{"id":61427,"date":"2021-01-06T16:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/explore.local\/2021\/01\/06\/the-new-learning-metrics-demonstrating-business-value\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T19:43:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T19:43:48","slug":"the-new-learning-metrics-demonstrating-business-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/degreed.com\/experience\/blog\/the-new-learning-metrics-demonstrating-business-value\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Learning Metrics: Demonstrating Business Value and Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Telling your workforce development story \u2014 in fresh ways with new metrics \u2014 can capture the attention of your business leaders and make your learning program an important business priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe your program\u2019s already a priority. You\u2019ve still got a story to tell, one that reinforces the value and impact of learning, talent development, and career mobility. It\u2019s about your company\u2019s highest priorities and biggest goals and demonstrating how an investment in people can help achieve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many organizations, there\u2019s an immediate urgency to consider. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently mandated human capital disclosure<\/a> by all publicly traded companies in the United States. This change took effect in November and is expected to eventually affect privately-held companies as well as nonprofits, which means CFOs and CHROs will be asking for metrics that are \u201cmaterial to the business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details Make a Good Narrative Great<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The right metrics \u2014 data points that take success measurements above and beyond traditional L&D methodologies \u2014 can bring your new learning story to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their book, The Expertise Economy<\/a><\/em>, Degreed CLO Kelly Palmer and Co-founder David Blake caution that corporate learning is often viewed as a cost center rather than a revenue-generating function. \u201cLearning typically becomes more reactive than strategic<\/a>. For example, one business leader asks for a conscious bias training program, another wants an agile development training program, and maybe a third asks for an onboarding program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Palmer and Blake put it, \u201cA strong learning leader who understands business can develop a… strategy based on data from several sources and show how this learning can impact both the business and employees in meaningful ways.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where We\u2019ve Been: Metrics Important to Learning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re like many HR, talent, and learning professionals, you\u2019re looking to be a business enabler who\u2019s more data-driven and strategic about workforce development, so you can guide decisions and investments that deliver results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior executives and CEOs want their teams to lead with advanced analytics, according to Deloitte<\/a>. In that same study, organizations that reported having the strongest cultural orientation to data-driven insights and decision-making were twice as likely to have reported exceeding business goals in the prior 12 months. Findings from the new Degreed State of Skills 2021<\/a> report show that HR professionals rank advanced data analytics among the top ten in-demand skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, traditional learning metrics like course completions and hours of training often aren\u2019t enough to reinforce the value of learning to your CEO, business leaders, managers, individual contributors, or anyone else. Combined with efficiency ratios like hours of learning consumed per worker, the cost of learning per hour, staff-to-worker ratios, and your modality mix, these metrics can begin to tell a basic story of how your workforce interacts with your learning initiatives, but they don’t confirm that anyone actually learned anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An employee survey or \u201chappy sheet\u201d might tell you how workers felt about their latest learning experience, help you see how they used what they learned (from their perspectives), and provide some qualitative feedback on how to improve L&D. But this data doesn’t stretch beyond<\/em> L&D. It isn\u2019t much use to anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These learning metrics will always be important to track. But as HR and L&D efforts increasingly influence business strategies, advanced companies go further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where We\u2019re Going: Metrics Important to Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your business has unique needs and goals; they\u2019re the best place to start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps retaining salespeople is a big priority. Maybe it\u2019s reducing the time it takes for engineers to<\/a> <\/a><\/strong>upskill<\/a>, so they can keep up with new technologies. It might be keeping customer support teams knowledgeable on product updates. These things matter to front-line managers and they matter to business leaders. Because these are the things that impact their ability to drive results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new learning metrics are less transactional. They deemphasize time spent learning and focus more on usage through a lens of workforce engagement<\/strong>. They look at social<\/strong> learning and consider content<\/strong>. They address the skills<\/strong> your people have and those they need. And they convey how all of these data points influence the results that matter to your stakeholders, not just your learning, talent, and HR teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our work here at Degreed with hundreds of the world\u2019s most innovative companies, we\u2019ve started to see four new stories take shape. Together, they paint a clearer picture of the changes in culture, behavior, and skills that drive performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Engagement Story<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is about understanding if your people are participating in learning and feel personally committed to their career development and advancement. With this, you can determine whether you\u2019re creating a culture of innovation and evolution that drives business results. Your engagement story focuses on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n