While not a recent concept, evaluation frameworks such as the Kirkpatrick method, which have been in existence since the 1960s, emphasise the assessment of participant reactions, learning outcomes, behavioural changes, and overall results. This evaluation process involves various methods including interviews, observations, surveys, and organisational metrics.
However, the Kirkpatrick method is slow to demonstrate results and changes in technology have increased the expectations from organisations. There’s now a demand for more timely and accessible training outcomes. C-suite executives and steering committees want evidence that the time and money invested in training deliver tangible results. Meaningful metrics need to show the impact of training on learners and more importantly, the business' bottom line.
Why Learning Impact is Vital for organisations
The demand for effective and high-quality organisational learning has never been stronger. There have been numerous studies released showing employees value L&D opportunities higher than ever before. The opportunity to develop their skills and career through learning is a determining factor when deciding to stay in a role or move to a more promising career prospect.
So, to retain employees and attract future rock stars, organisations need to be sure their learning offerings are up to scratch.
C-suite executives and business leaders are becoming more aware of the importance of organisational training as well. However, this doesn’t always translate to money and time being allocated to training. To provide L&D teams with the budget and resources to foster career development and attract top talent, decision makers need to see a compelling argument based on meaningful metrics, visualised in a way they understand.
Demonstrating a return on investment through increased revenue is a good way to get the attention of executives but isn’t the only option. Going beyond the amount of training completed, data can also highlight skill attainment, organisational efficiencies, and how this relates back to job performance, and consequently, the company’s bottom line.
Add to this, gains in company culture, overall employee experience (including retention and time to onboard), more measurable professional development goals and a host of other benefits, by proving and showing learning impact, an organisation is setting themselves up for prolonged success culturally and financially.
What to focus on
If too much data is presented, or if it isn’t relevant and meaningful, the likelihood that it will be noticed or actioned is reduced. However, not having enough data or solely relying on more traditional metrics such as completions and Kirkpatrick-style evaluations won’t resonate enough with decision makers.
The data being shown should reflect the right level of impact so it’s important to empathise with, and think as an executive decision-maker or senior stakeholder. The following are some great prompting questions:
What’s the bottom line and how will they be held accountable?
Do they have KPI’s, a steering committee or board to report to?
Which business performance metrics and outcomes are most desirable and seen as being achievable by using training?
These metrics will vary but common outcomes include:
Time taken to onboard new team members
By defining roles and gathering data from the new hire, peers, and their managers, it’s possible to get insight into how quickly someone is able to perform their role. This is an essential metric that gives businesses a way to measure the costs of acquiring new talent, what training is effective and highlights areas to focus on for continuous improvement
Employee turnover rates compared to training
Understanding the impact training has on employee retention shows the value of training. Seeing the difference in retention between those who engage in training vs those who don’t, can highlight the potential value of training and areas to focus on.
Job performance
Connecting your learning with a skills taxonomy or metrics from performance appraisals can help demonstrate the impact on job performance. This data can then be used to highlight organisational strengths or skill gaps, enabling leaders to proactively manage their workforce.
Cross skilling and internal promotions
Identifying and promoting eligible employees keeps them happy and engaged while fostering a positive culture. This also reduces the cost of hiring externally, providing a meaningful financial return. Demonstrating how training has influenced those who have been promoted, and the associated cost savings provides a strong case for learning programs.
Completion results and advanced metrics
Completions are one of the most common forms of data used by learning teams, often seen by stakeholders as the measure of success. Depending on the program, it can be beneficial to drill deeper into utilisation metrics, engagement, and the effectiveness of the learning activity.
By visually seeing drop-off rates, utilisation charts, game-based success metrics and other key measures, learning teams can quickly measure effectiveness and act as needed or report confidently to stakeholders with a compelling message.
How to start seeing learning Impact
Many organisations implement learning solutions that emphasise individual or isolated activities, often without setting themselves up for success. They may lack the necessary data points to extract meaningful reporting and insights, hindering their ability to determine learning impact. When preparing a learning impact-based strategy, it’s important to ensure enough data is collected and learning interactions are tracked and meet the needs of the organisation.
Basing your learning data on Experience API (xAPI) is very useful in the modern world to ensure data collection is granular and detailed. xAPI is the latest industry standard that governs how learning data is collected, stored, and reported on. It gives learning designers the power to dictate how interactions are tracked and recorded.
Having more detailed and granular data provides insight for learning practitioners, enabling an iterative process of design and development to ultimately create more effective learning experiences. By shortening development and design cycles and getting faster, more regular feedback, a higher quality of training can be produced.
The extra data points collected with xAPI also allow for far superior reporting capabilities. Industry stalwarts like Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) are still reliant on a fixed set of data. With xAPI, learning team have a vast array of data at their disposal to help measure and demonstrate learning impact.
By thinking about the impact of learning, using an iterative development model (more about that here) and leveraging xAPI to increase collected data, you will be able to present a meaningful case for investing in training. This will help ensure your organisation can confidently and effectivity measure the impact that training has, see the tangible benefit and keep all stakeholders happy.
