It’s no secret that in order to be successful, organizations need to focus on continuous learning and development (L&D). But what’s not always so clear is how to measure the success of your L&D programs. Without proper measurement, it can be difficult to determine whether or not your programs are effective and meeting your organization’s needs. That’s where L&D KPIs come in. The right key performance indicators makes it easy to evaluate the success of your training programs as well as measure the return on investment.
One key factor in determining the effectiveness of L&D programs is picking the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs allow you to track progress and see if your programs are having the desired impact.
We’ll show you how to identify the right KPIs for training programs in this post along with some KPI examples to get you started.
Attendance Rate
For training managers, this is a straightforward KPI. If you have not considered it as a performance indicator, you’re not likely actively measuring it. This is one of the key factors to consider in synchronous (in blended) learning.
Evaluate the following metrics to obtain a good sense of attendance.
- Enrollments for all courses
- Participation at every training course
- Attendance in every virtual training session
What does the KPI reveal?
- Is attendance dwindling as the course progresses? – Learners may not believe the course provides them with long-term value.
- Are you having trouble getting as many people to sign up as you’d like? – Perhaps it’s time to rethink how you promote the program to your workforce.
- If you’re not pleased with this KPI, it’s time to conduct a poll of your employees to determine why they aren’t taking advantage of your program.
A learning management system or a learning experience platform makes collecting this data easier, but you could alternatively use spreadsheets or your existing software.
Course Completion Rate
This KPI is a no-brainer, course completion rates tell you the overall completion rates of L&D programs. There could be many more insights you can get from this KPI apart from measuring the completion.
What does the KPI reveal?
- In synchronous training, unless mandatory, employees will cease attending if they do not receive what they expected.
- In self-paced learning, if your completion rates are poor, it might be due to many reasons – the learners are not engaged, or the course is difficult and the learners need additional help or resources etc.
Make sure that employees have a clear understanding of what they will get from training. How will the sessions be structured? What skills are they going to learn? What effect will the training have on their day-to-day work? Employees will benefit greatly if the answers to these questions are clarified. You’ll probably observe an increase in your completion rates as well.
Time to proficiency or Time to productivity
This metric evaluates how long it takes employees to comprehend the training’s results. Employees that learn quickly are more likely to achieve outcomes quickly. This metric is a little tricky to measure, often requiring the use of qualitative data over time to understand it completely
What does the KPI reveal?
- Serves as a gauge of training efficacy.
- If the time is high, it is time for L&D managers to design better programs with clear goals and learning outcomes.
Bring down ‘Time to proficiency/productivity’
1) Set clear expectations – Set performance goals and milestones for 30-60-90-120 days and also set a process to measure progress accordingly.
2) Do A/B Testing – Based on results from your programs, you can add and test changes in programs with pilot groups and look at the differences. If time-to-productivity goes down as a result of the changes, then implement on a broader scale.
Retention of information and skills
The goal of this KPI is to determine how well employees recall the knowledge and skills they learned during training sessions. This can be measured using periodic assessments, challenges such as hackathons, but also in the regular performance of the employees.
What does the KPI reveal?
- Assesses employees’ progress in terms of competence and their ability to apply what they’ve learned to their jobs.
Employee Training Satisfaction
It’s usually a good idea to ask your learners to assess the training they’re taking or have completed. Receiving first-hand feedback from those who are exposed to your programs is really beneficial. Within the course design, content, and delivery, employees may determine what works and what doesn’t.
What does the KPI reveal?
- Employees satisfaction scores after L&D programs and thereby insights to designing better programs in future
- Overall effectiveness of the program and the perceived value by learners.
Because you’ll be gathering useful information before, during, and after learners finish the course, key performance indicators help you save money in the long term.
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