Monitoring · 4 min read
Completions, quiz results, missed deadlines: there is plenty of training data, but only some of it helps you decide. Which indicators to track by department and how to turn them into action.
Any training platform produces a great deal of data: logins, minutes of viewing, completion rates, scores, attempts. The risk is collecting all of it and using none. A twenty-page report that lands on managers’ desks every month soon stops being opened.
It is better to start from the decisions that need to be made. Who is behind on requirements and needs a reminder? Which courses are not working and need reviewing? Which departments need an in-person session? Useful indicators are the ones that answer these questions.
A good rule of thumb is to keep two audiences separate. Department managers need a small amount of operational information, updated often; senior management needs a periodic summary, with trends over time and points to watch.
An indicator is only useful if whoever looks at it knows what to do.
For mandatory training, three measures per department are enough: the share of people who are compliant, the courses expiring in the coming weeks, and the delays already accumulated. The first tells you where things stand today, the second lets you plan, and the third shows where to act immediately.
It is important to look at them over time rather than as a snapshot. A department that stays consistently compliant has a process that works; one that always catches up at the last minute has an organizational problem, even if the figures look fine at quarter end.
It also helps to read the numbers together with department managers. A low percentage can have explanations the data does not show, such as a wave of new hires, a particularly busy period or a course assigned by mistake to people who did not need it.
Completion tells you a course has been taken, not that it worked. To judge quality you need other signals. The first-attempt pass rate shows whether the content genuinely prepares people for the assessment. The questions most often answered wrongly point to concepts that are unclear. Completion times far from the expected duration reveal lessons that are too long or, conversely, rushed through.
This data should be read by course, not by person. If most participants get a question wrong, the problem lies in the question or the lesson, and the fix is to revise them. Blaming those who got it wrong improves nothing.
A short rating from participants at the end of the course is also useful, with one or two questions on clarity and relevance to their work. A handful of free-text comments often explains what the numbers only hint at.
Every indicator should have a threshold and a linked action. If the share of compliant people falls below a certain level, the department manager gets an alert. If a course has a low pass rate for two months running, its owner is asked to review it. If delays cluster in one part of the year, the deadlines may need to be spread differently.
Reminders need assessing too. If most people only complete their courses after the third reminder, sending more reminders will not solve the problem: it is better to rethink the timing, the length of the courses or the way they are presented.
Every so often it is also worth asking which indicators are no longer needed. If a figure has been watched for months without ever leading to a decision, removing it from the report makes the report easier to read.
Learning shows, for each department, the status of mandatory training, upcoming renewals and overdue courses, with the option to drill down to individual people. For each course, the pass rate, the most problematic questions and average completion times are available.
Managers receive only the alerts that concern them, reminders go out automatically to whoever needs to complete a course, and the data can be exported for senior management or an audit. The aim is not to have more numbers, but to know at any moment where to step in.
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