How do you define successful training? Is it the number of people who attended? The feedback they give?  The changes in their behavior? The impact on the business? The truth is — it depends. The way training success is evaluated varies from one organization to another, depending on their goals and the data that learning leaders can collect.

Training Industry research shows that one of the biggest challenges learning leaders face is proving the value of their training programs. And for good reason — it’s hard! Leaders must gather the right data and clearly demonstrate how training has contributed to results that are important to senior leaders. While it’s useful to know how many people attended the training and what they thought about it, what really matters to business leaders is how the training has improved important outcomes like productivity, engagement or revenue. This means that learning leaders must understand what their leaders care about most and focus on showing those results.

Designing training that delivers impactful results is a complex task. That’s why we’ve dedicated this issue of Training Industry Magazine to explore this topic in more detail. The articles in this edition cover essential factors for successful workplace learning, such as the importance of onboarding in helping new hires succeed, designing training for neurodivergent learners, unpacking the science of purpose and meaningful work, and how to create lasting behavior change.

This edition also features a special report from Training Industry that introduces a new way of looking at training evaluation. While most organizations use some form of it, the perception of measurement in learning and development (L&D) is not always positive. This report looks at the current state of training measurement and presents a framework to help learning leaders move beyond traditional evaluation methods and take a more comprehensive, business-focused approach.

Measurement is an extremely powerful tool for business transformation — when it’s done right. We hope that the information in this magazine helps you create more impactful learning experiences that bring lasting change to your organizations.

As always, we love to hear from our readers, so please reach out to our team and share how your training is making an impact.