The 10 Most Popular Ways Learning and Development Professionals Are Measuring Success

The 10 Most Popular Ways Learning and Development Professionals Are Measuring Success

Nearly seven in 10 respondents agree or strongly agree that their learning and development (L&D) department is successfully executing its mission, according to a recent survey we conducted.

How are they measuring success?

Most L&D professionals said their organization measures the success of L&D through employee surveys (63%). There’s little doubt that polling respondents immediately after a class is an efficient way to gather both quantitative data and qualitative feedback on any given training course. Yet many also use a wider range of metrics as well, according to the findings.

How L&D professionals are measuring success

While surveying learners was the most prominent answer, respondents identified other metrics they capture. Here’s a list of 10 ways L&D professionals said they are measuring success:

  1. Survey employees. 63% survey employees;
  2. Survey managers. 40% survey leaders/managers;
  3. Total trained. 36% tally the number of students/employees trained;
  4. Courses completed. 35% count the classes or sessions completed;
  5. Classes attempted. 17% measure the classes or sessions attempted;
  6. Time spent training. 17% calculate the total time spent in training;
  7. Promotions. 13% track employee promotions post-training;
  8. Tenure. 11% monitor employee tenure post-training;
  9. Eye-tracking. 10% analyze in-training metrics (i.e. eye-tracking); and
  10. ROI. 9% assess the return on investment.

It’s interesting to note that fewer than one in 10 organizations attempt to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of L&D. In addition, another 6% do not measure L&D at all.

This is a warning flag, as most business functions, including L&D, will require some sort of data-driven analysis to justify budgets.


There’s more detail in the full report which is available for download here:
The 2023 State of Learning and Development Report