Developing Training Metrics

Most L&D professionals learned the Kirkpatrick Model early on. Fewer have seen it applied beyond Level 1. Here's what each level can actually look like when you put it into practice, not just the textbook definition. ✨ Level 1: Reaction 🔹 Textbook version: Did learners find the training engaging and worth their time? ✅ In practice: Instead of "Did you enjoy this session?", ask "Was this relevant to the work you do?" and "Could you apply this right away?" ✅ Metric to track: Relevance and applicability ratings, not just satisfaction scores. ✨ Level 2: Learning 🔹 Textbook version: Did learners gain the intended knowledge or skills? ✅ In practice: Replace recall-based quizzes with scenario-based checks. Can the learner apply the concept to a situation they'd actually face? ✅ Metric to track: Pre/post assessment scores on scenario-based questions, not just "did you pass the quiz." ✨ Level 3: Behavior 🔹 Textbook version: Are learners applying what they learned on the job? ✅ In practice: 30/60/90-day check-ins, manager observations, or peer feedback on whether the new behavior is showing up in real work. ✅ Metric to track: % of participants demonstrating the target behavior, based on manager or peer input, not self-reported confidence. ✨ Level 4: Results 🔹 Textbook version: Did the training impact business outcomes? ✅ In practice: Pick one business metric the program was meant to influence, before you build it, not after, and track the change. ✅ Metric to track: Movement in that specific KPI (error rates, time-to-productivity, conversion rates, retention) compared to a baseline. Most programs are measured thoroughly at Level 1 and barely at all beyond it. But Levels 3 and 4 are where the "did this actually matter" conversation happens, and they are also where L&D earns a seat at the table. Which level does your organisation measure consistently, and which one do you wish you could measure better? #LearningAndDevelopment #LnD #KirkpatrickModel #TrainingEvaluation #InstructionalDesign #LearningMeasurement #TrainingAndDevelopment #LnDStrategy

90% of VP and C-suite leaders are measuring the wrong things. And then wonder why their impact has stalled. They track revenue, headcount, and deliverables. You cannot manage what you do not measure. And most senior leaders are measuring effort, not impact. These 18 KPIs change that: 🎭 TEAM PERFORMANCE ↳ Team Output vs. Capacity Ratio shows at what point your team will burn out ↳ Delegation Rate tracks how much you are doing the work yourself ↳ Direct Report Development Rate measures whether the people you lead are growing 🗣️ COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS ↳ Message Clarity Score reveals whether how successful your communication is ↳ Meeting-to-Decision Ratio tracks how often your meetings produce clear next steps ↳ Upward Communication Frequency measures how often problems are brought your way 🤔 DECISION MAKING ↳ Decision Turnaround Time shows how quickly your team can move without a sign-off ↳ Reversals and Escalations Rate flags how often decisions made without you go wrong ↳ Strategic vs. Reactive Decision Split tracks how you spend your thinking time 💪 INFLUENCE & STAKEHOLDER IMPACT ↳ Stakeholder Alignment Score measures whether the people around you are consistently bought in ↳ Sponsorship and Advocacy Rate tracks how often senior leaders are championing your work ↳ Cross-Functional Initiative Success Rate shows how your influence spreads 🤝 TEAM CULTURE & RETENTION ↳ Voluntary Turnover Rate in your team reflects whether you have built a safe environment ↳ Psychological Safety Index shows whether your team speaks up or stays quiet ↳ Accountability Follow-Through Rate measures whether commitments are kept 🙋♀️ PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE ↳ Focus-to-Noise Ratio tracks how much time you spend on high-leverage leadership  ↳ Energy and Capacity Trend reveals whether your leadership is sustainable ↳ Impact per Hour shows whether your results are growing in proportion to the hours you put in The goal is not to track everything. The goal is to track the right things consistently. Most senior leaders are measuring effort. These 18 KPIs measure what moves leadership forward. How do you measure your impact as a leader? Drop it in the comments. Save this cheat sheet and review it in your next leadership planning session. Every weekday, I publish a short leadership video inside The 5-Minute Leader newsletter, Where I coach you through real leadership situations, and challenges, using essential frameworks. Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ezCguzc7 ♻️ Repost this for a senior leader who is ready to lead by the right numbers. And follow me, Cicely Simpson, for leadership content built for the level you are operating at.

Training and coaching programmes in many workplaces are often seen as one-size-fits-all solutions. Its time for that to change, especially when it comes to leadership development. Too often, learning and development initiatives are decided without involving the people who are not actually taking part in them. Organizations make huge investment into programmes, without effective research into people's needs. They don't ask people what they want or need. They presume everyone's needs are the same. There are times where this might be ok....specific technical skills for example or simple standard work practices. But leadership development requires a different approach. To be honest, I used to deliver one-day trainings on leadership skills here and there. But I never felt good about it. I felt like I wasn't adding real value to anyone. I knew most people were likely to forget everything they learned. It seems like such a waste of time and money. Now, I largely provide a blend of training and coaching programmes. They include an assessment of participant needs. They have a measure of individual development over time. Each person's coaching programme is tailored to what they need. I communicate with my programme participant's managers, to support the continuation of coaching long after their initial coaching programme ends. I always think I can do better so I gather feedback from every participant and improve my programmes all the time. These are the best practices guidelines I follow and teach: 1️⃣ Assess participant needs and customize programmes 2️⃣ Clarify the measures of effectiveness that will be used. 3️⃣ Personalize learning paths- this is possible through blending training with 1:1 coaching programmes 4️⃣ Foster a culture of continuous learning where coaching and training is part of what people regularly give and receive. Ensure all managers have effective coaching skills 5️⃣ Evaluate and adjust all training and coaching programmes. Make improvements based on feedback and measures. ❓What else would you add to ensure training and coaching programmes are highly effective? #learninganddevelopment #employeedevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #traininganddevelopment #training #learning #coaching

Most Train-the-Trainer programmes fail for one simple reason... Transfer is assumed, not designed. A new paper in the International Journal of Training and Development finally tackles a long-standing blind spot in L&D: 👉 How trainers themselves actually learn , and why that learning so often fails to show up in practice. Wisshak et al. (2025) propose a generic “offer-and-use” model for Train-the-Trainer programmes, adapted from teacher education and grounded in decades of transfer research. Training effectiveness is not determined by what is offered, but by how trainers perceive, interpret, and use learning opportunities within their real work context. The model highlights six interacting elements: • Training design & facilitation quality • Individual trainer factors (motivation, self-efficacy, prior knowledge) • Contextual factors (support, culture, opportunity to apply) • Perceived relevance and engagement • Actual learning processes • Outcomes, with transfer (behaviour change) as the non-negotiable criterion What I find particularly important is this: Many trainers are self-employed or freelance, yet most transfer models assume a supportive organisation, manager reinforcement, and stable teams. This paper explicitly addresses that mismatch, suggesting peer networks, follow-ups, feedback loops, and deliberate transfer scaffolding. Implication for L&D: If your Train-the-Trainer programme is evaluated mainly on satisfaction scores or content coverage, you are measuring the least predictive indicators of success. Transfer isn’t a phase. It’s a system property.

The Most Important Question I Ask Before Designing Training. In a recent strategy discussion, a leader shared a familiar concern: "Our managers need to become better leaders." My initial instinct was to discuss learning interventions, but the conversation quickly shifted to understanding what effective managers were actually doing differently in their day-to-day work. That's when a different pattern emerged. The gap wasn't simply about capability. Most managers already knew what good leadership looked like. The challenge was that the desired behaviors weren't happening consistently enough to become part of the team's operating rhythm. The request is often framed as a capability problem. "We need leadership training." "The team needs better communication." "We need a stakeholder management workshop." Those requests are valid. But they don't always describe the problem. 🔍 As the conversation shifts from the requested solution to how work actually gets done, a different pattern often emerges. 📌 Managers know they should coach but don't schedule coaching conversations. 📌 Teams know retrospectives improve execution but rarely make time for them. 📌 Employees understand the importance of stakeholder alignment but don't build a habit of preparing before critical meetings. The constraint isn't always knowledge. The constraint is that the desired behavior isn't part of the team's operating rhythm. Training can introduce a concept, framework, or skill. It doesn't create repetition. And without repetition, behavior rarely changes. That's why one question has become central to my training need discussions: ❓ If this program is successful, what will people do differently next week that they aren't doing today? The answer is rarely 'know more.' It's usually a specific, observable behavior repeated consistently enough to become part of how work gets done. The answer is rarely "know more." It's usually a specific, observable behavior that people repeat until it becomes part of how they work. Training builds awareness. Rituals build habits. Habits change performance. The success of a learning program shouldn't be measured by what people remember after the session, but by what they repeatedly do long after it's over. #microlearning #learningeveryday #learningwithhiral #BehaviorChange #LeadershipDevelopment #CapabilityBuilding

Your workforce has an invisible expiration date. And it’s arriving much faster than your L&D budget can handle. ❗️ 🚩 The traditional half-life of a professional skill used to be 5 years. Today, in an AI-accelerated economy, that lifespan has collapsed to less than 24 months. If your talent strategy is still built around static job descriptions and backward-looking headcount metrics, you aren't managing growth, you are managing a rapidly depreciating asset. When technology can automate core technical and operational capabilities in seconds, the hard skills you hired your team for last year are likely becoming structurally redundant today. ➡️ The response from most organizations? A reactive, expensive loop: Fire or lay off teams with obsolete skills. Attempt to buy premium talent on the open market ! 🔥 The C-suite doesn't care how many training video modules your employees watched this quarter. They care about how fast your workforce can shed outdated habits and deploy new capabilities into production. 📊 To lead this shift, we must stop tracking training consumption and start measuring Skill Refresh Velocity (SRV). This metric evaluates whether your organization is building human capabilities faster than automation is disrupting them: 🔢 SRV = (Core Skills Upgraded or Newly Applied (Past 12 Months)/ (Core Skills Rendered Obsolete or Automated) X 100 📈 If automation has disrupted 20 core competencies across your departments, but your internal talent development programs have successfully upskilled and deployed 24 upgraded competencies into active production, your SRV is 120%. You are beating the obsolescence curve. 📉 But if your SRV drops to 60%, you are accumulating massive Capability Debt. Your workforce defaults to a defensive posture, engagement craters, and your expensive enterprise software licenses turn into shelfware. Stop viewing talent through a static lens. Agility isn't an aspirational culture buzzword; it's a measurable mathematical rate of learning. Is your organization building capability velocity, or are you running a persistent capability deficit? Dave Ulrich #SkillVelocity #TalentStrategy #CapabilityDebt

𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 I've been asked this at least 3 times in the last two months. "How do I know that my leaders are improving?" This is where we distinguish knowing from application. 10% of capability comes from learning from formal sources. 20% comes from networks and interactions. 70% comes from application to portfolios and projects. One thing that sets this all apart are data points. Even if I apply skills to my projects, how do I know I did it well? Most large companies have a 360-degree or leadership assessment process in place. So, I'll share my thought process for this in case you are attempting to develop this for your own organization. Step 1: Determine organizational strategy and business outcomes. This is necessary to align expectations of desired behaviors. This is where a Balanced Scorecard can come in handy. Step 2: Assess expectations of leaders. You'll then assess them across leadership behaviors for new, mid and even senior managers. Granularity of differences supports focus and clarity. Often, a list of pre-existing behaviors/competencies are used to make the exercise easier. Validated psychometric tools such as the 16PF help to anchor it to scientific rigor. Organizational psychologists like me conduct surveys to gather insights. Then, focus groups are used to drill down to details information. After that, we'll create categories basedon the information and produce working behavior-based definitions. Step 3: Prioritize the list Now, the leadership team decides which behaviors are more important by way of ratings. Step 4: Build the 360 We then build a 360-degree feedback survey questions. These questions are reviewed for validity. Step 5: Allocate the survey A system specializing in the 360 (there are many) can be used. Feedback Recipient selects 6 to 12 people to rate them. In organizations, to avoid selection bias, leaders of the feedback recipient can review and veto the people doing the rating. Then, the participant does the survey too (self-rating) Step 6: Debrief of survey Usually, participants need guidance from a trained coach who understands feedback requirements. This is to provide grounding and objective input. Often, 360 surveys tend to be met with resistance unless the coach is skilled in facilitating the reflection conversation. Step 7: Action Planning The participant then produces a set of actions for improvement. This plan and the priority of focus should be made known to the feedback givers. Step 8: Pulse Surveys After a designated time (within 6 to 12 month period) a validated pulse survey is set up for the observers to rate improvement in specific behaviors. Step 9: Continued Leadership Coaching, Mentoring and Peer Support A combination of these can be used to enhance development. Step 10: Final Comparison Survey Toward the end of the year, a comparison survey is done to see how the key areas have improved or not. ---

📈 Unlocking the True Impact of L&D: Beyond Engagement Metrics 🚀 I am honored to once again be asked by the LinkedIn Talent Blog to weigh in on this important question. To truly measure the impact of learning and development (L&D), we need to go beyond traditional engagement metrics and look at tangible business outcomes. 🌟 Internal Mobility: Track how many employees advance to new roles or get promoted after participating in L&D programs. This shows that our initiatives are effectively preparing talent for future leadership. 📚 Upskilling in Action: Evaluate performance reviews, project outcomes, and the speed at which employees integrate their new knowledge into their work. Practical application is a strong indicator of training’s effectiveness. 🔄 Retention Rates: Compare retention between employees who engage in L&D and those who don’t. A higher retention rate among L&D participants suggests our programs are enhancing job satisfaction and loyalty. 💼 Business Performance: Link L&D to specific business performance indicators like sales growth, customer satisfaction, and innovation rates. Demonstrating a connection between employee development and these outcomes shows the direct value L&D brings to the organization. By focusing on these metrics, we can provide a comprehensive view of how L&D drives business success beyond just engagement. 🌟 🔗 Link to the blog along with insights from other incredible L&D thought leaders (list of thought leaders below): https://lnkd.in/efne_USa What other innovative ways have you found effective in measuring the impact of L&D in your organization? Share your thoughts below! 👇 Laura Hilgers Naphtali Bryant, M.A. Lori Niles-Hofmann Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Christopher Lind

The hardest lesson I learned while running two online platforms and juggling teams in Accra and Lagos? “I don’t have time” is leadership’s costliest lie. I used to tell myself that regular check-ins could wait until “things calmed down.” They never did. Projects piled up, assumptions multiplied, and motivation wobbled, until I finally built an approach that helped me see (and serve) each person, not just the to-do list. ⫸ 80 % of employees who receive meaningful feedback each week are fully engaged, regardless of where they work. Only 16 % say their last manager conversation hit that mark. ⫸ Engagement isn’t an ad-hoc pep talk. It’s a rhythm. The leaders who select and honor that rhythm drive higher productivity and lower turnover. What I built (and turned into a toolkit) Employee Engagement Toolkit → https://vist.ly/3n5xvjy A plug-and-play Google Sheet Database (fully editable or transferable into your own tools) with: ⇒ One-on-one tracker – prompts, action items, space for follow-up dates. ⇒ Strengths & motivators tracker – so assumptions don’t run the show. ⇒ Recognition & feedback log – because praise that lands is specific and timely. ⇒ Pulse-check dashboard – quick color-coded view of energy, workload, and blockers. ⇒ Conversation starters & coaching cues – to turn “How’s it going?” into dialogue that matters. Think of it as a starter kit you customize to fit your context, nothing complicated or expensive, just a repeatable framework that keeps people (and their work) visible. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “I’m sure they’ll want X, Y, Z,” without actually confirming it, this toolkit is for you. I built it for a client who wanted to move from reactive firefighting to intentional engagement, and I added it to the Leadership Shop because I wish I had it years ago. Question for you: What’s one small habit you use to keep engagement from slipping through the cracks? - - - - - - - - 👋🏿 Hi, I’m Akua! ⭐ Leadership, Culture & Transformation Advisor and creator of the Leadership Shop. 🗓️ This week, join me as I share a bit more of the behind-the-scenes of my business. Don’t miss my Ask Me Anything LinkedIn Live on Friday, June 6th. See you there!

❗ Only 12% of employees apply new skills learned in L&D programs to their jobs (HBR).  ❗ Are you confident that your Learning and Development initiatives are part of that 12%? And do you have the data to back it up?  ❗ L&D professionals who can track the business results of their programs report having a higher satisfaction with their services, more executive support and continued and increased resources for L&D investments.    Learning is always specific to each employee and requires personal context. Evaluating training effectiveness shows you how useful your current training offerings are and how you can improve them in the future. What’s more, effective training leads to higher employee performance and satisfaction, boosts team morale, and increases your return on investment (ROI). As a business, you’re investing valuable resources in your training programs, so it’s imperative that you regularly identify what’s working, what’s not, why, and how to keep improving. To identify the Right Employee Training Metrics for Your Training Program, here are a few important pointers: ✅ Consult with key stakeholders – before development, on the metrics they care about. Make sure to use your L&D expertise to inform your collaboration. ✅Avoid using L&D jargon when collaborating with stakeholders – Modify your language to suit the audience. ✅Determine the value of measuring the effectiveness of a training program. It takes effort to evaluate training effectiveness, and those that support key strategic outcomes should be the focus of your training metrics. ✅Avoid highlighting low-level metrics, such as enrollment and completion rates. 9 Examples of Commonly Used Training Metrics and L&D Metrics 📌 Completion Rates: The percentage of employees who successfully complete the training program. 📌Knowledge Retention: Measured through pre- and post-training assessments to evaluate how much information participants have retained. 📌Skill Improvement: Assessed through practical tests or simulations to determine how effectively the training has improved specific skills. 📌Behavioral Changes: Observing changes in employee behavior in the workplace that can be attributed to the training. 📌Employee Engagement: Employee feedback and surveys post-training to assess their engagement and satisfaction with the training. 📌Return on Investment (ROI): Calculating the financial return on investment from the training, considering costs vs. benefits. 📌Application of Skills: Evaluating how effectively employees are applying new skills or knowledge in their day-to-day work. 📌Training Cost per Employee: Calculating the total cost of training per participant. 📌Employee Turnover Rates: Assessing whether the training has an impact on employee retention and turnover rates. Let's discuss in comments which training metrics are you using and your experience of using it. #MeetaMeraki #Trainingeffectiveness