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The scope of learning & development activities are mainly to improve the workforce capabilities and to anticipate future challenges.
In both cases, the expected outcome is a better, improved business performance.
Trainings, e-learning and dedicated courses could add value, but I’d say they are the right solution only in few, limited cases and they are almost always the wrong starting point for discussions with stakeholders: start investigating their pain points, their business problems and only after that think about solutions.
I want to improve the business, not to run more trainings. Do focus on the environment, analyzing and optimizing processes and ways of working, and on the individuals, zeroing in on their specific needs within their workflow if the aim is to upskill them or with targeted assignments and projects if the goal is to reskill them / to build up a new competence area.
You can easily measure the amount of trainings you provided, the participants’ cold & hot feedbacks, the participation rate, etc. but all of them are not giving you any indication on how much you are moving the needle on the business side. It’s time to invest far more time and energy to capture the link between L&D activities and business outcomes: it is not straightforward, it is not immediate but it wins stakeholders over and adds value both to the company and to the individuals.