Forrester study: Build the learning ecosystem that powers strategic growth

Organizations know learning is essential, especially for upskilling and future‑proofing talent. But the data shows that believing in learning and building infrastructure for learning are two very different things.

The leaders who pull ahead are winning because they’re building strategic learning ecosystems, where every part of the learning program works together by design, not by accident. It unifies learning tech, content, data, governance, and audiences into one connected architecture. Meanwhile, most L&D teams are expanding programs faster than their infrastructure can track.

To quantify the scale of this gap (and learn how high-performing teams are closing it), Absorb commissioned Forrester Consulting to ask 209 learning leaders:

How can organizations leverage learning programs to drive strategic business outcomes?

The results surfaced three undeniable signals:

• Learning can (and does) deliver strategic business outcomes.
• Organizations adopting new learning use cases are driving deeper business value.
• To achieve strategic impact, learning strategies and technologies must be centralized and working together.

They also surfaced some significant opportunities for organizations to use strategic learning as a catalyst for business growth.

Learning priorities are shifting toward strategic value

“While employee learning completion rates and engagement remain the most common metrics that are measured, a significant number of respondents reported that they are starting to measure more quantifiable metrics — such as ROI, customer retention, and profit margin...”

Learning has outgrown the program‑by‑program mindset. Today’s winning organizations treat it as a growth engine. It’s a connected engine that powers customer education, partner enablement, onboarding, and operational readiness, meaning every employee (or partner, customer, etc.) is trained, equipped, and confident to work without friction.

This is designed for scale, alignment, and measurable business impact.

But most teams haven’t been able to evolve as quickly as things are changing.

AI‑powered content generation and personalized learning are collapsing time‑to‑skill and giving organizations new levels of agility. And with economic pressures forcing tighter budget scrutiny, executives are asking how learning pays off — in revenue, retention, productivity, and customer value.

Learning accelerates personal and business growth and leaders expect the metrics to prove it.

Organizations are expanding learning use cases — but struggling

“A significant portion of organizations are struggling with meeting learning expectations, indicating a need for improvement in this area.”

Learning now spans every operational corner of the business but these use cases only create value when they’re connected. Strategic learning is about creating a unified learning system that compounds impact across the business:

• Compliance
• Customer education
• Partner training
• Product and process training
• Onboarding
• Operational enablement

94–98% of organizations run these programs, but most can't measure whether they work. This report closes that gap.

Leaders want what learning can deliver:

• ROI
• Customer retention
• Improved margins
• Faster productivity
• Stronger engagement

Learners expect more too. They want modern, intuitive experiences that feel connected. But many orgs still treat learning like it’s a pile of files to pass out.

The gap between these realities is an architecture problem. But when organizations close this gap, the results are dramatic in the areas of employee engagement, talent retention, better innovation, and more.

Learning is mission‑critical but it must be a connected ecosystem with strategic oversight

“More than half of respondents revealed that strategically leveraging their learning programs to drive specific business outcomes would be transformative for their organization.”

Leaders believe in learning. They invest in it. They build cultures around it. They celebrate it and fund it per employee. But belief isn’t a strategy.

36% of organizations admit they do not know how to quantify the value of their learning programs — even though 56% of them say thinking more strategically about how they connect to business outcomes would transform their ability to innovate.

Learning can’t be back-of-house in a corner. It is organizational infrastructure and needs to be treated and measured as such.

Why strategic learning stalls

If learning is essential, if leaders believe in it, if employees rely on it, why does it still struggle to deliver strategic impact?

Forrester found three structural barriers.

1. Lack of ecosystem architecture is fracturing learning

“Fragmented, non centralized initiatives make it difficult to use learning as a tool for driving business outcomes as decision-makers lack collective goals, metrics, and data.”

Without shared goals, shared data, and shared governance, learning can only survive as scattered programs and not the integrated ecosystem it needs to be.

Here’s the current landscape:

• Less than half have an integrated, organization-wide learning program.
• Just one in 4 say they have a centralized L&D team.
• And fewer than 1 in 10 have a strategic learning leader, like a CLO.

This leaves learning trapped in departmental silos. Programs operate in parallel vs as a cohesive, connected system. The results:

• Teams work hard but not together.
• Metrics don’t match.
• Data doesn’t connect.

2. Disparate learning tech undermines strategic impact

Most organizations have a fragmented strategy. Worse, they have fragmented tech including homegrown systems, department‑specific tools, or legacy platforms that were never designed to scale. Just over 40% use a centralized learning platform operating as a healthy ecosystem; the rest are juggling a chaotic multiverse of disconnected tools. More than 70% say that having the right learning technology would significantly strengthen their ability to treat learning as strategic.

Most organizations have a stack of disconnected tools—a handful of gears rattling around with nothing linking them together. Without a central gear to anchor content, data, and measurement, building momentum or producing strategic (measurable) growth is hard.

3. Organizations struggle to measure the value of learning

Every respondent acknowledged that it’s hard to measure the value of learning in their organization. The reason for this is simple: You can’t measure a system that doesn’t behave as a system.

Fragmented tools and siloed programs make measurement impossible. Unified tech, data, and metrics makes learning’s business value visible.

Here’s what the data says:

• 44% of learning leaders say their metrics aren’t standardized across departments.
• 61% run separate learning programs with separate goals, making it impossible to roll up into one accurate picture.
• Only 7% have one strategic owner responsible for all learning efforts.

A cohesive program with consistent data, shared metrics, and centralized reporting can directly connect learning to business value.

Learning as overhead or learning as an operating system?

Organizations with a connected learning ecosystem don’t ask this question. The framework answers it for them through revenue impact, faster readiness, and measurable growth. The Forrester study outlines a clear system for turning learning into a well-oiled business engine:

• Actions being taken to make learning a more strategic priority
• Benefits of using learning to drive business outcomes
• Top tech attributes needed to support strategic learning

But if your current learning model shows gaps, those gaps create massive opportunities.

Download the study to learn more about how to connect your learning strategy to revenue, retention, and operational performance.