Measuring Training Impact

The latest CIPD Learning at Work 2023 Report has some eye-opening insights 👀 There is a growing misalignment of L&D strategies with organisational and people priorities. The most surprising part? Leaders are less likely to recognise the impact L&D can have, with only 67% agreeing. And yet despite this, the budget and funding for employees' L&D continue to increase. What a paradox! The evidence is clear that when L&D strategies are aligned with specific business objectives and tailored to the unique needs of the audience, the outcomes are transformative. But here's the kicker 🤯 Less than a quarter of L&D teams feel skilled at designing and delivering such learning interventions. Only 55% have a process for using feedback to improve continually, and a mere 7% strongly agree they have a process for supporting learning transfer. It's troubling, isn't it? These statistics are not just numbers; they're a call to action. From my experience, this misalignment stems from several factors: ➡️ Understanding Business Priorities: A lack of a deep understanding of the organisation's real priorities and how they translate to development needs  ➡️ Skills Gap: Inadequate skills within L&D teams to design and deliver effective learning experiences. ➡️ Demonstrating ROI: The struggle to showcase the clear financial return on L&D investments. ➡️ Clarity with Business Leaders: A lack of clarity among business leaders about how L&D can effectively help achieve strategic objectives. How can we bridge this gap and make L&D truly impactful? ➡️ Strategic Alignment: Align your L&D strategy with the company's core objectives. Ensure every learning initiative contributes directly to business outcomes. ➡️ Skill Development: Invest in upskilling your L&D team in instructional design, delivery, and feedback analysis. ➡️ Data-Driven Improvement: Implement a robust feedback loop to improve your learning interventions continually. ➡️ Transfer Support: Develop processes to facilitate applying learned skills in the workplace. 💡 It's also time to rethink the role L&D plays in your organisation - they are your strategic partners! There must be active collaboration between L&D and business leaders to effectively surface people's development priorities, decide on the development strategy, measure real business outcomes, and create a conducive learning environment. This cannot be done in silo! Now is the time to be ruthlessly focused on organisational outcomes and to prioritise only the activities that contribute to those outcomes. Every dollar and minute spent on L&D must translate into measurable value. Interested in exploring how I can help reshape your Learning and Development strategy and align it more with your organisation's objectives? Let's connect and chat! 🌟 Together, we can find a path towards enhancing the impact of L&D within your organisation. #learning #leadership #change #transformation #performance Lily Woi Coaching Limited T/A Lily Woi

Most training programs create excitement. Very few create measurable business impact. A few months ago, I worked with an organization that had a very specific challenge. Their frontline teams were attending workshops, feeling motivated, taking notes but when it came to actual performance on the field, their sales conversion was very low. Great energy. Poor execution. Something was missing. So before designing the learning intervention, I asked one simple question: “What’s the real context in which your people operate daily?” Not the role. Not the job description. Not the competencies. The context. What pressures do they face? What conversations are toughest? Where do deals collapse? Who influences decisions? What behaviours matter most on the ground? The organization opened up. We mapped real scenarios. We shadowed calls. We watched interactions. We decoded customer psychology. We understood the reality behind the numbers. Only then did we build the training journey. Not generic content. Not textbook concepts. Not motivational theory. But a program designed exactly around their on-ground realities. The impact. Over the next eight weeks, something changed. Sales conversations became sharper. Objections were handled with more confidence. Teams spoke value, not price. Managers reinforced learning consistently. The conversion saw a huge jump and this was created not by more training, but by the right training. The lesson is simple: Content informs. Context transforms. Workshops don’t create results. Relevance does. When learning mirrors the real world, people don’t just listen they apply. When they apply, organizations grow. What’s one area in your team where you feel content is high but context is missing? If your organization wants training that delivers real, measurable outcomes let’s talk.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 They treat it like a one-time event. A workshop. A box ticked. An expense. The result? Underwhelming impact and wasted budgets. The truth is: training only works when it is designed like a leadership journey, not a classroom session. That’s how executive presence gets built - through repeated practice, reflection, and reinforcement. Here are 3 ways to make training stick and deliver business results: 𝟏. 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 Build structured journeys. Pre-work, dynamic sessions, post-work application. Like a mission, not a meeting. 𝟐. 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  Group Coaching, virtual peer huddles, and daily quick-hit refreshers so new skills don’t fade. 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 Track the business impact. Not just attendance sheets and smiley-face feedback. One of our clients discovered this the hard way. For years, they invested in sending leaders to The Ivy League MBA schools, skills workshops, communication templates, even role-play drills. Each worked in rehearsals. But in real CXO and board conversations, the impact never stuck. That’s when they shifted to our 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 that included an 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 and 100-day journey. The difference? Senior leaders didn’t just learn, they practiced, measured progress, and reinforced behaviours until they became second nature. Within 4 months, senior leaders reported: ✅ 𝟔𝟑% 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞  ✅ 𝟓𝟕% 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  ✅ 𝟓𝟓% 𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 CEO noticed the shift immediately in boardroom decision-making and stakeholder engagement. When you do this, training shifts from being an expense to becoming a strategic asset that fuels collaboration, loyalty, and decision-making. That’s how organizations grow leaders with true presence. 👉 What’s one reinforcement practice you’ve seen work well in your company’s L&D programs? #ExecutivePresence #CoachVikram #Impact #Leadership

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.

Are we drinking from a dirty stream of information? That’s what it feels like when the Internet feeds AI and AI pours it right back into the Internet. Bad data becomes content. That content becomes training data. And the cycle keeps circulating, only murkier each time. We don’t need more data. We need cleaner data. 🧩 Because the quality of what AI produces is only as pure as the source it drinks from. If you’re in charge of workforce development, whether as a CEO, business owner, HR leader, or like me, in Learning and Development, you have to be intentional about what gets put out there. There’s a reason we rely on subject matter experts (SMEs). But lately, I’ve seen more people skip that step trusting AI to fill in the blanks. Here’s the problem: AI doesn’t understand, it predicts. And when it predicts wrong, your people learn wrong. Before launching any AI-generated learning material, communication, or process guide: ✅ Validate it with an SME using the 3R Method: 1. Relevance – Does this align with how we actually do things in our organization? AI might sound polished, but it can invent steps that don’t exist or skip critical compliance details. 2. Risk – Could this information create confusion, errors, or compliance issues if followed as written? An SME can quickly spot risks that AI misses, especially in regulated or safety-sensitive environments. 3. Reflection – Does this reflect our tone, culture, and way of communicating? AI often defaults to generic phrasing. SMEs help make it sound like your company’s voice, not a machine’s. Your workforce learns from the content you approve. Make sure it’s something you’d be proud to stand behind. Your AI is only as good as the expertise that validates it. 🌱 More on AI + Workforce Development → Janet Perez

I was just speaking with the L&D Leader of a multi-billion dollar business who shared their journey to securing the business data needed to prove L&D's impact, a common struggle for many of us. They’d been on both ends of the spectrum: the Fortune 500 company where a high-ranking person refused to share business data and their current role where stakeholders are willing to hand over the data. For L&D professionals, getting access to those business metrics is half the battle. Here is the strategic approach they used to build an indispensable L&D function: 1. Focus on the business's biggest pain points (quantified with data) They targeted major, quantifiable business risks. Their first focus was fixing a massive problem: Ridiculously high turnover in one of the business units. They were also intensely interested in attrition, seeing the correlation between how they were preparing people and the number of people leaving. 2. Deliver wins before asking for the keys They built trust by showing immediate, quantifiable value first, offering to help with no questions asked. This resulted in: - Increasing the production output of new starters by focusing more on the actual work during training - Then shaving weeks off of a multi-month training program for new starters due to greater focus on performance and impact and then asking whether there was a more efficient way of achieving the same results - Which all resulted in business partners sharing more data with them because they saw such a huge impact on their day-to-day work. 3. Mirror the metrics that matter Their team now formally aligns L&D goals with business-driven outcomes. They write goals based on the same business metrics their stakeholders use when meeting with their own teams. Their future goals include things like: - Reduce x amount of time in the classroom - See x amount of proficiency on calls - Achieve x amount of billing 4. Provide proactive visibility (report out constantly) They don't wait for stakeholders to ask for updates. They report out L&D's impact quarterly, transparently and proactively, putting it in the hands of stakeholders. This strategic visibility ensures L&D is never overlooked. This transformation has shifted L&D from a service line that could be cut to a strategic partner that the business says, "We can't live without you". There’s so much to learn from and admire about this L&D leader’s approach, but in a nutshell: You must be married to the business's challenges, not just delivering learning in the hope of affecting them. We're rarely going to be invited to the conversations we want to be in and so we need to take our opportunities, deliver impact, use successes as leverage and reinforce - via our actions - that we are a crucial factor when it comes to driving performance and results.

When times are tough it's tempting to reduce your training spend. But it's a false economy and the exact wrong move. It's easy to sort a spreadsheet in descending order to suggest cuts. But today's tactic can eliminate tomorrow's strategic advantage. ✅ Companies with strong training programs experience 24% higher profits. So while being wise with the dollars is a smart play, reducing training inputs now reduces your desired future outcome. Unless your plan is to actually built around less profit ? ✅ 51% reported to Devlin Peck that training gives them more confidence to execute their duties. So cutting training means your teams will be less confident, more nervous and less effective. At the exact time you need them to dig deep and perform at an even higher level. ✅ 76% of millennials indicate that professional development is essential for a strong company culture. So while your finance teams look for obvious targets on a spreadsheet, your culture and actual resources, your people, are the ones harmed by reductions to training. And you risk losing people from the group likely to be your future leaders. ✅ There is a 16% increase in customer satisfaction with companies that are using learning technology. So while you fight and scrap for every last customer in tough times, by pulling back on training spend you undercut the exact user group you care about the most. For sure, look for ways to effectively deliver training in a more cost effective way. Review your training costs to look for opportunities to improve. But this isn't the time to slash training budgets and staff. This is the time to strategically to pull ahead of your competitors and carve out an advantage they can't replicate. This is the time to double-down on quality training and development. Otherwise you risk a tactical decision today that unravels your future tomorrows. Who in your network needs to hear this message?

Constant workflow evaluation is crucial to meet business demands. A recent leadership training reshaped my approach, stressing the importance of questioning norms and assessing if traditions still add value. One story that perfectly captures the essence of this training is the parable of the soldier’s barracks and the parade slab. Imagine a military base decades ago where soldiers laid a concrete slab to hold parades. However, before the cement dried, animals would often trample on it, creating an unsightly mess. So, a soldier was assigned to guard the slab at night, preventing any intrusion until it dried completely. But over the years, this nighttime guarding became a routine task, regardless of necessity or even the slab’s condition. The soldiers rotated nightly shifts to guard this parade slab—an unexamined duty passed down through generations. One day, a recruit questioned the reason behind guarding this slab. Strangely, nobody knew why they were guarding it, nor could they remember when the slab was last poured. The original purpose had long since faded, leaving only an empty ritual that served no purpose, other than occupying valuable time and resources. This example resonated with me deeply. How often do we continue tasks and workflows because “that’s just how it’s always been done”? Just like the soldiers in the barracks, we may be blindly guarding proverbial slabs that have long outlived their relevance. In our quest to become more productive and cost-effective, these "slabs" need to be identified and eliminated. The training encouraged steps to dismantle workflows and streamline processes: Map Out the Process Chart each action and person involved to expose redundancies and tasks done out of habit, not purpose. Define Purpose for Each Step Ask, “What’s the intended outcome?” Many tasks are formalities with no impact. Engage Team Members Team feedback reveals inefficiencies leaders may overlook. Front-line employees often see issues we don’t as most leaders. Use a “What if” Mindset Boldly ask, “What if we didn’t do this at all?” Challenge task necessity. Implement and Track Testing changes and measuring outcomes ensures productivity gains are tangible. The results: reduced non-value tasks and measurable cost savings. Outdated workflows can waste up to 20% of productive time. Morale also suffers when employees perform pointless tasks. A lasting lesson was that productivity comes from fostering a culture of inquiry. Leaders aren’t just problem solvers; they’re problem finders, willing to challenge even the most accepted routines. Tradition can be comforting, but in business, clinging to unnecessary tasks is an expense we can’t afford. This experience taught me to always ask, “Why are we doing this?” If the answer doesn’t align with our goals, it’s time to break the mold and let go of practices that don’t serve us and the business. By embracing inquiry and challenging norms, we build agile and resilient organizations

Employees don’t hate training. They hate training that wastes their time. I’ve seen highly motivated, curious people disengage not because they didn’t care, but because the learning felt disconnected from reality. When learning is something done to people rather than done with them, resistance is a rational response. The format rarely matters. I’ve seen brilliant results from digital, face-to-face, blended and social approaches and equally poor results from all of them too. The difference was always whether the experience created meaning, relevance and momentum in real work. Most L&D problems aren’t learning problems. They’re work problems that learning is being asked to fix after the fact. We design programmes around what people should know, not what they need to do differently on Monday morning. Then we’re surprised when nothing changes. Relevance isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the entry ticket. If people can’t immediately see how learning helps them hit targets, handle pressure, save time or avoid mistakes, you’ve already lost them. Performance improves when learning... ↳ Starts with real work, not content ↳ Solves a problem people actually have ↳ Is applied immediately, not “later” ↳ Is supported by managers, not just L&D ↳ Is measured by behaviour change, not completion rates This is where L&D often gets stuck. We optimise for delivery instead of impact. We protect programmes instead of questioning them. We report activity instead of outcomes. If learning doesn’t change decisions, actions or results, it’s just organised distraction. People don’t disengage from learning. They disengage from irrelevance. And until L&D shifts from “Did they attend?” to “Did anything change?”, nothing else really matters! What's your take on this? ---------------------------------- Follow me at Sean McPheat for more L&D content and and then hit the 🔔 button to stay updated on my future posts. ♻️ Save for later and repost to help others.

Companies spend millions on sales training. But less than 1 in 10 dollars goes to knowing if it worked. In addition, nearly 1 in 3 companies run zero formal evaluation at all. That's what the research says – and it reflects what many of us have felt in the room: ✅ We ran the training. ❓But did it actually work? As enablement professionals, we’re often caught between anecdotes and dashboards. Between sales spikes that may or may not be linked to our efforts and gut instincts that can’t hold up in a boardroom. We need to move from guesswork to genuine insight. That’s why I wrote a deep-dive on sales training evaluation: what the research says, and which models actually work in practice. --- In my new guide, I break down the five most effective models for evaluating training impact: 🔹 Kirkpatrick Model – the classic 4-level framework 🔹 Phillips ROI Model – adds ROI calculation to Kirkpatrick 🔹 New World Kirkpatrick – repositions ROI as Return on Expectations 🔹 Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method – focuses on extremes to find truth 🔹 LTEM (Learning Transfer Evaluation Model) – the most diagnostic model out there And, I cover five honourable mentions worth exploring: 🔸 CIPP Model – evaluates context, inputs, process, and product 🔸 COM-B Model – breaks down behaviour change 🔸 6Ds – emphasises reinforcement beyond the classroom 🔸 Bersin’s Impact Measurement Framework – business-linked metrics 🔸 Anderson Model – ties training to strategic priorities Whether you're launching a new programme or defending your budget, this will give you a sharper lens and a stronger voice. --- 📌 Want access to the high-res one-pager + full guide? Comment “sales training evaluation” and I’ll DM it to you. Let’s raise the bar for what enablement can prove and improve. ✌️ #sales #salesenablement #salestraining