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How to Measure Success with L&D KPIs

Effective learning and development (L&D) initiatives require not only initial buy-in from senior leaders but also sustained support throughout your organisations learning journey.

To ensure the success and longevity of L&D programmes, it is crucial to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that demonstrate the impact and value of these initiatives.

6 minutes

Written by Jess Gillett.

picture of the author, Jess Gillett

By Jess Gillett

Product Manager

Jess is a senior learning & product professional in the Access Learning team. She is a Product Manager, leading a team of Product Owners to grow and develop the Access LMS, our award-winning SaaS based learning management system.

By aligning learning initiatives with core objectives and consistently measuring their outcomes with clearly defined learning and development KPIs, you can not only secure the necessary initial investment but also foster continued support from senior leaders for the continuation and development of your programmes.

Practical Examples of L&D KPIs

The selection of KPIs in L&D depends on the goals of your initiatives, which can vary based on organisational size, L&D maturity, and specific focus areas. Tailor your KPIs to align with your unique context and objectives, ensuring they effectively measure outcomes and drive desired results for overall success.

Here are some L&D KPIs examples to get you started:

Discover the power of ROI in Learning and Development with our ultimate guide!

Benchmarking your L&D KPIs


Remember, you can’t improve what you don’t measure!

That’s why forward-thinking learning managers aim to join the dots between:

  • people data
  • resource outputs
  • business outcomes

Before you get started measuring impact of any new learning initiatives, make sure you calculate current performance and research and set targets for how alternative approaches may do a better job.

“The end goal is being able to track improvements over time across a set of defined KPIs: retention, engagement, wellbeing, performance, compliance, customer satisfaction, and so on.

A good way to start benchmarking success within your own organisation is by running annual or quarterly surveys, exit interviews or eNPS campaigns to gauge sentiment among your staff. This gives you a baseline to track the impact of initiatives.”

Michael Seiler Customer Success Manager - The Access Group

Your L&D KPIs in summary

Utilising Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in learning and development is essential for driving growth and ensuring measureable success of L&D initiatives. By implementing the most appropriate L&D KPIs examples that align with your organisational and learning goals, you can measure the impact and effectiveness of learning programmes and secure ongoing support and investment.

With a data-driven approach to learning and development you can foster a culture of learning, drive ongoing improvements, and achieve lasting success.