Measuring the Impact of L&D: How the Best Learning Leaders Prove Value at Three Levels

By Trena Minudri, VP & Chief Learning Officer, Coursera

If you struggle to measure and communicate the business impact of your L&D initiatives to your executive leaders, board, or other stakeholders—you’re not alone. This is one of the most challenging hurdles learning professionals face and something that we recently explored in the How to Evaluate the Business Impact of Learning playbook.

The struggle to measure learning’s impact is nuanced, largely because it doesn’t stem from a lack of executive buy-in for L&D. In fact, top-level executives are relying on learning leaders more often to shore up mission-critical skill gaps in their workforce, like GenAI expertise, data literacy, and leadership. There’s been a 51% increase year-over-year in executive leadership viewing L&D as a strategic business function, and 75% of surveyed leaders said their executive leadership is prioritizing L&D investment to keep up with digital transformation.

What’s stopping executives from seeing L&D’s true worth though is this: Not enough learning leaders are reporting on the tangible numbers that point to L&D’s impact on the bottom line and business outcomes. Most of them are still talking about learner engagement metrics.

A mere 4% of learning leaders communicate the tangible business outcomes of their skill-building programs, even though a 2022 Deloitte study found that on average, a 1% increase in L&D spending correlated to a 0.2% increase in same-year business revenue. That means in this study that for every $1 invested in L&D, $4.70 was made.

I share that to say this: Your L&D efforts make a meaningful revenue impact, and it’s time to measure and talk about it. As L&D professionals, we need to focus on proving business-level value rather than learner engagement to gain additional stakeholder investment and support.

The road to proving value begins with understanding the three levels of measuring L&D success: individual, program, and organization.

The three levels of measuring L&D success

1. Individual

This is the micro level—at this stage, we zoom in on the individual learner and focus on the value that learning provides them. We ask questions like:

• Did they grow their confidence?

• Are they poised for internal mobility?

• Did they gain the skills to master their job function?

When measuring L&D at the micro level, we’re looking to see if an employee can have a breakout moment in their role and complete tasks in a lateral way that hasn’t been done before. While the two other measurement categories we’ll discuss focus on business outcomes, this level champions the individual—we look beyond course completions and pursue employee growth.

To do this, start by measuring the quality of a specific program’s content. This collects the learner’s experience and determines the positive impact of learning through:

• Internal NPS

• Course star ratings

• Course written feedback

• Learner surveys

• Learner skill development measurement

Measuring individual impact is a great place to start, but many learning leaders lack insight into the program- or organization-level impact of their L&D initiatives. It’s important to measure all three for the most comprehensive business picture. Let’s look at the program level next.

2. Program

When measuring at the program level, learning leaders aim to determine the outcome of a specific L&D initiative:

• What was the intended business impact of the program?

• What was the actual business impact?

This could look like a sales organization developing specific training and comparing the length of the average deal cycle before and after reps complete the program. Learning leaders can determine the value of the program based on that time difference. Other common program level outcomes are revenue gained, productivity increases, cost savings driven by decreases in employee errors and customer complaints, and reduced turnover.

Measuring at the program level earns L&D leaders credibility, respect, and a seat at the table because these measurements translate into quick wins, buy-in, and a strong practice of measurability.

3. Organization

The organization level is often the most challenging for learning leaders to measure, including here at Coursera. While the micro level zooms in to the individual learner, the macro level zooms out to focus on the collective:

• What is the overall value of your L&D programs across the organization?

Instead of looking at the results of just one program, organization level measurement looks at the holistic impact of learning. Coursera research found that the top five factors driving urgency for reskilling and upskilling employees across entire organizations are:

1. Increasing productivity

2. Keeping up with the competition

3. Driving employee engagement

4. Changing technologies

5. Employee retention

These factors can all be measured at the program level, sure, but aggregating each program’s impact at the organization level is just as (if not more than) important to measure.

Now that you understand the three levels of measurement for your L&D initiatives, here’s some more tactical advice for measuring and proving value at each of these levels.

Three tips for getting started with learning measurement

Tip #1: Stay up-to-date on what matters most to your executives

I’ll use myself as an example here: I meet regularly with Coursera’s CEO Jeff Maggioncalda to discuss what’s happening in the company and hear what he’s hoping we achieve as a business. I’m listening, I’m taking information in, and I’m asking questions. I consider all of the spaces in that business strategy that can be enhanced by effective learning and see what roadblocks exist.

Tip #2: Resist the urge to fall back on process-related metrics

Unfortunately, 80% of companies focus on process-related metrics, like course attendance or hours of training delivered. These metrics, though incredibly valuable, don’t tell the full story and won’t be compelling to executive leadership.

Instead, start with the end in mind. Ask yourself:

• What does the business need?

• What role does learning play?

• What is the desired outcome?

These questions will help you craft a strategy that won’t default you to reporting on learning hours alone; you’ll identify tangible business outcomes you could deliver with the right pieces in place. Work backward, always.

Tip #3: Build continuous rapport with the C-Suite

If you’re thinking, “How can I determine business outcomes if I don’t know what my business’s pain points are?”, you’ll want to lean on your CHRO or Chief People Officer (CPO) to help you get time with other executives. Ask them about the direction of the organization and the skills that will be needed in the next 3-5 years. From there, make a plan and then ask them for what you need. Is it more specific business strategy information? Is it details on where the company is headed? Build rapport and earn a seat at those C-level conversations.

Once you understand the business strategy, you can create a map for the role learning plays in company and employee growth—which makes it easier to prove to executive leadership why learning is critical for success.

Better measurement of your L&D efforts starts with you

When you consider any great company’s business strategy, people are always at the center of it. This means that every single business has a demand for learning. And for continued investment, every single business needs to prove the value of learning at the individual, program, and organization levels.

Remember this as you strive to prove (and maximize) the value of your L&D program: Your workforce and broader organization will both benefit if you shift your focus from reporting on learner engagement to reporting on program quality and business impact. It’s up to you to do the hard work of proving outcomes by learning what matters most to your business, working backward, and maintaining rapport with your cross-departmental peers and executives. These are the actions that will earn L&D a lasting seat at the strategic table.