What’s your L&D maturity model level?

Take our free self-assessment to understand your organization’s L&D maturity level. See how your organization ranks against industry standards, pinpoint critical areas to improve your L&D strategy and explore how competitors leverage L&D to save resources and drive productivity.

L&D maturity model self-assessment

Take the L&D maturity model self-assessment

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your organization’s L&D strategy is key to building a successful organization. With the L&D maturity model, you can see how your strategy measures up against industry benchmarks and standards:

60-second survey to assess your organization’s L&D maturity
Identify strengths, risks, and opportunities for organizational growth
See how industry leaders leverage L&D to save resources and drive productivity
Pinpoint critical areas to improve your L&D strategy
Download an executive takeaway with industry statistics, insights, and infographics

Upon completing the self-assessment you will receive a detailed report including your results, relative to industry averages. As well as further information on your L&D maturity model level, critical risks and opportunities, as well as next steps to improve your L&D strategy.

Why L&D maturity matters

Ensuring your organization has a strong L&D function has two (enormous) benefits. First, it helps your HR or L&D team stay on top of training, development, and growing business needs with ease. Second, a high L&D maturity allows your organization to attract, develop, and retain talent to maintain your competitive edge on the market and cultivate a great business culture.

36%

of HR professionals say they don’t have adequate technology to support their role.

People Development Report

26

hours are lost per month by HR stuck performing manual tasks and busywork, 1.3 hours per day on average each week.

Too much to do, too little time

76%

of employees say they are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training.

Redefining the employee lifecycle

What is learning maturity

Learning maturity refers to how well an organization’s learning and development function aligns with and supports its strategic goals. This might be ensuring 100% compliance, achieving rapid new hire onboarding, or raising employee engagement and retention through dedicated training and development paths. Ultimately, learning maturity comes down to how effectively learning initiatives contribute to both employee development and business outcomes.

Organizations with higher L&D maturity see significantly better results, including higher employee engagement, improved productivity, lower turnover, and increased ability to adapt to market changes. At the same time, mature L&D strategies allow HR and L&D teams to better manage training in a way that saves time and resources.

What is a learning maturity model

The learning maturity model, or L&D maturity model, provides a framework for organizations to assess the current state of their learning and development functions. It maps out the stages of maturity that organizations typically go through as they grow and expand their workforce. By understanding where your organization ranks on this model, you can identify gaps, risks, and opportunities to improve your L&D strategy.

Of course, all organizations are different. They vary in terms of size, industry, objectives, and needs regarding internal training. However, whether your organization is starting with just a single person in an HR role, or an entire department dedicated to learning and development, the L&D maturity model provides a frame to understand the needs, risks, and benefits that can come from a consistent approach to employee training.

Now that we’ve covered what the L&D maturity model is, let’s take a look at each of the learning maturity stages in turn. Here’s a breakdown of the five key stages of L&D maturity:

Level 1: Ad hoc

At the ad hoc level, learning initiatives are disorganized and reactive. Training is often delivered in response to immediate needs, such as compliance or performance issues, without a clear long-term plan. There’s little to no integration between training programs, and learning outcomes are not tracked effectively.

Organizations in the ad hoc stage often face high costs, compliance risks, and inefficiencies due to the lack of structure and planning. Training is not yet prioritized, or is struggling to pull the necessary time and resources.

Level 2: Reactive

In the reactive stage, organizations recognize the importance of effective training but still lack the tools and resources to train with efficiency. Training programs are implemented in response to specific problems or needs, such as updated to compliance regulations or requests from managers and leadership.

While reactive organizations may have more formalized training processes than those in the ad hoc stage, they still operate in silos. Training programs often miss key areas, are difficult to update, or are of mixed quality. This can limit long-term growth and costs HR and L&D teams time (and sanity) to maintain and promote.

Level 3: Growing

Organizations at the growing stage begin to align their L&D efforts with business goals. They recognize the strategic value of learning and start to invest more in employee development. Training programs become more structured, data-driven, and focused on improving both individual and organizational performance.

At this stage, L&D teams often adopt learning technologies such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) to track progress and measure outcomes. This allows HR and L&D teams to automate core training workflows, although there are often still difficulties with juggling multiple platforms for different HR purposes. While scaling, organizations start to explore ways to support employee development and put a focus on retention, while building a learning culture across the organization.

Level 4: Mature

Organizations in the mature stage have well-established learning frameworks that are tightly integrated with business objectives. Training is proactive and tailored to the organization’s needs. Learning is available in multiple formats (online, in-person, blended), and is designed to be flexible and scalable.

These organizations are able to support individual development planning and have access to quality training courses. L&D is viewed as a key enabler of business success, with a strong focus on employee engagement and productivity. However, there may be difficulty remaining in proving ROI on key L&D initiatives, and accessing data to connect learning goals with organizational skills gaps or performance management goals.

Level 5: Strategic

At the strategic level, L&D is a core component of business strategy. Organizations at this stage have fully integrated learning ecosystems that not only support but drive business innovation and growth. Employees are empowered to take ownership of their learning, and there’s a strong culture of continuous development at every level of the organization.

Strategic organizations leverage cutting-edge technologies to create adaptive, personalized learning experiences. Learning is data-driven and linked to performance outcomes, ensuring that every development initiative is aligned with future business needs. Organizations at this level lead their industries in innovation, employee engagement, and retention.

Determining your L&D maturity model level

To determine your L&D maturity model level, you can take our self-assessment survey. We’ll ask you a few questions to evaluate your current learning practices against key criteria such as alignment with business goals, the use of learning technologies, your main challenges, and the quality of your training programs.

To get you started, here are a few questions to consider:

Learning strategy: Does your organization have a clear, long-term learning strategy that aligns with business goals?
Technology and data: Are you limited by your current tools to deliver, track, and optimize learning programs?
Employee engagement: How engaged are your employees in their own development? Are they motivated to learn and grow within the organization?

Click here to take our L&D maturity model self-assessment and see where your organizations ranks compared to industry benchmarks.

How mature organizations leverage L&D strategies for success

Organizations that rank highly on the L&D maturity model tend to see a similar pattern of success: streamlined workflows, time saved, and better business outcomes in terms of productivity, satisfaction, and retention. Here are 4 key ways mature organizations are able to unlock benefits from sustained investment in their L&D strategy.

Talent retention and attraction

Offering robust learning and development opportunities is a key factor in retaining top talent. It also helps attract new hires, as employees increasingly seek employers that invest in their growth.

Time and resource savings

A streamlined and scalable L&D approach significantly reduces the manual workload on HR teams. By automating processes such as employee onboarding, compliance training, and performance tracking, organizations free up valuable HR resources.

Boosting productivity

By aligning L&D programs with business needs, organizations ensure that employees have the skills and knowledge required to perform at their best, increasing overall productivity.

Future-proofing the organization

High-maturity organizations use L&D to upskill and reskill their workforce, ensuring they are prepared for future challenges, such as digital transformation or shifting industry demands.