Move Beyond “Completion” to Stay Relevant

The last 18 months have reshaped the expectations placed on every business unit, including L&D and Enablement.

Boards and executive teams have made one thing extremely clear:

The organization has zero tolerance for inefficiencies.

Every function must prove its contribution to revenue, productivity, or cost reduction or it will be restructured or replaced.

In this environment, relying on consumption metrics like course completion rates, learning hours, or video views is no longer just outdated. It’s dangerous. It puts the function at risk of being perceived as non-essential or replaceable by AI-driven productivity tools (content, simulations, RevOps).

Why Traditional Consumption KPIs No Longer Protect L&D/Enablement

1. They don’t connect to revenue (the only language the business hears today)

A 92% completion rate says nothing about whether new hires are closing deals faster, reducing escalations, or decreasing time spent in the weeds.

In a revenue-obsessed environment, “learning hours” is a vanity metric.

Impact, not activity - is the currency of survival.

2. They reflect effort, not outcomes.

Leaders no longer reward effort. They reward effectiveness.

You can’t show the CFO a chart of video views and expect them to allocate more headcount or budget.

They want to see:

• Shorter time-to-productivity

• Faster onboarding cycles

• Revenue-positive behavior earlier in the employee lifecycle

• Reduction of operational mistakes

• Fewer escalations

• More predictable performance

Consumption data can’t prove any of these.

3. They serve the content creator, not the business.

Let’s be honest: Completion rates help the L&D dashboard look organized. But they don’t help the business make decisions.

And when a metric only serves the creator, not the business, it becomes the first thing leadership cuts.

4. In an AI-augmented world, “content delivery” is no longer a differentiator.

AI can deliver training modules, microlearning, simulations, and reminders faster and cheaper than any human team.

But AI cannot replace the human ability to design learning that changes behavior and accelerates real-world performance.

If L&D and Enablement want to stay irreplaceable, they must shift their value from content production to performance acceleration.

The New Metric That Protects L&D and Proves Real Value:

First Time to Impact.

Instead of asking: “Did they complete the training?”

Leading organizations now ask: “How fast did the learner contribute measurable impact?”

Impact depends on the role:

• Sales: first meeting booked, first deal closed

• CS: first renewal, first upsell, first risk mitigated

• Support: first SLA met, first ticket resolved independently

• Product/Engineering: first contribution shipped, first bug fixed

• Operations: first workflow built, first process improvement delivered

This metric aligns training directly with business outcomes - and protects L&D and Enablement from being perceived as cost centers.

Why "First Time To Impact" Is the Only KPI Executives Will Trust in 2025 and Beyond

1. It ties training directly to revenue and productivity.

If training accelerates performance, leaders will defend it. If it doesn’t, they won’t.

2. It shifts L&D from a passive function to a strategic growth engine.

Business impact becomes your product. Enablement becomes a multiplier.

3. It gives L&D a seat at the executive table.

Revenue outcomes speak louder than completion percentages.

The Hard Reality:

What cannot be measured cannot be protected. What cannot prove impact will be automated.

This isn’t a warning, it’s an invitation.

An invitation for L&D and Enablement to step into a far more strategic position: the

function responsible for compressing time-to-performance and accelerating revenue impact across the organization.

Organizations that make this shift are not just training people - they’re transforming their workforce into faster, more capable, more efficient contributors.

If you'd like frameworks, dashboards, or templates for designing a First Time to Impact measurement model for your team, I’d be happy to share them.

- Avner