Why it’s more critical than ever to measure learning effectiveness

• 3 min read

Measuring taps

Without a doubt, last year threw everyone for a pretty unexpected loop. (You thought I was going to say unprecedented, didn’t you? That’s so 2020.)  

In a matter of days, entire workforces moved from working in the office to working from home. 🏡  And as remote work became the new norm, learning and development (L&D) teams had to figure out how to rejig their corporate training courses and e-learning programs to meet their learners’ evolving training needs given the new learning experience. And that meant making an investment in their training programs. 

For some organizations, it meant fast-tracking planned investments in their employee training programs. For others, it meant unplanned spending on new solutions and technology. Regardless of which camp organizations fell into, pivoting meant dedicating a lot of time and effort – not to mention, money – into enterprise learning. ⏰ 💪  💵

Pre- vs post-pandemic spending  

According to a recent (pre-pandemic) study by Training Industry, over 20% of companies had planned to increase their investments in e-learning technology, namely learning management systems (LMS), content management, content authoring solutions, social learning tools, and training content development. Follow-up research found that a significant portion of companies who were already planning on increasing their spending (pre-pandemic) are now planning to dedicate even more dollars to training initiatives. 

If you’re one of the many companies planning to spend more, you’re going to need to show more. What I mean by that is you’re going to need to show stakeholders that increasing the L&D budget will yield a return on investment for the business. (Insert familiar objection here: 👉 _____ )  

The thing is, justifying investments in training isn’t about objection handling. It’s about proof. That’s right. Training metrics. Key performance indicators (KPIs). Irrefutable evidence that what you’re doing is impacting your people. That they’re retaining knowledge, are confident on the job, and are applying what they’ve learned to improve their job performance. In other words, it’s about learning impact. 👊

If that doesn’t take the wind right out of your L&D sails 💨 ⛵️, I don’t know what will. Because we all know that demonstrating the effectiveness of training programs and definitively proving the impact of learning is H-A-R-D. (If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t be talking about it.) And that’s why it’s usually a missing piece of the L&D puzzle. 

But not anymore…

Prove (and improve) the effectiveness of your learning programs as scale 

We’re excited to introduce Docebo Learning Impact, a powerful tool that enables you to measure the impact of learning on your people.

Docebo Learning Impact is designed to help you go beyond baseline numbers (like completion rates and post-test scores). It gives you the deeper insights and metrics you need to differentiate effective training programs from ineffective ones. 

Docebo Learning Impact transforms learning measurement by helping you: 

  • Reduce admin time ⏱
    Eliminate hours of manual admin time by leveraging optimized training evaluations, ready-to-go questionnaires, and built-in benchmarks and reporting dashboards.
  • Measure business impact 📏
    Validate your company’s learning investment and make data-driven decisions to make a bigger impact on your people.
  • Increase learner engagement 📈
    Maximize learner engagement and manager involvement, and watch your post-training response rates increase.
  • Make data-driven decisions 📊
    Use qualitative data to assess your learning programs and make the right decisions about what’s working and what needs to improve. 

With Docebo Learning Impact, you can prove that learning is a strategic investment by evaluating training results and connecting them to improvements in employee performance, new knowledge and new skill development and behavioral changes (as per Donald Kirkpatrick’s model). 

This year, don’t get thrown for a loop. Close it.

As the dust settles post-pandemic, analysts predict more employees will work remotely (compared to pre-pandemic numbers). So, if you haven’t already adapted your online courses and learning programs to meet the (not-so-new) needs of your learners and your business, you’re going to have to. Whether you’re in a position to spend more, or you find yourself working with a limited budget, you’re going to need to prove the impact of training and that your learning programs are keeping your people engaged and ready to perform well on the job, no matter where they are.

The good news is, while last year threw L&D for a loop, this year, L&D can close the loop on learning measurement with Docebo Learning Impact. 

So what are you waiting for? Check out how Docebo Learning Impact can help you measure the effectiveness of the training programs you’re delivering and validate your company’s investment in learning.