Performance in Corporate Learning - Can KPIs be used sensibly?

Lifelong learning is an integral part of almost every company today. Continuous training and development measures ensure that employees are up to date in their field of work. In addition, voluntary training courses can be used to communicate corporate values and culture to all employees.

Companies do particularly well with digital training offerings: They appreciate the flexibility in terms of space and time for employees - and also the cost savings if several days of seminars do not have to be booked for the various departments and locations.

However, to ensure that individual training offerings do not come to nothing, it is important to incorporate them into an overall training concept. In addition to elementary mandatory training, this concept should also include courses that contribute to the formation of the corporate culture, for example on topics such as inclusion, sustainability or team skills.

It is important that management, HR and other departments work together for a successful training strategy. A 2018 study by the Stifterverband found that in one in five of the companies surveyed, unclear responsibilities meant that planned training concepts could not be implemented positively. The whole thing must therefore be viewed as a joint project in which all departments pool their knowledge in order to be able to act successfully.

What basically unites all training offers, whether analog or digital: The question is how can the training department check the effectiveness of the measures? Here it is advisable to establish training controlling, which can be used to check whether and how effective and successful the training measures were.

However, there is no universal model; each company must deal with the issue individually and decide for itself what its focus is and which KPIs (key performance indicators) should be applied for the evaluation. These can be, for example:

1. Participation rate: the participation rate provides information on how many employees take part in the training and development measures offered.
2. Completion rate: The completion rate measures how many employees successfully complete the training and development measures.
3. Performance improvement: By monitoring KPIs such as productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction, companies can measure whether training and development activities are helping to improve performance.
4. ROI (Return on Investment): ROI measures the relationship between the cost of training and the resulting benefit to the business. A positive ROI indicates that the training has a measurable benefit to the company.
5. Employee feedback: monitoring employee feedback after training and development activities can help companies understand how satisfied employees were with the training provided and what improvements can be made.

By monitoring these KPIs, companies can measure the success of their investment in employee training and ensure that their training and development activities are effective and maximize the benefits to the business.

In our experience, the evaluation with key performance indicators cannot be generalized. Often factors influence the result whose background is not known at first glance. Particularly in the case of voluntary training, for example in the area of diversity, the "success" of a course cannot be measured or is not immediately visible. Here, it is advisable to vary and address different aspects of the desired range of topics in order to reach different target groups.