21 Learning & Development (L&D) Metrics to Track Training Effectiveness and Prove ROI

In 2025, learning and development functions need to show impact. L&D leaders are expected to prove how training drives performance, productivity, and profit. Yet most still struggle to measure success beyond completion rates and smile sheets.

To build credibility with executives and earn a seat at the table, you need a data story that connects learning to results. And with good reason: a recent study found that 92% of business leaders fail to see the impact of learning initiatives. And only 13% of companies evaluate the ROI of L&D.

The challenge isn’t a lack of data. It’s knowing which metrics truly demonstrate value. Traditional L&D metrics like attendance or logins only tell part of the story. Modern learning leaders need a more sophisticated approach that captures not just participation, but learning, application, and business impact.

This guide outlines 20+ essential L&D metrics organized into four categories:

• Foundational metrics most L&D teams already track
• Advanced indicators to measure your maturity
• Collaborative learning metrics that capture culture
• Business impact measures that speak executives’ language

The goal is to leave with a range of measures for your L&D function’s performance, impact, and return on investment.

What are L&D metrics?

L&D metrics are quantifiable measures that track the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of learning programs. They’re the vital signs of your L&D function, showing whether learning initiatives are healthy or underperforming.

In a business environment where cash is tight and interest rates are high, L&D teams need to prove their worth constantly. Regular reporting with compelling results and narratives is essential. And the right metrics help build that story. 

L&D metrics typically fall into four categories:

1. Engagement metrics: participation and completion rates.
2. Learning effectiveness metrics: assessment scores, retention, skills gained.
3. Business impact metrics: performance improvement, productivity, ROI.
4. Collaborative learning metrics: knowledge sharing, peer engagement, cultural indicators.

Many teams stop at the first category. We often call these “vanity” metrics, because while they give some indication of course usage, they don’t tell you much about your true impact. 

The difference between vanity metrics and valuable ones lies in connection to outcomes that matter. The best metrics ask:

• Are people learning and applying new skills?
• Are we building the capabilities the business needs?
• Is training improving performance or retention?
• Are we fostering a culture of continuous learning?

We’ll see the best ways to answer these performance questions shortly. 

Why measure L&D performance?

Measurement isn’t just about satisfying executives—although that’s often the starting point. It’s an essential step to validate assumptions and improve learning outcomes. 

Consistently measuring L&D metrics helps you:

• Identify what’s working (and what’s not). The right metrics hone your learning strategy and deliver the right courses at the right time. That can help you double on your best content, and cut old or tired training that no longer delivers.
• Prove ROI and secure budget. When corporate budgets tighten, training is often first to go. Unless L&D can show measurable return and prove that it’s a growth driver, rather than a pure cost.
• Align learning with business goals. When you connect training outcomes to company priorities—like quality, customer satisfaction, or faster onboarding—L&D gains strategic credibility. Which can only help with those budget and resourcing conversations.
• Improve the learner experience. Despite the focus on ROI, your daily interactions with learners are still vital. Even relatively basic metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and engagement data highlight what learners value.
• Track skill gaps and plan ahead. Metrics act as early-warning systems, spotting weak points before they hurt performance. For example, if only 30% of software engineers have confirmed AI coding skills, you can expect to be left behind as this technology becomes the norm.

In short, the right metrics help you improve programs, secure investment, and earn your seat as a strategic business partner. Let’s look now at some of the classic, common L&D metrics most teams measure, before getting to the more advanced material. 

7 foundational L&D metrics to track

These are the traditional data points many L&D teams rely on, and a perfectly solid place to start. They’re easy to collect and comprehend (including for stakeholders), and provide a baseline for improvement.

1. Enrollment rate

This is the percentage of your target audience who register for a given training. Low enrollment signals poor communication or timing. Higher rates suggest good manager buy-in, and that employees see the clear benefits of training. 

How to measure it: Calculate (Users enrolled / Target audience) × 100

How to improve it: Make training discoverable, offer flexible timing, and remove any technological barriers. A mobile app makes a big difference for remote or decentralized teams. 

2. Course completion rate

Measures whether those learners who begin a training finish it. This reveals whether people find training valuable enough to complete. High enrollment with low completion is a major red flag.

Rough benchmarks are 70–80% for mandatory training, and 50–60% for optional courses. 

How to improve it: Break content into shorter modules, add progress indicators, send strategic reminders, and remove filler.

3. Learning hours completed

This is the total time employees spend in learning activities, which can help to justify the budget. For L&D teams, it’s most helpful to show trends over time, or to compare departments.

Of course, hours measure activity, but not necessarily impact. And more overall hours may not actually bring better results. 

How to improve it: Increase learner hours using the same techniques as enrollment rates above.

4. Learner Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Gauges satisfaction and willingness to recommend training. A high NPS correlates with high engagement. It generally shows that content is relevant, concise, and immediately useful. And hopefully that learners will share with their colleagues. 

How to measure it: Percentage of promoters (9-10 ratings) minus percentage of detractors (0-6).

How to improve it: Ensure immediate job relevance, respect learners' time, use engaging formats, and fix technical issues.

5. Knowledge retention rate

This measures understanding and long-term recall on a training-by-training basis. Essentially, it tells you whether people have remembered what they learned, and therefore whether they were paying close attention. 

Use post-training quizzes and 30-day refreshers to check retention. 

How to improve it: Focus on training engagement, and ensure training is interactive. Where necessary, spaced repetition can help boost retention dramatically.

6. Compliance certification rate

This is a basic metric, but also utterly essential in certain industries and for key types of compliance training. For required training, the only acceptable number is 100%. 

How to improve it: Track certification rates with your LMS (and any HR or compliance tools). Hold regular internal campaigns, use automated reminders, and escalate to managers where necessary.

7. Training cost per learner

Tracks efficiency and informs budget planning. And crucially, lower isn't always better. A $500 course that transforms performance beats a $200 course everyone ignores. 

Focus on cost per outcome: What does it cost to produce a competent salesperson or certified technician?

How to measure it: Calculate Total L&D investment / Total learners.

How to improve it: Tactics include working with internal SMEs to create content, replacing one-off workshops with scalable eLearning, and prioritizing evergreen courses.

5 more advanced L&D metrics

While foundational metrics like completion rates and time-to-completion give you a good snapshot of activity, L&D leaders at scaleups and enterprise companies need to dig deeper.

These advanced metrics provide the granular insights needed to optimize your content, prove ROI to leadership, and ultimately, build an agile, future-ready workforce.

1. Learning transfer rate

This is the percentage of learners applying new skills on the job. This is the ultimate test of training effectiveness. If skills aren't being transferred, your L&D investment is arguably going to waste.

It’s also worth asking whether the skills learned are relevant to the work being done. 

How to measure it:

• Performance data: Analyzing changes in job performance metrics post-training (e.g., a reduction in customer support ticket resolution time after a training on a new software tool).
• Manager observations: Direct assessment by a learner's manager (ideally using a structured rubric).
• Self-reporting: Learner surveys or journals detailing how they've used the new skill.

How to improve it: Low transfer (often 10–20%) means the L&D function simply must do better. Focus on reinforcement through repetition, manager follow-ups, and more practical skills applications.

2. New skills unlocked

This is the number and type of new competencies, skills, or certifications gained by the workforce over a specific period. It tracks actual capabilities gained, mapped to your skills framework, and shows whether you’re closing critical skills gaps.

How to measure it: Use a platform that visually tracks skills progression (like 360Learning) with clear dashboards.

How to improve it: Incentivize learners with their own skills dashboards, and make skills part of the performance review process. Social learning and gamification (like “new skills” badges) encourage employees to keep building. 

3. Relevance score

Training that misses the mark hurts your credibility and can be worse than no training at all. Relevance Score uses learner feedback to show how useful and applicable content is to their job role and daily tasks.

High scores (>70%) mean content meets real needs; low ones indicate misalignment or outdated material.

How to measure it: Similar to NPS, this should be provided by your LMS or LXP system. You can also conduct surveys to ask learners after each course. 

How to improve it: Work closely with in-house subject-matter experts to craft training. Target low-scoring areas for improvement, or remove those courses altogether.

4. Learning velocity

In essence, this measures how quickly new learning content is created, approved, and deployed. Fast-moving teams can respond to changes in days or weeks, which is critical for agility.

How to measure it: Take the average time from concept to launch of new courses over a given period. 

How to improve it: Use AI-powered authoring tools to draft new content, then have SMEs validate or improve where necessary. 

5. Dropout rate by module

This shows exactly where learners lose interest in a given course, tracked granularly at the specific module, video, or even slide level. A high dropout rate suggests learners are encountering confusing, irrelevant, overly long, or poorly designed content.

How to measure it: Enterprise LMS tools provide heatmaps that show the exact drop-off points within videos or interactive elements.

How to improve it: If a course is consistently problematic, you must redesign it, break modules into smaller chunks, add engaging activities, or remove it entirely.

6 collaborative learning metrics

One of the biggest differences between average and highly successful L&D functions is the level of collaboration and interaction between learners. Modern learning isn’t top-down—it’s social and shared. You should focus on a collaborative learning approach, and continuously monitor whether you’re achieving it. 

These metrics will help you do that. 

1. Ratio of native courses vs. SCORM

A core benefit of collaborative learning is the ability to create new, highly relevant training. So by comparing original in-house content against SCORM (or other content libraries), you can see how this is playing out. 

Leading L&D teams aim for >80% native content to maintain maximum control over and relevance within their learning library.

How to measure it: Assess the percentage of your active library created directly within your LMS’ authoring tools ("native") versus content imported from external tools using standards like SCORM.

How to improve it: The more original content you produce, the better this ratio will look. 

2. Percentage of employees creating content

Directly related to the previous metric, this measures how many people (outside the L&D team) contribute as course authors or SMEs. A healthy learning culture sees at least 20% participation.

A democratized learning environment ensures content is more relevant, timely, and practical. And it scales L&D's impact without scaling the L&D team.

Simplyhealth employees have created more than 1,000 in-house training courses. Their Talent and Development Specialist Louisa Beer explains, “The relationship between the designers and experts works really well with clearly defined roles between knowledge experts (the SMEs) and learning experts (the L&D team). The end result is one of collaboration where designers work with subject-matter to optimize learning experiences and bring the content to life.”

How to measure it: Compare the number of authors against the number of learners, excluding the L&D team from both figures. 

How to improve it: Use AI authoring to reduce the effort required. Publicly recognize active authors for their contributions, and acknowledge the tangible results. 

3. Reaction rates

Tracks likes, ratings, or emoji reactions on content. These may seem frivolous, but they’re a quick and powerful measure to gauge whether content is hitting the mark and that learners feel comfortable participating. It’s an indicator of community health.

Based on our own benchmark figures at 360Learning, a healthy community should see a >41% reaction rate across content.

How to measure it: Track interactions like likes, ratings, or emoji reactions within your LMS or LXP. 

How to improve it: Ask for and encourage reactions during training courses.

4. Discussion or comment rates

Comments and learner discussions reflect deeper engagement and peer learning. Look for meaningful contributions like shared experiences or problem-solving discussions within specific courses or modules.

Target a >15% posting rate for active, discussion-based content.

How to measure it: Your learning platform should provide this figure. 

How to improve it: Encourage collaborative, interactive learning throughout training courses. 

Jess Garcia, L&D Manager at Chuze Fitness, explains how in-course engagement between L&D and learners has transformed the perception towards learning: “We've brought learning to life for our employees and shown that their L&D team is made up of real people that the rest of the company can interact with. We've become celebrities within our own org!" 

5. Peer-to-peer learning

This monitors the volume and quality of questions asked and answered by learners (SMEs or experienced peers), specifically excluding interactions initiated by instructors or L&D staff. A strong peer-to-peer culture creates a sustainable learning environment that reduces bottlenecks and reliance on the L&D team for every answer.

How to measure it: Monitor questions and answers in your LMS. If possible, track sub-metrics like response time, and answer quality (as rated by the person who asked the question).

How to improve it: Celebrate your SMEs and employees who successfully help others solve key issues. 

6. User-generated content relevance score

We saw the relevance score above. You can also track this score for the quality of user-generated resources, tips, best practices, and suggestions for improvement contributed by learners.

This includes learners sharing specific shared documents, submitting validated troubleshooting guides, or updating a process wiki.

How to improve it: Use a platform with built-in collaborative features that let learners suggest edits, flag outdated content, or share relevant documents.

“Being able to comment on the tool is very helpful,” according to digital agency Croud (a 360Learning user). “If there’s a specific detail that’s become outdated, you can let someone know.”

3 business impact metrics

These are the metrics that earn L&D a seat at the executive table. They move past activity and engagement to directly quantify the value of learning in terms of hard business outcomes. 

Reporting on these is increasingly essential to secure budget and executive buy-in for your strategy. As resources get scarce, showing business impact helps to future-proof L&D. 

1. Performance improvement against KPIs

This measures the observable change in KPIs before and after training. You’re showing how organizational learning leads to better business. 

The specific business impacts will be company-specific, and should link to your core goals overall. Possible examples include:

• Sales: increase in deal sizes or win rates
• Production: fewer defects or recalls, or faster delivery times
• Customer service: higher CSAT or faster issue resolution

How to measure it: Your business intelligence tools will likely measure the KPIs themselves. Create learner cohorts or before/after timeframes to show when your impact was felt.

How to improve it: Build your L&D strategy around the most fundamental business objectives. Work closely with key teams to find out what specific training they need to succeed. 

2. Time to competency

This is essentially a measure of how valuable your employee onboarding process is. It tracks how long new hires take to reach full productivity. This has a direct bottom-line impact: one expert reported that "reducing time to competency by 30 days can create $12,000 in additional value per employee."

And benchmarks vary. Retail can take 2-4 weeks, customer service can take 6-8 weeks, and sales/engineering can be 3-6 months.

How to improve it: Create detailed, role-specific onboarding paths, provide peer mentors, set clear 30/60/90-day milestones, and gather feedback from recent hires for how you can improve the process.

Aim for continuous improvement, rather a perfectly efficient ramp-up plan. 

3. Employee retention rate

Your L&D team should never be solely responsible for overall employee retention. But if you can tie a new onboarding process or core training courses to longer service, you can prove a major impact on the business. 

Replacing a single employee can cost anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary when factoring in recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity. But per one study, 94% of employees said they would stay put if their employer invested in their career. If you can prove that to be true, your HR executives will be over the moon. 

How to measure it: Compare retention rates for employees who complete onboarding, or who take specific professional development courses during their tenure. If possible, identify the key L&D moments that create lasting affinities, and ensure as many employees as possible get to share these. 

How to automatically measure L&D performance

Knowing what to track is one thing. But doing it at scale is another. When you have hundreds (or thousands) of learners, each with their own paths and priorities, data analysis can feel like a fulltime job. 

Manual reporting is:

• Time-consuming: Teams waste hours consolidating data from multiple systems.
• Always delayed: Reports are outdated by the time they’re shared.
• Inconsistent: Different teams track metrics differently.
• Lacking context: Individual KPIs don’t tell the full story of learning’s impact.

You want to make smart, analytical choices in your learning strategy. But you simply can’t hope to have a high-functioning, data-driven L&D function and rely on manual reporting. 

The solution: an LMS with built-in analytics

As always, modern tools make all the difference. The best learning platforms automate tracking, connect learning data with business metrics, and provide real-time insights.

These platforms: 

• Automatically track metrics: Real-time dashboards show engagement and performance instantly, reveal trends across departments or roles, and integrate LMS data with business systems to calculate impact.
• Simplify reporting: One-click, customizable reports keep leadership informed, while dashboards make complex data clear and persuasive.
• Improve results with smart features: Automated reminders re-engage learners at drop-off points, gamification and social learning features boost participation, and mobile apps deliver learning everywhere work happens.

Why 360Learning is the right choice

If automating and scaling LMS reports is a priority, 360Learning should be your first consideration. It’s uniquely designed to track the deeper, strategic metrics that matter to enterprise and scaleup L&D leaders. 

360Learning goes beyond traditional LMS reporting to capture the collaborative and strategic metrics that matter. Our platform is not just an LMS; it’s a collaborative ecosystem built to capture the data that proves business value.

• Designed for collaboration: The platform tracks engagement indicators like reaction rate and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, proving not just participation but community health.
• Empowering internal experts: Built-in AI-powered authoring tools let subject-matter experts create and update courses quickly and autonomously, increasing relevance and content freshness–as well as capturing and disseminating proprietary knowledge.
• Fostering contribution: Learners can suggest edits, comment, and share resources, boosting content contribution and discussion rates.
• Optimized for agility: Emphasis on native content creation increases learning velocity and ensures data accuracy.

Linking learning to outcomes: 360Learning integrates learning data with business performance, allowing you to track metrics like performance improvement and ROI with confidence.

Start tracking L&D performance strategically

In an era defined by skill shortages and rapid business change, L&D must function as a data-driven strategic partner. That’s not just a way to keep courses relevant—it’s the only way to ensure ongoing investment and resources in your learning programs. 

Metrics turn Learning and Development from a cost center into a growth engine. Here are a few final tips to get started:

1. Start simple: Choose 5–7 metrics tied directly to your business goals.
2. Then, go deeper: Layer in advanced and collaborative metrics once the basics are solid.
3. Use the right tools: Manual tracking limits insight. Invest in a purpose-built LMS with robust analytics.
4. Take action: Data only matters if you use it. Refine low-performing courses, recognize top contributors, and share wins with leadership and the wider business.

360Learning makes this effortless, capturing the data you need to measure what matters and proving that learning drives business impact. See how 360Learning can make your L&D strategy more data driven and impactful today: