By Todd Hammington
Proving the impact of training has always been tricky. You can spend weeks crafting an engaging masterpiece, only to face that familiar question from leadership: “So, what difference did it make?” The truth is, stakeholders don’t care how creative the modules were or how many people completed them and nor should they. They care about impact, how did this training move the dial on business results?
That’s why measuring ROI in learning and development has to start with the same focus the rest of the business has: outcomes. Whether it’s faster onboarding, fewer safety incidents, better customer satisfaction, or more sales, these are the things that get noticed in the boardroom.
Start with the Results that Matter
When it comes to proving ROI, the most convincing evidence is what happens after the learning, i.e. the results. These are the measurable business outcomes that show real-world change.
Maybe a safety program reduced workplace incidents by 20 percent. Maybe a sales team started closing sales two months faster after onboarding. Maybe moving from in-person training to digital-first learning cut costs by half. Those are the kinds of numbers that speak the language of business.
One company we worked with made exactly that shift from face-to-face facilitation to a digital-first approach and within months, they were saving more than $100,000 a month in travel and accommodation costs. Learner satisfaction also jumped by 300%. That’s not just engagement; that’s return on investment.
Look for the Early Signals
Of course, you can’t always wait months to see the results as they tend to be lagging indicators. That’s where leading indicators come in, the early data points that tell you whether learning is working. They help you make adjustments before the final outcomes are in.
Because so much training now happens online, digital programs naturally provide more opportunities to spot these early signals. Every click, replay, or retry offers clues about how learners are engaging and where improvements can be made.
These days, modern learning tools can track useful engagement data like when people drop off, how many times they retry quiz questions, which interactions keep attention the longest, and how much time they actually spend inside a module.
This information tells you a lot. You can see where learners lose interest, whether the learning is too easy or too hard, and how deeply they’re engaging. It’s not just helpful for improving the course, it’s proof that the learning is (or isn’t) having the intended effect.
Tell a Story Stakeholders Understand
The real power comes when you connect both sides of the picture. Leading indicators show how learning is landing. Lagging indicators prove what it achieved. Together, they form a story stakeholders can follow from start to finish.
If your sales team is selling faster, that’s revenue impact. If safety incidents drop, that’s risk reduction. If learner satisfaction goes up while delivery costs go down, that’s efficiency.
These are the kinds of outcomes that turn heads and they all start with good data from your learning programs.
Proving ROI in learning isn’t about drowning in data. It’s about using the right information to tell a story that matters. Start with the results that mean something to your business, then use engagement data to show how your programs are helping achieve them.
When you can connect learning data to business performance, training stops being seen as an expense and starts being recognised as a growth driver. That’s the moment stakeholders stop asking, “Did people finish the course?” and start saying, “Can we do more of this?”
About the Author: Todd Hammington
Todd Hammington is the founder and CEO of Chameleon Creator, a design-led e-learning authoring tool. With a background in UI design and illustration, Todd previously led design at award-winning learning agency, Inspire Group, where he and his team built the early version of Chameleon to improve e-learning quality and speed. His learner-first approach and eye for design have made Chameleon a favourite among L&D teams looking to create beautiful, responsive learning experiences fast.
