Learning impact can be described as the effect that various learning and development initiatives have on business outcomes and employee performance. Companies with a strong L&D team tend to grow more effectively, achieving a better ROI.
Why Measure the Impact of Learning on Business?
Organizations run learning programs to meet objectives including increased sales, elevated client base, positive client feedback, increased efficiency and productivity, and more. How does a company know if its objectives have been met, though? Through impact measurement. Measuring learning impact helps an organization by ensuring that efforts made toward employee development are yielding positive results and not just increasing costs.
According to a LinkedIn workplace learning poll from 2021, 95% of employees are more likely to stay with a company longer if their skills are developed adequately on the job. Thus, learning impact measurement is a crucial part of developing and running learning programs to both train and retain employees.
Advantages of Measuring Learning Impact
As a famous saying goes, “Numbers don’t lie.”
Learning impact measurement helps businesses move forward by highlighting gaps that must be filled for employee success and enhancement. Measuring learning impact also aids with:
- Understanding the effectiveness of the learning program: A learning program is only good if ‘learning’ is actually achieved. Measuring the learning impact helps L&D professionals and department managers understand how effective (or ineffective) a program is and plan future initiatives accordingly. It also helps map investments and returns, which is crucial.
- Pointing out learning gaps: It may happen that upon the completion of a learning program, teams and managers realize that there is a learning or knowledge gap that still needs to be filled. Measuring learning impact helps decision makers understand whether all aspects of a program have been conducted well and if anything has been left out so they can course correct for future training sessions.
- Appropriating higher budgets for L&D: Measuring learning impact and getting a good impact score will help L&D managers appropriate higher budgets for their initiatives. This in turn will help further enhance initiatives and employee learning.
Learning impact is a vital analytic for business. Thus, it is essential to monitor it closely.
How To Measure Learning Impact
Simply running learning programs isn’t enough. It is important to ensure that the programs are actually contributing to the growth and development of employees and the organization as a whole by measuring their impact. There are several techniques to measure learning impact:
- Conducting employee engagement surveys: Observing the trends in the engagement charts of your learning programs can tell you a lot about your programs. Taking note of feedback from employees participating in the learning program and paying attention to retention rates can help enhance L&D initiatives.
- Analyzing employee productivity: The primary reason an organization conducts learning programs is to enhance their employees’ skills and knowledge. If you notice employees completing assigned work in less time with better quality, this shows an excellent learning impact. On the other hand, if you notice little to no effect on productivity, you may have an imbalanced training program.
- Analyzing performance statistics: By analyzing performance statistics of your employees against KPIs and KRAs, L&D managers can understand just how effective the learning program is and whether or not it delivers what it is intended to deliver. On the other hand, analyzing overall business statistics is another technique that can show the impact of learning. Improved business stats can point to high learning impact, while decreased stats convey the need for improvement in the learning programs.
- Comparing retention and application rates before and after training: Employees are more likely to stay for a prolonged period at an organization where their skills are honed and developed. An organization with good learning impact attracts more applications for open positions. An analysis of the number of applications can help measure learning impact.
Learning impact measurements are a crucial element of executive reports, just as important as other business insights. It’s important to have metrics in place that are can objectively help asses the company’s learning impact.
