How to Measure

Learning Effectiveness
Metrics and KPIs for
L&D professionals
Quantify the value of your L&D programs
$108 billion.

That’s how much U.S. businesses spent in 2023 Getting started with learning analytics
on training their employees. L&D programs are no
In this guide, we’ve gathered metrics and KPIs
small investment, but how do you make sure that
to help you quantify the value you’re adding with
they are an investment worth making?
your L&D initiatives, and correlate them with the
In other words, how do you make the case for four levels of the Kirkpatrick evaluation model.
employee development in your organization?
You’ll also get clear instructions on how to
You start with measuring the effectiveness of calculate these metrics and gather the data you
your L&D programs. need.

This gives you valuable insights into what’s Head to the next page to see what the Kirkpatrick
working and not working, and what you need to model is and how it can help you measure the
do to improve. You’ll also get the data you need effectiveness of your training programs!
to gain more executive support and continued
and increased investments in L&D.

2
 Kirkpatrick evaluation model
The Kirkpatrick evaluation model is a model designed to help you measure the effectiveness of your
training program. You’ll be able to collect participant data, including direct responses to learning
initiatives and the business impact of your training program.

This guide provides example KPIs and metrics by level for a data-driven approach to understanding L&D
initiative effectiveness.

Level 4. Impact

The impact of training on business goals

Page 14
Level 3. Behavior

How training changes behaviors

Page 11
Level 2. Learning

Knowledge & skills gained

through training
Page 8
Level 1. Reaction

Employees’ direct response

to training
Page 4
Bonus content
Data collection tips, best
practices, and more
Page 18 3
Level 1. Reaction
Goals for this level

Your main focus is evaluating the reaction of

the participants after the training. Your goals
are:

● Getting a good grasp of how satisfied the

learners are with your training
● Identifying any potential points of
improvement

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Level 1. Reaction
How to collect the data

Metrics for different levels require different Quantitative data

types of data gathering. In each chapter, we
You can use surveys or questionnaires with
explain how to get the qualitative and
scales from 1 to 10, or those that are
quantitative data you need to generate insights.
specifically designed to measure opinions such
as the Likert scale.
More data collection tips
Qualitative data
Get more tips and advice to improve your
You can either include open-ended questions in
data collection on page 18.
surveys, or conduct interviews with learners. For

Learn more both methods, use questions such as:

● What would you change or improve in this

training?
● What resources or support do you need to
apply what you have learned?
● What topic or section did you find most
valuable?

5
Level 1. Reaction
Metric: Training experience
satisfaction
You can use your Net Promoter Score for this Any score above 0 is okay, but -10 or lower is a
KPI. Ask your learners questions such as “On a bad sign. A score between 10 and 30 is good,
scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to and anything above 50 is excellent.
recommend this training?” You can divide the
Metric: Course completion rate
responses in 3 categories:
Use this to find out how many students
● Promoters (9 - 10)
completed 100% of the course.
● Passives (7 - 8)
● Detractors (6 or below) Formula
Once you have categorized your respondents, Completion rate = Students who have
you can use this formula to calculate your completed the course / Students enrolled * 100
employee NPS, or eNPS.

Formula For example, if 1000 employees enrolled and 50

eNPS = % of Promoters - % of Detractors completed 100% of the course, then the rate is:

50/1000*100 = 5%
6
Level 1. Reaction
Metric: Learner drop off rate

This is similar to the course complete rate. It

uses a percentage to show how many learners
made it to the end of the course.

Wondering why you should track both metrics?

With the learner drop off rate, you would ideally
also measure where students stop learning so
that you can identify lessons that need
improving, or even technical issues that you
need to address.

Formula
Learner drop off rate = Students who have not
completed the part of a course / Students who
started the part of a course * 100

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Level 2. Learning
Goals for this level

At this level, you need to understand the

extent to which your employees have retained
knowledge and skills after their training.

Your goals are:

● Ensuring your training has met its

objectives.

● Identifying the skills that your training can

further develop.

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Level 2. Learning
How to collect the data Metric: Knowledge and skill retention

Quantitative data There is no formula for this. Instead, use

qualitative data such as self-assessments and
You can use the tests learners take before and
quantitative data such as test results to monitor
after the training to compare their knowledge
for differences in knowledge and skill levels
and skills.
before and after the training.
Qualitative data

Make use of pre- and post-interviews with

employees. You can ask about their confidence
levels, or what they learned to help them
perform at a higher level.

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Level 2. Learning
Metric: Assessment pass rate

This metric refers to the percentage of

employees who successfully complete their
assessment. If this is unexpectedly low, you Increase L&D's impact
need to look at the level of details, difficulty, or
Learn how to give your organization a
scheduling of your assessment.
powerful competitive edge by training,
Formula retaining, and engaging your most
talented employees in our Learning &
Assessment pass rate = Employees passing
Development Certificate Program.
assessment / Employees taking the
assessment *100
Learn more

For example, if 200 employees took a test at the

end of a course, and only 45 passed, the pass
rate would be:

45/200*100 = 22.5%

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Level 3. Behavior
Goals for this level

At this level, your focus is on measuring the

changes in the behavior and performance of
employees resulting from the training. This is
crucial for understanding the influence of the
L&D activity on employees’ job performance
and attitude, as well as determining if the L&D
activity has achieved its desired outcome.

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Level 3. Behavior
How to collect the data

Quantitative data Qualitative data

An option to consider is third-party observation, Include open-ended questions into your

where you’ll collect data from managers’ interviews or surveys with learners, such as:

reports on their coaching sessions with the

● How have you put what you learned in
employees, for example. You can also gather
training to use in your job?
data using text mining or sentiment analysis
● How confident would you be teaching
from learners’ email conversations, personal
someone else your acquired knowledge and
development plans, or call recording for sales
skills?
and customer service.
● Do you feel like your behavior is different now
than it was before the training?

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Level 3. Behavior
Metric: Employee performance Metric: Employee engagement rate
post training
Another sign of a successful L&D program is an
Compare employee KPIs before and after the
increase in employee engagement. One way to
training to monitor for improvements. For
track this is by measuring the employee
example, a sales development representative
engagement rate before and after the training.
might have revenue as their main KPIs, and
you could monitor if revenue has increased after
Formula
the training.
Employee engagement rate = Employees above
Note: We recommend reserving this metric for
the engagement norm in period /
your most impactful L&D initiatives.
headcount at beginning of period

Not sure which metric to select?

Check out our article on 21 employee
performance metrics that every HR
professional should know.

Read the article

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Level 4. Impact
Goals for this level

For the final level, you will be measuring

L&D's impact on business outcomes. By
gathering concrete and quantifiable results of
your training, you can make the case for future
L&D initiatives.

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Level 4. Impact
How to collect the data

Quantitative data Qualitative data

Depending on the goals of your training and the You can conduct interviews or focus groups. For

change you were aiming to inspire in your example, you can bring in customers for a focus

employees, you can measure its impact by using group and ask them about their experience and

surveys or hard data. how this has changed over time (with a focus on
the period before and after your training has
For example, you can use surveys to measure
taken place).
the perceptions of customers and stakeholders,
or compare data on employee turnover and You can also interview managers to determine

retention rate, or analyze sales and profits whether they feel their employees are

before and after the training. noticeably more productive or producing higher
quality work since the training.

15
Level 4. Impact
Metric: Training return on investment

This powerful metric lets you demonstrate the Example

financial impact of your L&D initiatives that
Say you spent $45,000 on training to increase
apply to skills and activities.
the speed of your customer service reps
Note: You don’t need to measure the ROI of resolving issues. As a result, they were able to
every training initiative at your organization. improve customer satisfaction and sales, which
Typically, you would only track this key metric led to an increase of $100,000 in net profit from
for the top 5% of most impactful training sales. That would make your training ROI:
programs.
($100,000 – $45,000)/45 000*100 = 122%

Formula
Training return on investment = (Return of
Benefit – Investment Cost) / Investment Cost *
100

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Level 4. Impact
Metric: Operational efficiency

You can measure the impact of training and Note: Your customer satisfaction score can

courses on operational efficiency using metrics range from 0 to 100. The higher your score is,

such as time to repair, time to recover, time to the higher the level of satisfaction of your

failure, and cost per click. Comparing customer base.

measurements from before and after training

Formula
helps you understand improvements.
Customer satisfaction score = (Number of
Metric: Customer satisfaction index positive responses / number of total responses)
* 100
Monitoring changes after courses and trainings
helps you understand how your L&D initiatives
are helping your employees better serve your Example
customers. This is only relevant for training on
If you have 56 positive responses from surveys
customer-facing skills.
of 100 customers, your score would be:

(56/100)*100 = 56

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Best practices
Read on to learn more about best practices,
customizing the measurement framework, and
data collection schedules. With these extra
tips and tricks, you will be able to tackle your
L&D analytics projects with confidence.

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 Best practices
Want to get the best results? You need to use data the right way. Here are four best practices to
help you make the most of your data-driven approach to L&D.

Selecting KPIs Customizing your evaluation framework

Identify your KPIs before the development You don’t need to measure all four levels.
phase of your training to select the best way to Conduct a training needs analysis and choose
1 3
measure effectiveness. Consult with key the evaluation level that best suits the results.
stakeholders to know which metrics are most Find out on the next page which level suits you
important to them. best based on the type and goals of your training.

Collecting data Acting on your findings

Integrate when and how you’ll measure Perhaps the most important practice for
effectiveness into the timeline as you design measuring training effectiveness is to make sure
2 4
your training. This ensures you stay organized you put your findings into practice. That means
and manage stakeholder expectations. making changes and improvements where
See sample data collection schedule here. necessary and being quick to take action.

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 Bonus 1: Customizing your framework
It might be tempting to implement all levels of the Kirkpatrick model. But this might not be the most
practical and cost-effective move. Instead, you can customize your framework by only measuring
what is necessary to help you determine the training ROI.

One way to do so is by adding levels based on the type and aims of your training, as suggested by
Leslie Allan:

Level 4. Impact

For programs costing over $50,000

Level 3. Behavior

For strategic programs

Level 2. Learning

For hard-skills programs

Level 1. Reaction

For all training programs

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Bonus 2: Data collection schedule
Now that you’ve identified how you’ll measure training effectiveness, it’s time to consider when
you’ll measure it. A best practice is to formulate a data collection schedule in the design phase of
your training. There are two reasons for this:

● It allows you to have an overview of when to measure the different levels

● It helps you to manage stakeholder expectations

Here’s a sample data collection schedule you can use

After 1 After 2 After 3

Start During End …
month months months

Level 1. Reaction

Level 2. Learning

Level 3. Behavior

Level 4. Impact

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