Learning and Development Reports Worth Analyzing

In my 12+ years in Learning and Development, I’ve been asked to run multiple different reports to show what Learning and Development has been busy working on. I love to dive into data so if I’m honest I’d take any report a person would give me to see what information I can gain from it. But in running a plethora or reports, here’s what I’ve found to be most valuable to the learning and development department overall AND to executives. Hopefully you can find value here too!

My top 3 Favorite reports:

1. Impact of Learning on Business Goals
   1. The business goals learning and development has been working to improve over the <insert any timeframe here> and how we are measuring towards those goals. In other words, what was the measurable impact Learning and Development has had on the companies’ goals.
   2. An example may be:
      • Business Goal: We are looking to decrease our new hire turnover rate (employees who leave within less than a year). This is currently at 20% and we’d like it be to 10%.
   3. The report would show:
      • What program was created
      • how long has the program been going
      • what impact it’s had on this business goal
      • Any plans for enhancing/changing based on the feedback and current impact
   4. Return on Investment or Return on Value
      1. What business executive wouldn’t want to see the return on investment for a particular program?! Do the work to show your value. Learning and Development can be seen as a cost spend or a cost savings. Which one would you prefer to be?
      2. Return on Investment example might be around increasing efficiency in an area. Maybe you’ve had some major losses in a certain area of the business. If you put together a program for $100,000 and improved those major losses by $400,000 that’s a cost savings to the organization executives will appreciate.
      3. Return on Value example might be that you upskilled your employees to provide them AND the organization future opportunities. Prior to this upskill program you were turning down work because you didn’t have the staff to complete it successfully. After spending <insert amount for program> you were able to increase your opportunities by $20 million (example number)
   5. The Balanced Scorecard
      1. I put this at the end because this is an entire company initiative and can’t be pushed by L&D alone. But if you’ve got a Balanced Scorecard approach, then as my son says often, Jackpot baby! I’m sure it’s a lot of work but your organization is more than likely thriving both operationally and financially.

Other reporting options to provide value to your organization AND to your department.

Running reports takes time and effort. But so does pushing out training that provides limited value. Here are a few other data points I like to have to see how L&D can constantly improve (and maybe to be able to pat ourselves on the back every now and again too!)

1. Number or Percent of No Shows AND Rationale
   1. This data can tell you a lot. It can let you know the seriousness of which people take training but it can also help you find out that you are offering programs at times that aren’t ideal for employees. Utilize this data and do your best to improve on it. Mandating attendance isn’t always the answer. The kid with perfect attendance isn’t automatically the one who performs best on the job…
2. Certification completion rates
   1. For many organizations employees need certifications to do their job effectively and safely. It’s important for executives to know how many of those people who need those certifications, have them.
3. Completion rate of online courses
   1. It’s important to see if the value of eLearning is there. On average 6% of people complete an eLearning course. How much are you spending on eLearning? Does everyone need access? Are the programs well done? Utilize your organization’s funds efficiently. This report may help with that.
4. Feedback on programs (annual or bi-annual report)
   1. Yes, this is often considered a smile sheet and may not hold much measurable value but if people really like a program, they probably appreciated that they had a chance to take part in it. That’s a program that helps build culture and might be one that you want to continue offering in the future.
5. New initiatives that have come out of these trainings
   1. Maybe there was a project at the end of a training that turned into an entire department or saved the organization money
6. Total training cost and the cost per person for training
   1. My hope here is that people see that the cost to train an employee is often far less than it is to hire a new one
7. Retention rate of your high potentials
   1. If this rate isn’t high, what can you do to help?
8. Succession Planning
   1. How are we currently doing based on the needs the organization has? Who/what areas need help and what could that look like?

Some of the reports I’ve found to be the least valuable are:

1. Number of hours our employees have spent in training.
   1. I have yet to find an organization that has used this information to gain valuable information. I’ve run these reports at every organization but I’m still now sure how to utilize it effectively. If someone has any thoughts, I’d love to hear them!
2. Number of courses offered over <insert timespan>
   1. Once again, happy to run the report, but what have people done with this data? Is more always better?

What reports do you find valuable from a Learning and Development perspective? What reports do you find less valuable?