No business ever funded a learning metric. Budgets follow the outcomes a business already values: revenue, retention, speed to competence. Yet learning initiatives are still routinely built first, with the success measures selected once the design is finished. A measure chosen at that stage can only describe what a program happens to produce. It cannot shape what the program sets out to change, which is why so much L&D reporting reads to an executive as evidence of activity rather than evidence of impact.
We made that case on a panel at TICE in Raleigh in June (and captured what those leaders told us afterwards). The audience, however, wanted to see concrete examples from their peers: specific projects, the business numbers those projects were measured against, and how each of those connections was made.
So we are bringing Brian Jarvis, senior manager of learning and development at WM; Karen Ganitsky, global sales training leader at 3M; and Valerie Marsh, senior director of L&D at Jushi back together, along with VP of L&D, Allyson Roote. They join Sean Stowers, CEO of WeLearn, on September 15 for a panel session, Four Leaders on Connecting L&D to What the Business Wants covering how they identified the outcome the business wanted, selected the measure that would demonstrate progress against it, and negotiated access to data owned by another function, each within their own organization.
You’ll want to pull up a seat. Here's some of what we aim to cover:
Evidence of impact sits in systems L&D does not own
Our panelists are all aligned on one point: evidence that a learning program is working is rarely held by learning. It sits in the CRM, in the attrition report, in the ramp time operations tracks, in the cost per hire finance maintains. The LMS can tell you who completed a course and how they scored on it. It cannot tell you whether anyone performs differently once they are back in the job.
That can make measurement a question of influence before it’s a question of method. What do we mean by that? The L&D teams who get access to data get it because they have built standing with the function that owns it, and because they can show why tracking the number serves that function as well. Our panelists will talk about how they built those relationships with sales, operations, HR and finance, and what they had to offer those functions in return.
When the business cannot name a KPI
The question we (and our panelists) hear most from peers is what to do when a stakeholder asks for training but cannot say which business result it should improve. Sometimes they describe the problem clearly and have never attached a target to it. Sometimes the target exists, but the data that would track it belongs to a different business function, and L&D has no access to it.
Our panelists have dealt with these different scenarios, and they will get specific about how in our webinar. A good deal of it comes down to building the case from figures you can get hold of yourself. If onboarding gets a new hire productive in five weeks instead of five months, those months have a cost: salary paid before the person was contributing, and output the business went without while they were still in training. HR and finance own this kind of data already. Ask for a salary band and a productivity figure and you can do the math yourself, without waiting on access to their systems.
Strong results will not always keep a program running
We also want to be honest about the limits of measurement. The best way is to share an example: One of our panelists ran three pilots, each producing evidence of impact the business recognized and accepted, and all three programs are on hold today because the business is short staffed and a new leader has set different priorities.
What that evidence does buy is influence over what happens next. A leader who has seen what a program delivered will be more likely to bring L&D into the discussion about when it stops, what replaces it in the meantime and what it would take to restart it. In the example we shared above, it’s why our panelist is still able to shape what happens to those three pilot programs future-forward.
The challenge with existing measurement methods
Going out to find the data, building the case yourself, keeping the value of a program visible when priorities shift: none of this is what existing models prepare us for. What it points to is a poverty of measurement models that help L&D report in business and financial terms. Much of L&D is still focused on whether the learning worked — and still reaching for the same old models.
Leadership will always want to know: was it worth the investment, and what did it change in the business?
Our panelists have each had to find smart and creative ways to show learning’s impact on business outcomes. We have also been exploring new reporting methods to address this very problem and will be sharing our thoughts on the webinar.
Join us on September 15 and learn:
- How experienced L&D leaders identify business outcomes before any design work starts
- How learning teams align stakeholders around shared measures of success
- Practical ways to connect learning work to business evidence that resonates with executives
