100+ Learning and Development Statistics To Help Guide Your Strategy

Want the complete wrap up of learning and development strategies? You’ve come to the right place.

Learning isn’t just a tick box.

The real value of learning is its impact on measurable business outcomes.

From boosting employee engagement to directly impacting a company’s bottom line, smart L&D strategies are proving their worth.

To help, we’ve rounded up as many learning and development statistics we can find that could help you build an L&D strategy that’ll get sign off.

Keep reading to learn: 

• Key learning and development statistics 
• How learners use the LMS
• The importance of skills in the workplace
• Onboarding statistics 
• Employee retention statistics 
• Remote working statistics 
• Statistics around digital skills 
• Skills gap statistics 
• Reskilling vs upskilling statistics 

Let’s get started. 

🔑 Key learning and development statistics 

Just want a TL;DR of the most important learning and development statistics?

Related: Complete guide to learning and development

Understanding learning and development goes beyond just creating learning content.

All of your work needs to come back to improving key goals. Whether that’s engagement, retention or better onboarding.

Here are some stats that can help you refocus.

1. L&D teams aligned to organisational goals has fallen 10%

L&D not matching organisational goals is a worrying prospect. But we can’t say we’re surprised. Teams are struggling with outdated tools and outdated strategies that no longer work.

And now, more than ever, they’re overloaded with work as technology changes and processes evolve, meaning they’re chasing their tails to keep up with creating learning content.

So what needs to change?

50% of the metrics L&D use for success are classed as vanity metrics

LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report revealed the things like employee engagement, completion rates and course numbers still lead the way.

But what about the direct influence of learning on our learners? We’re still to see those statistics dominate the charts.

Moving to a talent experience platform (TXP) could be the solution.

2. Lack of time and engagement are the biggest L&D barriers

Is this surprising to anyone reading out there? Probably not.

Time and engagement has always been a huge barrier for L&D teams.

And it’s one that isn’t going away.

Look into gamification, engagement options like forums and knowledge sharing, and other add-on features to encourage a bit of sentiment between learners and your platform.

3. Only 9% of people said they were vulnerable to poaching

Employee retention is a statistic a lot of companies pay mind to, and for good reason.

And while few said they were vulnerable to being poached or headhunted, this doesn’t highlight how many employees are considering leaving on their own. 

In fact, we found that employees need a better reason to stay

4. 82% of organisations now use LMS to optimise their training initiatives

As an LMS, this is great to see. But it’s not the be-all-and-end-all.

While organisations might be using an LMS, who is to say if it’s actually saving them time and creating better learning experiences?

🎯Pro Tip

In fact, that’s exactly what we say. We know how to save L&D professionals time within the LMS. It’s a key way to achieve better results as it means your team can spend time on what truly matters.

How an LMS can help you achieve your goals

5. Replacing an employee comes at a significant cost, amounting to approximately 33% of their annual salary

Salaries are going up, as is training new starters.

Retaining talent, especially your top talent, has never been so important.

6. By 2025, the value of the onboarding software market is expected to reach $1.35 billion

But it’s a worthy investment.

Investing in onboarding can result in better retention, which means less budget wasted on training new staff, and more time put into achieving more as a team.

7. Nearly all of the top 10 most valuable skills for the 2030 market in the US and the UK are workplace skills, according to Pearson and Nester

Do you know which skills are the most important for your team members? Or even, for your business?

Targeting the right skills can help you teams, and employees, achieve at a exponentially higher rate.

After all, it is called learning and development, right?

8. When it comes to employee priorities, career goals took the lead

In fact, it jumped up by 15%.

And it’s no surprise.

Employees don’t want to feel like one small cog in a big wheel.  Instead, they want to feel like they’re progressing in their career.

Whether that’s promotions and pay rises, or just learning new skills. Invest in your people and they will invest in you.

9. 60% of online learning costs can be attributed to travel for larger organisations

Lots of learning takes place offline.

But when learning costs are so heavily attributed to travel, you need to reassess its impact.

Learning ROI is already difficult to track.

Justifying high travel costs and full days out of work on training can be tricky. It’s why blended learning can be so useful. 

How learners use an LMS

In our State of L&D report, we looked at how real-life learners use their LMSs.

That meant compiling thousands of data points to fully understand, who was logging in when, when courses were being completed, and so much.

1. The average LMS login rate in 2024 was 33%

We found, on average, across all of our customers, and across the entire year, the average login rate to an LMS was 33%. 

However, of course, this number changed on a month by month basis:

Month	Login rate (%)
Jan	44
Feb	38
Mar	41
Apr	37
May	35
Jun	37
Jul	30
Aug	19
Sep	35
Oct	33
Nov	31
Dec	19

2. January is the best month for LMS engagement 

As you can see from the table above, January had the highest login in engagement per user in 2024. 

You’re back from the Christmas break and ready to kick off the new year. Chances are you’re pushing L&D initiatives as a company and so learners are quick to get engaged before the to-do list starts growing.

3. August and December are the worst months for LMS engagement 

While January was the best, August and December were tied for worst in terms of LMS logins, with just 19% of users logging in.

August and December are both the months of holidays; summer and Christmas.

So maybe learners distracted, or simply out of office. 

4. Quarter one is key for learner development 

On average, Q1 is a vital period for L&D professionals to invest in their LMS. 

Use the new year as a marketing hook to really drive LMS engagement and drive new course enrolments and completions.

Of course, that doesn’t mean forget about all the other months, but it’s clear that Q1 presents a real opportunity for growth.

The importance of skills in the workplace 

Practical skills, or hard skills, are on the rise as we know. But what about soft skills? 

Here are a few statistics on the importance of skills, in particular soft skills. 

1. According to Josh Bersin, 89% of workers surveyed said bad hires typically have poor soft skills
2. 92% of talent professionals and hiring managers agree that candidates with strong soft skills are increasingly important
3. Leadership soft skills are considered the most important soft skill for managers in the workplace to possess, followed by verbal communication and teamwork skills
4. And nearly a third of UK adults believe empathy is the most important soft skill their manager could possess.
5. Using a skills-based approach predicts job success for entry-level employees five times better than education requirements. 
6. LinkedIn saw a 21% increase in job postings advertising skills and responsibilities instead of qualifications and requirements
7. The number of positions that don’t require a degree increased by nearly 40%
8. Companies that excel at internal mobility because of a skills-based approach retain employees for an average of 5.4 years, nearly twice as long as other companies
9. 87% of workers believe they need to develop new skills throughout their working lives to keep up with changes
10. 41% of respondents recognise that they have the skills they need to thrive for a maximum of four years
11. Employees who feel that their skills are not being put to good use in their current job are 10 times more likely to be looking for a new job
12. Only 47% of workers surveyed think that their company is making a significant investment in their professional development
13. Less than 40% of executives are happy with their organisation’s investment in their development
14. An estimated 20% of the workforce in the UK will be significantly underskilled for their jobs by 2030
15. The world will need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030 because of technology-led changes in the workplace
16. 58% of the workforce needs new skills to get their jobs done
17. The skill sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015. By 2027, this number is expected to double
18. 54% of companies globally are struggling to find skilled workers – the highest in a decade
19. 74% of CEOs were concerned about the availability of key skills

L&D onboarding statistics

The value of the onboarding software market is expected to reach $1.35 billion by 2025. 

Meanwhile, the UK economy loses £340 billion because of disengaged employees every year. 

But are companies making the most of their onboarding process?  

Here are some important onboarding statistics to take note of: 

1. More than 76% of HR professionals feel their company underutilises onboarding
2. But 36% of HR professionals believe that inadequate technology leaves them unable to streamline their onboarding processes
3. 21% said outstanding onboarding helped their organisation meet revenue goals
4. 49% said new hires were more engaged at work
5. 46% said new hires were more confident in their roles
6. Around 4 in 5 employees believe onboarding programs help them integrate and understand company culture
7. 77% of employees believe that easy access to information helps keep them productive and engaged at work
8. 35% of companies have no formal onboarding program 
9. In fact, 35% of companies spend zero dollars on onboarding
10. 81% of new hires say they feel overwhelmed with information during the onboarding process
11. On average, new hires are given between 10 and 40 tasks to complete
12. New hires are expected to have an onboarding timeline of two weeks
13. More than 93% of employers believe that onboarding plays a critical role in an employee’s decision to stay or leave the company
14. 70% of employees who liked and excelled at their jobs had a streamlined onboarding experience
15. A good onboarding experience improves long-term job satisfaction by more than 2.6 times
16. The average onboarding cost is $1830 per hire. 
17. Only 12% of employees feel that their organization provides a good onboarding program

Employee retention statistics

Employee retention is a key concern for business leaders. But there’s plenty you can do to support better retention. 

Don’t believe us? 

Here are some employee retention statistics to back us up: 

1. According to research, the UK average employee turnover rate is 15%
2. On top of that, over 40,000 searches are made each month in Google UK for “resignation letter template” as of 2023
3. 15% of people who resign from a job state feeling “unmotivated” as a reason
4. The UK employment rate was estimated at 75.9% in January to March 2023
5. Over 320,000 people handed in their notice for a role in Q1 of 2023
6. According to Glassdoor, onboarding improves a company’s retention rate by 82% when do properly 
7. 79% of employees say onboarding programs help them integrate and understand company culture
8. Organisations with strong employee onboarding can increase retention by 82%
9. 65% of employees are confident they can find a better position elsewhere that offers more compensation
10. 23% of new hires turnover before their first anniversary
11. 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding
12. 23% of employees who quit within 6 months say that clear guidelines on their responsibilities would have helped them stay at the job
13. For jobs paying less than £30,000 per year, you should expect it to cost your business 16% of the annual salary to replace that member of staff
14. Feeling unmotivated was the most common reason for quitting a job in 2022
15. 40% of individuals choose to leave their jobs due to dissatisfaction with the performance of their superiors
16. 96% of employees believe that empathy is a crucial element for job retention. 

Remote working statistics 

Not to state the obvious, but remote working has increased in the last few years. 

We all know why. 

But how does this change the world of work? And more importantly, how can L&D support? 

Here are some interesting remote working statistics that could help: 

1. 60% of onboarding takes place digitally
2. 39% of employees received the right level of support during remote onboarding, but 18% said they received no support at all
3. The number of employees working in a remote capacity has grown by 44% in the last five years
4. Remote employees who received comprehensive onboarding were 18% more likely to feel satisfied with their job, compared to those who did not
5. Virtual employees are 35% to 40% more productive than their in-office counterparts
6. 58% of companies have provided hardware to help employees onboard and work remotely, the hardest part of remote onboarding going forward will be employee evaluation
7. 39% of employees would take another job if they could work entirely remotely

Stats around digital skills

With the rise of remote working, and of course with the technology boom we’ve been part of, it’s no surprise that digital skills are cropping up on job descriptions. 

But how can L&D support learners to up their digital skills? 

And why is it important to make them a priority? 

Here are a few key statistics around digital skills you may want to consider: 

1. 27% of UK workers say that they lack the sufficient digital skills required for their job role
2. 58% of workers said that a lack of digital skills has affected them negatively in the workplace. 
3. According to workers, employers aren’t providing them with training to improve their skills
4. 88% of young people (aged 16-24) think that digital skills will be essential to their careers. 
5. Plus, by 2025, COVID-19-related economic uncertainty as well as increased digitisation will result in 85 million displaced jobs worldwide and create 97 million new ones.

And so, you can see the future scope of digital skills and why it’s an essential thing to invest in. 

Skills gap statistics 

We know that the skills landscape is changing. 

So do businesses. 

But where exactly is the skills gap at? And what is it causing and caused by? 

Here are some key skills gap statistics that might help: 

1. 46% of business leaders said the skills gap has been wider at their organisation since 2021
2. 87% of executives said they were experiencing skill gaps in the workforce or expected them within a few years
3. But less than half of the respondents were clear about how they planned to address the problem
4. 83% of HR leaders reported that they had trouble recruiting suitable candidates in the preceding 12 months, with 75% of those reporting recruitment difficulties saying that they believed there was a skills shortage among their applicants
5. For workers who will remain in their roles till 2025, the share of core skills that will change is 40%, and 50% of all employees will need reskilling. 

Reskilling vs upskilling statistics 

Reskilling is a growing trend in the workplace, especially considering the expanding skills gap. 

But what’s the argument for reskilling vs upskilling? 

These reskilling statistics might help tell the tale more accurately: 

1. According to Go Globe, up to 1.4 million workers will need reskilling by 2026
2. 79% of L&D professionals agree that it is less expensive to reskill a current employee than to hire a new one
3. 74% of organisations say reskilling their workforce is important or very important to their success over the next 12-18 months, while just over half say that between half and all their workforce will need to change their skills and capabilities in the next three years
4. For up to 70% of employees, their job type will cease to exist
5. In 2020, Amazon announced it was investing more than $700 million to provide upskilling training to its employees. 
6. In 2019, JP Morgan Chase announced that it would invest $350 million to upskill its workforce
7. 74% of employees are ready to learn new skills or re-train to remain employable in the future so make the most of your talent pool and develop them where appropriate. 

Wrapping up 

As you can see, there are a lot of factors to consider when you’re building your learning strategy.

Most importantly, do you have time to concentrate on what truly matters?

Many L&D professionals we work with tell us that they used to waste too much time on busywork that took them away from: 

• Content creation 
• Strategy 
• Supporting learners 

With the right tools in place, you can do the same.

Learn more about how BuildEmpire can help you save time to focus on what matters, or skip straight to the good stuff and book a demo. 

You’ll see our platform in full, plus get an idea of how we use Totara, and what custom applications we’ve created.