Matthew J. Daniel
June 6th, 2023
At a recent webinar on Getting Started With Career Mobility, we polled our audience of hundreds of HR and talent leaders: When you're thinking about the ROI of education and skilling investments, what's the primary outcome you're measuring?
Or — if you're selling the concept of skilling to executives — what numbers do you use to justify the spend?
Responses included many of the usual culprits:
- Usage
- Program engagement
- Learning completion
- Net promoter score (NPS)
(Though we’ll note that many attendees also answered with the key metrics we’ll outline later in this post!)
It’s no surprise — these are common metrics L&D and talent leaders rely on when evaluating their company’s education and training programs. You want to see employees using (and enjoying) the programs you’re offering, and this kind of data is often easily accessible.
But in a world where…
- 78% of employees feel they lack the skills to advance their career
- 70% feel unprepared for the future of work
- Companies estimate only 41% of workers completed training that bridges skills gaps
- 47% of workers are concerned they’ve been held back by not having the right experience, the right education, or access to training programs
…is it good enough? And will it be good enough to justify the investments being made into you, your team, and your platforms?
To drive real change for both the business and the individual, you have to measure impact.
First things first, what are your current L&D goals?
Before diving into what you should be measuring, it’s worth asking — what is the goal of learning? What are your education and skilling programs aiming to accomplish?
Are you trying to:
- Foster employee engagement?
- Help people become better at their current jobs?
- Boost retention?
Those are worthy goals with measurable return, but skilling investments should and can have greater impact on talent strategy. Neither workers nor companies have the skills they need for the future of work (or even today).
Five years from now, 44% of worker’s skills will be disrupted.
The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Jobs Report found that 44% of worker’s skills will be disrupted in five years, and 6 in 10 workers will need training in the next four years. The same report names technology and digitization as the biggest drivers of business transformation in the years ahead — and skill gaps as one of the primary barriers to that transformation.
The goals of L&D and talent leaders must expand to match the pace of change.
The goal of career mobility should be to build the skills needed for the future of work and to fill internal talent pipelines for in-demand roles.
The goal of career mobility should be to build the skills needed for the future of work and to fill internal talent pipelines for in-demand roles.
To measure new goals, look to outcomes over outputs.
When it comes to learning metrics, most employers are measuring outputs:
- Adoption and usage
- Employee reaction
- Completion
These metrics can tell you who’s completed a course and may even relate to whether or not they feel engaged in their roles. But ultimately, these numbers are just outputs of your system — and only scratch the surface of the learning story.
To measure impact (and finish the story), you have to connect the dots by measuring outcomes.
Top outcomes include promotion rates, job placement rates, and career changes
To meet the goals above, look to outcomes. The ultimate outcome of skills investments is whether employees are moving into new roles, and your business is gaining the skills it needs to grow — it’s mobility.
Think:
1. Promotion rates
Are employees advancing into senior positions or manager roles? Mobility should be about more than moving up in your lane, but advancement into senior roles is still important for businesses and individuals.
2. Job replacement rates
Are employees in your learning programs actually getting moved into new jobs internally? Are you filling high-priority roles in-house?
3. Career changes
How many employees are entering entirely new fields within your company?
The tide is already beginning to turn — we mentioned that many webinar attendees are already measuring these outcomes at their companies.
And we know many organizations are already focused on internal career mobility as a key ingredient of their larger talent strategy. JP Morgan Chase touts the fact that one third of open positions are filled by internal candidates. At Chipotle, participants in the company’s education and skilling program are 6x more likely to move into management positions.¹ Target is investing in tuition-free education and turning hourly associates into software engineers.
One third of open positions are filled by internal candidates at JP Morgan Chase.
Environmental and Social Governance Report, JP Morgan Chase, 2021
Mobility can supercharge your talent strategy in more ways than one.
The heart of mobility is about role movement and real change for companies and individuals, but there are other benefits worth measuring.
It’s no secret that in today’s market, career mobility isn’t just what organizations need — it’s what employees want: 74% of employees polled in Guild’s American Worker Survey said they would be “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to leave their current employer if they were offered another job with additional education and career opportunities.
And while two-thirds of workers want to move into a new role, more than half of them hope it’s at their same company.
Two-thirds of workers want to move into a new role, and more than half of them hope it’s at their same company.
Guild's American Worker Survey
Employers are leveraging career advancement opportunities to improve their value propositions.
That means that a robust learning & development program focused on career growth can help improve your employer value proposition — bringing in top talent that stays to grow.
The Walt Disney Company has seen results: 25% of applicants for hourly positions cite access to Disney Aspire, the company’s tuition-free education and skilling program, as motivation for applying.
And on average, Guild partners have found that employees who access our Learning Marketplace were 2.1x less likely to leave their employer in the last 12 months relative to non-engaged employees.²
HR can better predict talent pipelines with clear mobility metrics.
And let’s talk about when program usage DOES matter.
While we know career pathways are never linear, when education and skilling programs are designed for specific internal pipelines, your talent supply becomes a bit more predictable.
Our healthcare partners have found that understanding the number of employees enrolled can give them visibility into hiring prospects.
At a recent webinar, Brenda Woodcock, the Chief Nursing Officer - Richmond Market at Bon Secours Mercy Health, noted: ‘Since we started this partnership and launched this program, we have 650 nursing students. Something I really love is that now we can predict our workforce.”
Measure what people become — not just what they learn — and the ROI will follow.
So what happens when you measure the right things? When you look to measure real job and role movement, rather than learning adoption alone?
You can better justify the investment in your programs and truly transform your workforce, helping employees transition into new and better roles your company needs.
At the same webinar, the CHRO of Bon Secours Mercy Health talked about the ROI of internal mobility, saying, “We put nearly $50 million into internal mobility last year and thoroughly tested the return on our investment. The conclusion was, we are getting our value here unquestionably— retention increased, thousands advanced their clinical careers, and we cultivated a culture of growth — especially in diversifying our professional pathways within the organization.”
- As of June 2022
- Guild’s internal data over the last 12 months as of 01/01/2023 from employers who have provided the required data for at least 13 months post launch
About the author
Matthew J. Daniel
Matthew is Senior Principal, Talent Strategy and Mobility at Guild.
