Over the past few years, many human resources (HR) and learning and development (L&D) leaders have grappled with the same challenge: demonstrating the business value of learning. It’s not enough anymore to point to completion rates or satisfaction scores. Executives are asking tougher questions: What changed? Was it worth the investment of time and money?
A recent report from Guild, a talent development consultancy, captured this shift well: Nearly a third of CHROs and L&D leaders admit they don’t know whether their investments make a difference to revenue or profit. That’s a sobering finding. But there’s also encouraging news: When learning is tied directly to business priorities, learning leaders are 122% more likely to hit their top metrics.
Every impactful program starts with a business outcome, not a training topic. The real question isn’t, “What course should we run?” It’s, “What business challenge are we trying to solve?” This is a strategic mindset with a focus on long-term goals. It changes the approach to learning from transactional to collaborative, with content created to address specific and highly relevant topics in the context of your organization. It takes vision and no small amount of trust on the part of L&D leaders to build something from the ground up — as is the case with custom executive education — but when learning is designed around innovation, transformation, competitiveness or execution, it directly affects the metrics that matter to the C-suite.
Three Pathways to Business Alignment
1. Innovation and Transformation
Programs that accelerate innovation or help organizations navigate transformation tend to show their value quickly. Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy management and industrial automation, partnered with the MIT Sloan School of Management to create a custom program that helped participants take long-dormant patents all the way to product development. That’s impact you can measure.
For Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Japan’s oldest and largest life sciences firm, nearly all projects devised as part of the L&D experience are implemented with measurable impact. These initiatives are not only advancing Takeda’s mission but also strengthening its position as an industry leader in access to medicine.
2. Operations and Execution
Operational improvements often deliver some of the most compelling ROI. Action learning projects offer program participants the opportunity to apply what they learn immediately to real-life business challenges. These projects are most effective when they have meaningful executive buy-in and support.
Over its three-year run, Bayer’s R&D Tech Immersion program spurred more than 20 projects across the entire R&D value chain, securing millions of euros in funding for these projects. A global energy company analyzed the results of projects created through its executive education program and found the business benefits outweighed the full cost of the program by a factor of ten.
3. Growth and Competitiveness
With AI reshaping work so rapidly, it’s tempting to say, “Let’s train everyone on AI.” But the smarter approach is to identify the leaders and experts who can embed AI into core processes and equip them to lead adoption where it matters most.
L&D can fuel growth by strengthening talent pipelines when participants are selected with deep consideration for their potential and roles within the company. Endress+Hauser, a leading provider of industrial process measurement and automation solutions, was facing a looming shortage of senior leaders. They responded by sending 100 high-potential managers through intensive leadership development over three years, strengthening the talent pipeline and readiness for future growth.
Redefining Success: From Learning Metrics to Business Metrics
For too long, participation, completion and feedback surveys have served as primary metrics of success. Useful? Sure. But not persuasive. They don’t answer the CFO’s question: What did this change in the business? Guild’s research shows that leaders who track business metrics are far more effective. 73% of them meet organization-wide KPIs, compared to just 14% of laggards.
Project-based learning is one of the clearest bridges between learning and business outcomes. When participants tackle real challenges as part of the program, they generate benefits you can count on: cost savings, process improvements, risk reduction and new revenue streams.
If the identifiable benefits of those projects exceed the program’s cost, then the net cost is effectively zero. In other words, applied learning often more than pays for itself.
L&D Leaders as Strategic Partners
High-impact L&D leaders sit at the table with executives and co-design solutions around business priorities. Guild found that these leaders are 32% more likely to have explicit C-suite support and 47% more likely to influence senior decision-making. That’s not about luck. It’s about credibility — earned by speaking in business terms, not training jargon.
In practice, that means talking about “capability gaps,” not “competency frameworks.” Framing proposals as “enablers of strategic execution,” not “learning interventions.” When you speak in outcomes like productivity, growth and margin, executives stop seeing L&D as overhead and start seeing it as essential.
Designing for Change at Scale
You don’t need to train 100% of employees to spark change. In many cases, reaching about 20% of the right group — senior leaders, frontline managers or technical experts — is enough to start a culture shift.
That’s why participant selection is so critical. If you’re deliberate about who you bring in, and you create programs people actually want to be part of, you generate pull instead of push. That demand and prestige make the learning more powerful. When you design programs this way, you’re not adding training on top of the business. You’re building capability inside the business.
L&D as a Catalyst
There’s no denying the pressure L&D leaders are under. Budgets are scrutinized, and the demand for proof of impact has never been higher. But there’s also never been a better moment to demonstrate value. And when you combine applied projects, thoughtful participant selection and close executive partnership, the business outcomes often far exceed the investment.
In this performance era, your task is simple: Stop asking how L&D can support the business and start showing how it drives the business. Done well, learning is not a cost to be managed. It’s a catalyst for growth.
