Corporate learning and development plays an important role in building a healthy workplace culture. But expressing the value of learning and development in your organisation depends on how well you track your employee training metrics.
In this article, you’ll get a detailed guide to the key metrics you should track, how you should track them, and what you can do to get the most value out of them.
Why Tracking Metrics Is Important For Effective Employee Training
Measuring the performance of your employee training program is important for four reasons. First, it’s easier for you to demonstrate the value of the program to the C-Suite so that you can get more budget and support for your learning and development initiatives.
You also get a clear picture of where your employee training program is falling short. These insights help you make the tweaks necessary to ensure all aspects of your training program are meeting the needs of both the organisation and employees.
It’s also easier to track the progress of your program over time. You’ll have data relevant to the unique needs of your business — data that acts as an appropriate baseline for future decision-making.
Finally, these metrics ensure the continuous development of your employees. Metrics for training can be tied to employee performance. They can also be used to create employee training KPIs for each department. All employees will be clear on the gold standard that’s expected and be more motivated to work towards it.
So, what employee training metrics should you track? Here’s a list of five of the most popular metrics, along with tips for how you can track them to improve your employee training program.
Metric 1: Training Completion Rate
Training completion rate is one of the metrics that can be tracked using a learning management system (LMS). Your LMS’ admin dashboard will show you the:
Number of people enrolled in a course
Course completion rates
Grades students receive
Number of certificates issued
…along with other metrics for training.
You have to define what training completion looks like for your organisation. Is it the number of people who complete a course module? Or the number of people who complete a specific set of lessons? Or the number of people who get specific certificates?
Training completion rate is calculated by dividing the number of completions by the number of employees participating and multiplying that by 100.
Metric 2: Employee Feedback and Satisfaction
Employees are the people most impacted by training programs. That’s why it’s important to get their feedback and measure how their satisfaction and engagement have improved.
Surveys are a good place to start. You can use a Likert scale to measure each key component of your training program. With a Likert scale, employees can rate each area on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree.
You can then calculate the average of the responses for each component to get a clearer sense of how satisfied employees were with the training. For instance, let’s say 3 employees completed a cybersecurity course and rated the course assignments as follows: 3, 4, 2. The average rating for course assignments would be (3+4+2)/3 =3 which means that improvement is needed.
It’s important to give employees the option to leave additional feedback beyond rating scales. You can do this simply by adding an open-ended question asking employees to explain what they liked and disliked about the program. These responses will help you dive a bit deeper and get greater clarity on the issues within the training program.
Metric 3: Training Hours Vs Employee Performance Improvement
Employee training should be tied to employee performance, and 360-degree feedback is one of the best tools to use to assess employee performance objectively. With 360-degree feedback, performance is judged by an employee’s direct manager, peers, direct reports, and self-assessment.
The 360-degree appraisal documents should accommodate assessments of the skills your targeting with your employee training. For instance, you may have realized that conflict is a big problem in your organization. You created a training plan to improve conflict resolution skills.
Prior to the training beginning, 360-degree appraisals are done for all employees with conflict resolution being one of the key areas assessed. The results from these appraisals act as your baseline. The same assessment is given at least a month after the training has ended so that you can compare the results and determine whether performance has improved.
The results of your comparison should then be tied to the number of training hours completed, a metric that can easily be pulled from your LMS. This comparison will help you determine whether there should be an increase or reduction in training on that topic going forward.
Metric 4: Time To Competency
Time to competency is a measure of how quickly it takes for employees to improve performance after training has ended. This is a good employee training KPI because training should result in employees performing better at a much faster rate. If that isn’t happening, your employee training program needs to be adjusted.
Metric 5: Return On Investment (ROI)
There are many ways to determine the ROI of an employee training program, but what’s key to track is how the program is helping the organisation meet its training and organisational goals. The ROI should be tied to the performance metrics the training program was created to address.
Let’s say your training program was created to help your factory works use manufacturing equipment more efficiently so they can produce more. You’ll need three key figures to calculate the ROI:
Cost of the training program per employee
Average number of units produced per employee before training began
Average number of units produced per employee after training began
Profit per unit
For the sake of this example, let’s say the cost of the training program was US$600 per employee, 500 units were produced per month per employee before the training program began, 650 units were produced per month per employee after the training program, and the company makes US$40 profit per unit.
Gain = US$40 x (650-500) = US$6,000 per employee
ROI = (US$6,000/US$600) x 100 = 1000%
There are instances, however, where it’s difficult to put a figure to what you’re trying to achieve. In these cases, you’ll have to depend on 360-degree feedback. The thoughts shared by direct supervisors, peers, and self-assessments before and after training can help you better assess whether the goals were achieved.
Tips For Tracking Employee Training Metrics Effectively
1. Create Clear Goals
Your employee training goals should be based on three core factors — the prevailing challenges within your organisation that need to be addressed, the skill gaps, and the organisation’s short-term and long-term goals.
For instance, let’s say you realised that less than 40% of leadership hires are from outside the organisation. Your aim is to increase that percentage to at least 60% within two years by creating a leadership track program for existing lower-level employees. Here’s what the goal would look like.
Increase the number of leaders hired from within the organisation from 40% to 60% within two years by creating a year-long leadership track program for lower-level employees that includes online training, mentorship, coaching, and certification.
Being very specific about your training goals will help you map out a training plan that suits the unique needs of your organisation.
2. Use a Learning Management System (LMS)
A learning management system provides the data and analytics you need to track employee performance during training. It allows you to create and assign training courses, track employee progress, and generate reports on training completion rates, assessment scores, and other metrics. Book a demo with our sales team to learn more about how One on One’s LMS can provide the employee training metrics you need.
3. Use The Data You Collect Wisely
You’re collecting a mixture of quantitative and qualitative feedback about various aspects of your employee training program. Identify common themes in the data, pay attention to what needs to be improved, and use the data to make informed decisions about the future of your employee training program.
Use The Right Metrics To Improve Your Employee Training Program
Tracking the performance of your employee training program helps you build a stronger case for an increased budget. It also helps you build a positive company culture where training that meets the unique needs of employees is valued. Identify the best metrics to track for your organisation’s needs and use them to create the best possible training program for your employees
Book a demo with our team to learn more about One on One’s LMS can help you track key employee training metrics and present them in easy-to-understand reports.
