Is it hard to get budget for L&D? You're not alone.

For years, learning and development leaders have been caught in a frustrating cycle: they know training is valuable, but when it comes time to justify budgets, the numbers don’t always add up.

That’s because corporate training has traditionally been seen as an expense — one that companies buy rather than invest in. The problem? Many training programs aren’t measured against business-critical outcomes, leaving L&D leaders struggling to prove ROI when making their case to the C-suite.

Executives don’t want to hear how many employees completed a course. They want to know how that course impacted revenue, reduced risk, improved retention, or enabled better decision-making across the business.

This is where skills data comes into play.

Simulation reports showing skill outcomes.

The problem: Why training often fails to show ROI

The inability to measure impact is the weakness of corporate training. Companies spend billions every year on training programs and are still having a hard time describing what exactly that investment is yielding.

Here's where the difficulty lies:

• Completion rates don't tell you whether or not behavior change took place. The fact that an employee completes a course doesn't mean they learned it (much less implemented it).
• Generic training doesn’t connect to business goals. If leadership training isn’t measured against actual leadership outcomes, how do you know if it worked?
• You haven’t linked learning and business KPIs. Companies track revenue, compliance incidents, and employee performance, but L&D teams often lack the tools to tie training efforts to those numbers.

This becomes a barrier to growth.

"Without clear, skills-based data, L&D remains a cost center instead of a strategic business function."

The solution: Learning as a business intelligence tool

Skills data is changing the game. Instead of looking at training as an activity to be completed, organizations are now treating it as a source of business intelligence, helping to make more informed decisions across multiple areas:

1. Workforce planning & internal mobility

By tracking skills and benchmarking, companies can identify talent gaps and upskill from within, rather than relying solely on external hiring.

For example, if data shows that your best-performing salespeople have mastered specific negotiation techniques, you can replicate that success by training others in the same skills — directly improving revenue.

2. Risk & compliance management

Compliance training has historically been a box-checking exercise, with little proof that it actually reduces risk. But what if you could measure whether employees make better decisions in real-world compliance situations after training?

With skills data collected in simulations, companies can track how training reduces on-the-job errors, lowers regulatory risk, and improves employee decision-making. This makes compliance an advantage, not just a mandate.

3. Leadership development & retention

Great organizations don't only train leaders. They build leadership as a characteristic of all employees.

With objective learning metrics, organizations can discern which workers are prepared to move into leadership roles, where individuals require coaching, and what sets of leadership skills are associated with improved team results.

By connecting skills data to leadership traits, you can then work to minimize turnover and build a culture of future leaders within the organization.

Case study: Merck's data-driven training success

Merck, a global leader in pharmaceuticals, faced a challenge: how do you ensure compliance training actually improves decision-making in high-risk environments?

Instead of relying on traditional training metrics, Merck tracked the actual impact of learning on employee behavior, resulting in tangible differences.

• 97% reduction in simulated errors in the workplaces
• 21% increase in employee performance scores on compliance-related tasks
• Training delivered 15x faster than previous instructor-led programs

For Merck, skills data wasn't only a training metric. It was a risk-reduction strategy in compliance and ethics.

Example of a simulation live in action.

How companies are now using learning to show ROI

L&D teams that use skills data and training analytics are experiencing a fundamental shift in how learning is viewed within their organizations.

Tips to make training measurable:

• Before training: Measure where employees currently stand on key skills.
• During training: Track engagement, progression, and how employees apply knowledge.
• After training: Compare performance improvements to business KPIs, like revenue growth, customer satisfaction, error reduction, or leadership effectiveness.

This approach moves L&D from a cost center to a strategic function. It gives learning leaders the same level of accountability as sales, operations, or finance teams, ensuring that every dollar spent on training is tied to measurable business outcomes.

Learn more about proving the ROI of your L&D programs here.