learning and development - learning and development kpis

5 KPIs To Measure the Impact of Your L&D

With employee retention being so important in the modern workplace, it’s important to provide employees with learning opportunities. It’s estimated that 40% of employees who don’t receive adequate training for their jobs leave within a year

Hiring is also more expensive than employee retention, and upskilling your workforce is significantly more cost-effective. It’s estimated that 94% of employees will stay longer at their job if the employer invests in their training and development.

The term key performance indicators (KPIs) refer to a measurable determinant of success across a given period of time for a shared  goal. KPIs supply teams with goals to strive for, benchmarks to check performance, and perspectives to help everyone in the company plan for the future. 

In simple terms, KPIs assess the overall performance of the business toward achieving various targets. KPIs must be able to be measurable and easily determined in order to track improvements. 

There are several KPIs that aid in learning and development metrics, for example: 

1. Data Pertaining to Performance

If the data reflects job performance, it is a good measure of learning and development. Outline and set defined objectives that focus on your expectations and how you’ll assess them, then you’ll be able to observe just how your team implements  what they’ve learnt in the workplace. 

Having solid data on your performance can help you improve your skills and better identify strengths and weaknesses. You’ll be able to make informed decisions as you work through your development plan, and you’ll also be able to see how well the program is working for you by seeing the changes in data over time.

2. Quiz and Test Results

Quiz and test results are also measurements of your company’s learning and development KPIs. Test items are accurate measures of whether employees have grasped concepts and lessons. Including tests in your training will help keep the employees  interested and encourage them to learn more. 

You may also analyze training efficacy from a cognitive transmission viewpoint by including them in critical areas of the program. For example, tests and quizzes offer excellent learning and development metrics.

3. Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is a powerful and highly effective way to help your team understand the importance of their work, the impact they have, and why it’s so important to do it well. As a business owner or manager, you have an opportunity to create these opportunities for your team. 

4. Income and Earnings

Income and earnings are a great way to measure learning and development.  Once learning and development are effective, the firm’s financial outcomes will typically improve. Financial outcomes typically depend on the quality of learning and development. Companies that invest more in training are more likely to be more profitable than firms with less training. Employees who receive high-quality training are also more productive and make higher earnings.

Learning and development also has an economic effect, whether it’s to improve personnel happiness or pass new skills. Additional abilities have been shown to be beneficial in enhancing work effectiveness. It can therefore be concluded that increased income and earnings are excellent learning and development metrics. 

5. Create Clear Objectives 

Defining precise targets for your company, such as increasing sales or a set volume of sales arising from repeating customers,is an excellent method to gauge learning and development metrics. However, numbers are never arbitrary and are a good measure of the success of training provided to your personnel.

The examples mentioned earlier are excellent ways to gauge how effective learning and development can be. An essential factor in estimating whether learning and development are effective is to link them to solid business outcomes. Create clear targets ahead of time so you know the goals. Afterward, throughout and after the learning, assess how efficient the training has been to your organization. 

Uplevel Learning & Development at Your Organization

Are you looking to create a learning and development strategy that meets the needs of your employees and your business? A learning and development strategy can help you meet your employees’ needs, as well as align your business goals. It’s an important consideration to make when you’re planning for the future of your company. 

Explore our Enterprise Offerings to learn about upskilling your workforce.

Start Learning

Jennifer Shalamanov
Jennifer Shalamanov
Jennifer is a content writer at Udacity with over 10 years of content creation and marketing communications experience in the tech, e-commerce and online learning spaces. When she’s not working to inform, engage and inspire readers, she’s probably drinking too many lattes and scouring fashion blogs.