Learning and development teams are renowned for collecting lots of raw quantitative data on the learning conducted (such as the number of learning hours, participant attendance and post-learning feedback surveys) to demonstrate what has been accomplished.
However, the real impact can be made by taking a more strategic approach and investing time to truly assess and make meaning of this data to demonstrate the value of learning to the business and support evidence-informed decisions.
Are you ready to elevate your learning strategy and help address stakeholders’ asks on “How have you been effective,” or “What is the impact of learning to the business?”
Deloitte Global’s A&A Learning strategic planning process
In 2023, Deloitte Global Audit & Assurance Learning underwent a transformation of its operating model. Team roles shifted with leaders now being more responsible for strategic planning and stakeholder management. This transition required a mindset shift from previous ways of working to an evolved means of aligning resources to strategic priorities in a way that addressed business goals.
The Strategic Enablement team for A&A Learning proactively led the team to develop a strategic plan to achieve the desired outcomes that supported the growth and execution of the A&A business while enhancing the talent experience.
The strategic plan was developed through an iterative process involving team members, stakeholders, and business leaders, utilizing the GOST Framework outlined by Rich Horwath in his 2024 book, “Strategic, The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage and Achieve Executive Excellence.” This framework emphasizes Goals (G), aligning them with specific Objectives (O), each supported by Strategies (S) and Tactics (T) to achieve the strategy. The GOST Framework was shared with team members at the beginning of their strategic planning journey and was reinforced throughout the planning process as they co-created the strategy.
For Deloitte’s A&A Learning team, the Goals were the strategic goals for the A&A Business through Fiscal Year 2027. Placing these at the top of the matrix allowed team members to see how their work supported the business. It also helped when speaking to stakeholders as they could visibly understand how learning was supporting and enabling their success.
Behind the business goals were the Objectives for learning. These focused on modernizing the learning experience which would in turn influence the talent experience, as well as supporting the emerging business needs of Audit & Assurance. Additionally, the Objectives reflect the team’s need to evolve as an organization and to demonstrate the impact of learning on the business.
Within each Objective is a set of Strategies that broadly explain how the teams will enact the objectives. Project plans were put into place to support teams with a blueprint going forward to help achieve the supporting Tactics. As a result of this process, the team now speaks a common language related to strategic planning and execution and can communicate the A&A Learning strategy with stakeholders.
Measurement framework
A key component of the strategic planning process for Deloitte A&A Learning was to develop a measurement framework that reflected both ongoing curriculum evaluation but also tracked progress on the strategic plan. To develop this framework, team members reviewed existing models familiar to Deloitte including Kirkpatrick’s Model of Learning Evaluation and others, while also speaking with stakeholders including the Deloitte Global A&A Learning Executive to understand what metrics and practical use cases were most relevant to demonstrate the true value-add of the learning. This approach has been a differentiator through a focus on the use cases most aligned to business needs around leading market quality and talent experience.
Within the plan, a set of key performance indicators and benchmarks were identified that would help tell the relevant stories while enabling the team to make evidence-informed decisions based on their successes and pinpoint where there are opportunities to improve. Deciding which metrics to leverage at each level was determined through evaluation of the business priorities, understanding what data was within learning’s control, and conducting sensing sessions with key business and talent stakeholders. Involving stakeholders throughout the process allowed the team to put metrics into terminology more relatable to business leaders, thus elevating the team’s ability to serve as a partner alongside key stakeholders.
The result was a list of five simple KPIs which focus on targets for things like deployment curricula aligned to emerging business needs or an increase in modernized learning hours to enhance the talent experience. By including these KPIs, the team understands that all members play a role in the success of the strategic plan.
Beyond the KPIs are a set of curriculum benchmarks. These help to look specifically at evaluating learning courses or programs more deeply through post-program surveys in order to understand the performance of each learning asset. Questions on the learning surveys were minimized to focus on a few, most relevant metrics, with a benchmark of success or risk for each. This has helped the development teams have a stronger point-of-view on the success or areas for improvement within their learning assets and thus strengthen stakeholder conversations. A dashboard is currently being developed to analyze and report on these metrics more quickly.
Putting the plan into action
Putting these frameworks into action required an intentional journey of reframing and upskilling to shift the mindset of the learning team from simply sharing, “Here is the work we did,” to “What is the business value and impacts we want to demonstrate and what data is needed to tell that story?”
Having a framework that is both simple to understand and aligned to the strategic plan has helped the team focus on leveraging the right data points to share relevant and useful information as well as progress with stakeholders. For example, understanding the number of learning assets that have been modernized can help demonstrate progress on the strategic plan whereas seeing how a learner is performing toward a new skill will show the impact of the learning itself.
More than measuring progress on the strategic plan, the use of KPIs and learning benchmarks is enhancing the team’s ability to make evidence-informed decisions. By setting targets, we can understand where our resources (time, talent, budget) are having the greatest impact and where specific audiences may need greater focus. This has resulted in greater efficiency by quickly applying lessons from the current learning year as we scope new program development for the year ahead. Finally, stakeholders are more informed of the impact that learning is making on an ongoing basis leading to greater business value.
The intentional approach taken by Deloitte’s A&A Learning team to both strategic planning and measurement has had a considerable impact on our ability to work with stakeholders as well as demonstrating the impact of learning on the business. This process required iteration, listening and patience to build. By engaging their teams in a similar strategic planning and measurement framework process, leaders can help enable their L&D teams toward greater business impact.
