain talent and boost employee capabilities or supporting workforce skills acquisition that’s essential for navigating the future.
Further resources
Four learning metrics that improve business value
This article highlights four key learning metrics that can help organisations gain a deeper understanding of course effectiveness and learner engagement.
Your six-step L&D guide to delivering impact and value
Robin Hoyle offers a six-step guide to help L&D teams move beyond vanity metrics and assess the behavioural changes required to support organisational strategy.
Learning analytics: Ten questions L&D detectives must ask to assess the impact of learning
Kevin M. Yates provides a set of critical questions L&D professionals should consider to effectively assess the impact of their learning initiatives.
