One of the biggest challenges learning and development leaders face when addressing the professional development of their employees is understanding how to evaluate the data generated by their efforts so they can track the success of their program. It is important to have a learning management system (LMS) that provides a range of tracking tools. With the right learning and development metrics, you can take a deep look at:
- How engaged your employees are in the upskilling opportunities provided
- How well they’re retaining the information
- The impact of training on the organization as a whole
Understanding the training effectiveness of your workplace learning program lets you know what is working and what needs to be changed. Focus on these four learning and development metrics first:
1. How many people passed the course?
One of the most common learning and development metrics used to determine the success of an offered training is the overall pass rates of the course. As the Harvard Division of Continuing Education explains, L&D programs are so important to organizations because they open the doors for employees to advance in their careers and hone the skills they need to perform their jobs as efficiently as possible.
Learning and development help corporations grow a stronger team and increase retention rates through business impacts such as:
- Job satisfaction
- Employee engagement
- The ability to attract better talent
However, for all of the important benefits of training initiatives for individual employees and your team, those benefits disappear if learners don’t pass the course. There can be many reasons why a number of people on your staff failed to pass the course, including difficulty finding time to take the training. This challenge was identified by more than 40% of organizations as a barrier to the success of their L&D efforts. Assessment scores are an important first step in analyzing how effective the content is.
2. How many employees dropped out before completing the course?
Just as test scores are key learning and development metrics in evaluating the efficiency of your in-house training program, so is a completion rate. If the training is optional, a low completion rate could indicate that the course is either too hard or too boring. Users generally prefer a visually engaging website that presents the information without the need for too many clicks or scrolls. The learning management system also needs to provide a personalized experience to learners that takes into consideration how each individual learns.
Many organizations have also increased their course completion rate by offering incentives or rewards for completing the process. This could include a certificate program or the potential of a promotion. It could even be monetary rewards or gifts for completing the course.
3. How long did it take for learners to complete the training?
As reported by Ottawa University, 93% of employees stay longer at a job where their employer provides learning and development opportunities. Businesses with engaged and active employees experience 41% lower absenteeism rates and 17% higher productivity. Completion rates are one of the most basic learning and development metrics to use when determining the success of a training program. However, this KPI will only give you part of the picture. So evaluate additional employee training metrics such as how long it took the average user to complete it.
Particularly when new hires are involved, it is important that the process of onboarding is smooth. Also, prioritize the accessibility of the training that the individual employee needs to become fully productive in their position. Companies with a strong learning culture in which learning opportunities are embraced as part of the job—and where learning is collaborative and fun—commonly see stronger completion rates and better retention of the information being taught in the training.
4. How engaged were participants in the training?
Training Magazine reports that companies spend an average of more than $1,200 per learner to provide learning and development programs to their workforce. For this cost, organizations expect workers to spend more than 62 hours on learning each year. Learning management systems are among the most common training-related purchases for companies, along with certifications, content development, and games or simulations.
Training isn’t cheap, but the desired result is the creation of engaged workers who are:
- More confident in their positions
- More productive on the job
- Ultimately, more likely to stay
Unfortunately, while companies have more resources for training employees, their employees have less time for learning.
Companies that involve employees from all levels of the organization in preparing their L&D programs tend to have a better experience engaging workers in the content. Buy-in to the training program can also increase if the program embraces various learning strategies and personalization.
It isn’t only about the L&D team offering the learning opportunity in a visually compelling way. It’s about providing information in the training content that aligns with the work the individual employee is doing and their own particular goals. Good programs also offer opportunities to collaborate with other workers or to interact with managers about the content they’ve learned.
5. How easily were employees able to transfer the knowledge into job performance?
Let’s face it. If the content your team is receiving isn’t in line with the work they do and the expectations of their current or desired position, the investment the company has made in L&D is likely not as well-spent as it should be. Fewer than half of companies measure the impact of their onboarding programs. Around 80% say that onboarding new hires is so slow that it causes workplace disruptions. Workplace disruptions are contrary to both customer satisfaction and employee productivity.
Most employees need reskilling to learn new technologies. Building the skills they need to compete in a changing workplace is crucial not only to their career but to the success of your organization. The elearning content provided to your team must be engaging, easily grasped, and transferable to their job.
6. How satisfied are stakeholders in the learning experience?
Your organization’s stakeholders can be investors, sponsors, funders, or clients. What they say about your learning and development program matters. It is important to manage stakeholders’ expectations by defining the type of training you intend to provide, the goals and priorities of your program, communicating about the program’s status, achievements, and challenges regularly, and tracking the program’s process. The stakeholders can then provide feedback through such means as surveys, interviews, or focus groups. The data and feedback that is provided through the process can help the organization adapt and improve the program.
If you fail to engage stakeholders early in the process of developing your training program, the program is likely to have a low adoption rate and a low training ROI. However, satisfied stakeholders often go hand-in-hand with organizations that celebrate the successes of their learners through certifications and awards.
7. What was the impact of the training on the organization?
There are clear benefits for both employees and companies when there is a strong training program in place. Workers have the opportunity to:
- Pursue a career that meets their goals
- Get access to training materials that help them become more productive and confident in the workplace
- Fill in skills gaps
Post-training, businesses have a number of employees who are better prepared for their positions. They can meet the demands of that position and will likely continue meeting those demands for a long while. Operational efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction are increased.
The impact of training on the organization is one of the key performance indicators of training efficiency. So tracking how a worker performs before and after the workplace learning is important. Track learning and development metrics that showcase wanted changes in newly trained employees. If the lessons don’t provide the desired outcome of increased productivity, it can be a sign that the program needs to change.
One of the many ways that companies have found to engage workers in learning is to remove the friction between learning and work. Docebo integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams so that learners have a familiar platform on which to access their training as well as the ability to collaborate and share with team members, making learning just another part of work rather than something separate that takes away from productivity.
Docebo provides the analysis you need to track the success of your program
Learning and development metrics are used to determine the business outcomes of your LMS. You can use them to understand if you’re getting a reasonable return on investment.
Docebo Learning Suite helps companies:
- Create learning content
- Manage and deliver training to employees, customers, or partners
- Measure the program’s impact on their organization by providing access to the right metrics
