Most L&D teams collect data, but few translate it into the business language that decision-makers value. iSpring’s global survey reveals a “translation problem” holding many teams back. Tanya Galton shares insights into three L&D maturity clusters, along with practical steps to boost your influence, impact, and alignment with business priorities.

Are you being heard in the boardroom or are you overlooked when L&D budgets are allocated and cut? When you lead or manage L&D in your company, understanding the level of maturity of your L&D processes can improve how you communicate ROI from L&D to stakeholders.  Are you a Metric Master, a Direction Seeker, or an Isolated Executor? 

iSpring’s latest global survey revealed that only 12% of L&D teams feel confident when they need to link training results to business outcomes. And only 7% check all the “Metric Master” boxes: ability to prove ROI, analytic confidence, and a seat at the decision-making table.

Research context and L&D maturity clusters

One of the more surprising findings was that whilst few people were confidence with business outcomes, at the same time, almost 70% of the same respondents estimated their ability to analyse learning data as good or excellent. Thus, we see that there’s a huge gap between self-assessed analytic skills and the ability to prove ROI.

We have named this discrepancy “the translation problem”, a demonstrated inability to turn that data into persuasive business language that executives understand.

To help bridge it, we identified three L&D maturity clusters based on how teams measure, communicate, and align learning impact with business goals. Each cluster has unique strengths, common blind spots, and clear next steps to reach the next level of maturity.

Metric Masters (7% of respondents)

• Core traits: Data-driven, ROI-fluent, integrated into strategic decision-making
  
  
  
• Strengths: Strong stakeholder trust, proactive alignment with business KPIs, advanced use of LMS analytics
  
  
  
• Weak spots: Scaling influence beyond current scope, mentoring other teams, overreliance on existing tools
  
  
  
• ROI communication style: Tells clear, quantified impact stories in business language
  
  
  

Direction Seekers (68% of respondents)

• Core traits: Eager to measure impact but lacking frameworks or consistent methods
  
  
  
• Strengths: Open to new tools, good at gathering qualitative feedback, potential alignment with leadership goals
  
  
  
• Weak spots: Overreliance on completion rates or satisfaction scores, ad-hoc metrics, low integration with business systems
  
  
  
• ROI communication style: Focuses on learner experience rather than direct business metrics
  
  
  

Isolated Executors (25% of respondents)

• Core traits: Operates in silos, reactive rather than strategic, low involvement in company-wide planning
  
  
  
• Strengths: Can deliver tactical training quickly
  
  
  
• Weak spots: Little or no tracking of outcomes, low stakeholder visibility, misalignment with business priorities
  
  
  
• ROI communication style: Rarely communicates impact beyond training delivery stats, often perceived as a cost centre

The translation problem: Where it comes from and why it matters

Our research shows that the translation problem is the single biggest barrier between having data and winning stakeholder buy-in. It stems from a combination of three key factors:

1. Focusing on the wrong metrics
   
   Many L&D teams track what’s easy to measure, such as vanity metrics like course completions, attendance, or satisfaction scores, rather than business impact indicators such as reduced time to proficiency, increased sales, or decreased error rates
   
   
   
2. Lack of alignment with business priorities
   
   Without clear links to strategic goals, even the most impressive learning metrics can appear irrelevant to decision-makers. As one of our surveyed experts put it, “If your training program doesn’t solve a business pain, don’t even start it.”
   
   
   
3. Lack of communication
   
   Data often stays in L&D language: percentages, pass rates, survey averages. For it to be translated into financial or operational terms, there’s a strong need to collaborate with executives, field managers, finance, sales, and other departments from the start, and implement correct metrics at the stage of course design
   
   

How each cluster tackles (or avoids) the translation problem

Metric Masters: These teams have largely solved the translation problem. They select KPIs that matter to the business, integrate L&D analytics with HR, CRM, or BI (Business Intelligence) systems, and present results in the same dashboards that executives use for other departments. Their next challenge is scaling this skill across the organisation, mentoring other teams, and innovating beyond their current success.

Direction Seekers: This group recognises the importance of proving impact but struggles with consistency and relevance. They might capture learner engagement data but stop short of connecting it to bottom-line results. Their path forward is to build a measurement framework aligned with corporate KPIs and adopt tools that automate data integration and reporting

Isolated Executors: Here, the translation problem is often invisible because the data itself is minimal or non-existent. Without tracking systems, they have little to communicate beyond delivery counts. Their first step is to implement basic measurement processes and open dialogue with business leaders to identify which results matter most.

How to move up the maturity ladder

Moving from one maturity stage to the next does not mean a complete overhaul of your current L&D processes. Rather, it’s a logical development and sees purposeful shifts in priorities, processes, and partnerships.

Here’s how each cluster can take its next step forward.

For Metric Masters → Strategic Influencers

1. Scale and propagate your best practices. You already know how to digitise and formalise important knowledge and scale it across your company. You can use the same skills to turn your current ROI reporting methods into standardised and fully documented processes. These can also be replicated across departments
   
   
   
2. Establish a mentorship program. For many of your colleagues, following internal “ROI champions” examples can be the best way to imitate and adopt successful ROI communication methods
   
   
   
3. Expand measurement scope. This is perhaps the most ambitious goal, but the value of the data you can accumulate is immense. You can go beyond training-specific KPIs to include workforce-wide performance, innovation metrics, and customer experience outcomes. This kind of data can be key to your company’s business success and will cement L&D’s role as a growth driver
   
   

For Direction Seekers → Metric Masters

1. Build a unified measurement framework. You can start by defining a small set of core KPIs tied directly to business priorities and use them across all programs. Implement them early in course design to tie each training to a particular business outcome
   
   
   
2. Introduce advanced analytics. Connect LMS analytics with HRIS, CRM, or BI tools to make the connection between learning activities and operational results more transparent and easier to follow
   
   
   
3. Implement ROI-linked programs. You can try it out with one high-visibility initiative. Start measuring both before and after results to clearly define business impact
   
   
   
4. Upgrade reporting formats. Start presenting your findings in executive-ready dashboards and one-page summaries instead of long-form reports. Operate with clear numbers and objective statements rather than value judgements
   
   
   

For Isolated Executors → Direction Seekers

1. Establish a baseline. You can start by tracking simple operational metrics like completion rates and error reductions to build a data foundation. Progress by getting before and after performance reviews from line managers
   
   
   
2. Engage stakeholders early. You need to invite department heads into training-needs discussions to understand business objectives before development begins. Always design trainings with a clear business goal in mind
   
   
   
3. Adopt an LMS and analytics tools. This will help you to centralise training delivery and tracking to make future measurement easier and more credible
   
   
   
4. Run small-scale experiments. You can pick a single program, apply basic impact metrics, and use results to start building a culture of measurement
   
   

L&D value for business impact

No matter where your team stands today, L&D maturity is not a fixed state; it’s rather a movement vector. The transition from the ability to work with data to the ability to prove your ROI (and your worth) to the C-suite happens when L&D teams start speaking the language of business impact. 

Whether you’re refining sophisticated ROI reports, building your first measurement framework, or simply starting to collect meaningful metrics, each step upward strengthens your strategic position. With the right tools, partnerships, and mindset, any L&D team can transcend its current cluster and become a driver of organisational growth.

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Tanya Galton is Chief Learning officer at iSpring Solutions

iSpring builds easy-to-use eLearning tools for creating courses, quizzes and video lessons, plus resources to help you roll out training fast. Trusted by 61,000 organisations worldwide, they offer 24/7 live support. You can explore case studies, templates and a free trial to get started