5 Ways to Prove the Business Impact of Learning

Congratulations! You convinced your CFO and CEO that implementing a cloud-based LMS would save money, and it's already working. They are loving it.

But it won’t be long until the reduced cost is the norm, and your executive team will be looking for your next initiative. If you have been managing learning for more than a week, you already know what you need to do.

Prove your impact on the business.

We have been talking about measuring business impact for several years, but most companies have not made much progress. Industry leaders are showing the way, and we predict exponential growth in the future as CLOs, CHROs and CIOs collaborate on delivering business value.

It might be simpler than we think. The online tools you now have to create instant online assessments make proving your case easier than ever. Let’s review ways you can deliver tangible benefits and demonstrate how you affect top line results.

Teach What People Really Need to Know

Improve training effectiveness by getting your SMEs involved in development. Reach out to them to have them evaluate training relevance in detail. Make them part of the training development team as you accelerate learning with video shorts, gamification and user curation.

Deliver Quality

Whether you build or buy your learning or do a mix of both, demand quality. In today’s fast-moving business world there is no time for ineffective content. Be merciless in your quality control.

Before you spend your resources on designing training, find out if it is available from a vendor. You will share the cost with the vendor’s other customers and lower your net outlay.

Learning applications have become information-gathering hubs. You have the ability to capture user behavior in many ways and will be able to know which resources are being used and which are not. Knowing what needs your attention has become easier than ever.

Design for the User

Delivering good training is becoming easier, but user feedback will still be the mainstay of quality assurance. Conduct user testing and redesign based on the feedback. Test again and keep at it until you have a quality product.

Build Learning Communities

You need a learning culture to keep your top performers. Given the resources, they will train themselves. There are millions of training resources available on demand, and your LMS has the capability for your learning leaders to curate good content.

There’s a bonus: learning leaders love to share, and they will have an impact on the performance of other people.

Provide opportunities for people to interact. People love to share their knowledge, and social tools in your LMS will enable your people to get answers when they need them.

Measure Your Results

Learning applications have become information-gathering hubs.

With the ability to do instant assessments available in most learning management systems, you have the ability to do pre- and post- assessments. You will have proof of training effectiveness.
Monitor business results. Watch changes in costs, improved processes, and top line results. You will find correlations with your learning initiatives. Filter out other causes, and you may find a direct cause-effect relationship.
Use pilot projects with control groups. Prove the financial gains before you launch a big effort. The feedback you get from your groups will make your learning delivery even better.

Further Reading

3 ways to Measure Training Effectivenesss

PhenomᵉCloud is an enthusiastic team of individuals, fervent to make lives simpler through effective use of technology. Our mission is to implement solutions that drives business results. Know more insights from our thoughts and experience.