Fact or Feeling: Using Data to Tell the L&D Story

Prakash is head of Learning and Development (L&D) for a global business and is meeting with the CEO and CFO. He shows them a PowerPoint slide with the following information:

Second Quarter L&D Results

• 5 programs delivered in 10 offices
• 600 people trained
• 3,000 hours of training delivered
• $750 invested per employee

"Do you have evidence for L&D's impact?", says the CEO. "I feel like we're making an impact", says Prakash as he points to the slide. "Your slide shows activity. We're looking for results. What data do you have for results?", says the CFO. Prakash disappointingly admits, "We don't have any data for that".

In the right context, activity data has its place. Results data, however, tells the L&D story about impact on business results and employee performance. And while still relatively new, the use of data and analytics for L&D is worth its weight in gold!

3 Data Sources that Tell the L&D Story

1. Business performance 
2. Pilot groups 
3. Mobile, social, digital

Note: The influence of other factors that contribute to results have been isolated for these examples.

Business performance: Below are four examples of business performance data that tell the L&D story. We'll see how data gives insight for the impact of learning on business results and employee performance. The business performance data in these examples are quality, process, financial and efficiency.

• A clothing manufacturer sees an increase in the number of defective shirts and deploys a microlearning series for a new manufacturing technique that prevents defects. The data shows the number of defective shirts decreased from 150 per month to 10 per month after the learning solution was deployed.
• An advisory services business seeks growth from incremental revenue with existing clients and offers a MOOC for linking client business problems with solutions and services. The data shows revenues increased 20% after the learning solution was deployed.
• The help desk at a telecommunications company is seeing an increase in the time it takes to resolve customer calls. They offer a business simulation for active listening. The data shows the average time for resolving customer calls was lowered from 12 to 8 minutes after the learning solution was deployed.
• A home appliance retailer is seeing a decrease in sales and offers a blended learning solution for persuasive selling and customer care. The data shows an increase in sales from $250,000 to $375,000 after the learning solution was deployed.

These business performance data examples show the action taken (the learning solution), the result (the change in business performance) and data that measures the impact (% change, increase in sales, etc.). The results are favorable. Data also reveals when there is little or no impact, for example, a software developer wants to build problem solving skills for programmers and introduced a podcast series for critical thinking as the learning solution. The results showed problem solving skills remained the same after the learning solution was deployed. Data tells the L&D story, good or bad.

Increase credibility with data already in use by the business.

The benefit for using business performance data is it already exist. The additional benefit is the partnership created with teams who own data with whom L&D may not normally work. You increase credibility when you use data already accepted and in use by the business.

Pilot groups: A national financial business sees a decline in products sold across its branch offices. The L&D team recommends a learning solution for customer care, financial acumen and product knowledge. The business wants to ensure the learning solution has high probability of impacting business results and employee performance before investing in a national deployment.

The L&D team recommends pilot group testing in three branch offices and will use data from the results to determine impact. Business results and employee performance will be compared to offices that did not receive the learning solution. The data will determine the learning solution's potential impact on results.

Six months after the learning solution is deployed, data shows sales increased 20% in the pilot group branch offices. Coincidentally, employee engagement scores for "I feel confident in my ability" rose 2 points as well. The data shows high probability for the learning solution's impact on results and performance. 

Pilot group data informs decisions before investments are made in high-cost deployment of L&D solutions.

Pilot group data is particularly useful for probability testing of L&D's impact on business results and employee performance. For what we expect to see as change in business outcomes, behaviors and skills, pilot group data tells us how close or far we are from desired results. Pilot group data helps with making the best decision for funding and deploying L&D solutions that have the highest probability for measurable impact.

Mobile, social, digital: A seafood restaurant is seeing a small but noticeable decrease in sales and reservations. They have a mobile app for comments and ratings. The comments indicate unfavorable experiences with staff. The star rating for service is 2 out of 5 stars. They also see where blogs and restaurant review sites are showing negative comments. The food is great but the service is terrible.

The restaurant implements a scenario-based learning solution where staff does role-play with actors who portray customers in situations ranging from very easy to extremely difficult. The learning solution gives strategies for managing customer behavior.

One month later, reservations are up, wait staff are seeing increases in tips and lines are out the door! The mobile app comments indicate staff are friendly and courteous and the star rating for service is 4.5 out of 5. Blogs and restaurant review sites praise the restaurant for superb service. This data shows the impact of the learning solution on employee performance and business results.

The emergence of mobile, social and digital is a powerful source of insight for L&D data. These data sources are immediate and easily captured. The restaurant is using data to tell the L&D story.

You can measure L&D results and we have the data to prove it.

The L&D stories in this article have happy endings but training is not a "magic wand". As part of data analysis, we have to isolate the influence of other factors that contribute to the results. Doing so will ensure we make accurate and fair conclusions without overstating or understating the impact of learning. We have to look at all the data to tell the whole story.

The goal is changing the discussion to one that is firmly rooted in measurable impact. We don't have to feel like we're getting or hope for results. We can use measurement, data and analytics as evidence of L&D's impact on business results and employee performance. There's an L&D story to tell and we have the data to tell it.

About the Author

Kevin M. Yates is a learning and development detective and solves measurement mysteries. He uses facts, clues, evidence, and data to investigate the impact of training and learning.