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Mark Phelps is chief engagement enthusiast at TNS Employee Insights, where he heads up the consulting function and is involved in new client development. Prior to TNS Mark worked for Development Dimensions International (DDI), where he led the R&D team that designed DDI’s newest leadership development series, Interaction Management: Exceptional Leaders. For more information, connect with Mark at www.linkedin.com/in/markiphelps.

Mark Phelps

Mark Phelps explains why leadership development and employee engagement initiatives are two sides of the same coin.

Development and Engagement: Casual Friends or Joined at the Hip?

March 2014 - Global-HRD-Newsletter-Spanish

Perdidos en la Traducción

March 2014 - TD Magazine

Lost in Translation

Mark Bashrum is vice president of corporate marketing and strategic intelligence for ESI International, a global project-focused training company which helps people improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements, and vendors.

Mark Bashrum

Mark Horoszowski is the co-founder and CEO at MovingWorlds, a social enterprise that helps companies achieve their ESG targets by educating and engaging employees. Mark has been published in HBR, SSIR, and more for his insights on educating employees to lead in a world the prioritized sustainability and equity. 

Mark Horoszowski

Mark Greenberg has been with Caliper since 1993. In his current role as president and CEO, he spearheads Caliper’s overall strategic direction and helps position the company for future growth by working collaboratively with all areas of the organization. Mark has a long history with Caliper, and his expertise includes a deep understanding of the Caliper instrument and how to use it to help clients from the selection through the succession of talent. Mark also serves on Caliper’s Board of Directors. Prior to working with Caliper, Mark spent 10 years in the sales and management arena, including a five-year period managing a location for Berlitz language schools, as well as a five-year stint working for the federal government. Mark obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science at Pitzer College and an MBA in marketing at George Washington University. He also holds teaching certifications for elementary education, social studies, and business education.

Mark Greenberg

For years, corporate training platforms were built to deliver content. Upload the course, assign it to learners, mark completion, and move on. But in 2025, that approach won’t cut it anymore.Learning leaders are expected to do far more than distribute information. You’re being asked to prove business impact, keep pace with skills disruption, and engage busier and more discerning learners than ever. Your role has shifted from administrator to strategist, and the tools you use need to keep up.That’s why the learning management system (LMS) you choose matters. The right platform doesn’t just host courses; it helps you shape a skilled, agile, and future-ready workforce. Here are five features to look for in an LMS to help you deliver on that promise.1. Role-Based Learning PathsOne-size-fits-all training wastes everyone’s time. New hires don’t need the same content as senior leaders. Contractors shouldn’t wade through courses designed for permanent staff. An LMS that supports role-based learning paths lets you design targeted, relevant, and consistent journeys without tripling your workload.For L&D professionals, this means you can stop reinventing the wheel for every team or department. Instead, you’re free to focus on aligning learning to business goals, confident that the system will handle the logistics of assigning the right content to the right people.2. AI-Powered InsightsExecutives aren’t impressed by completion rates. They want to know whether learning programs are helping people ramp faster, perform better, or stay longer. An LMS with AI-driven insights transforms data into a clear picture of how learning drives performance.This is what allows you to walk into the boardroom with confidence. Instead of defending your budget, you’re demonstrating workforce readiness, surfacing skills gaps before they become problems, and showing how learning directly drives performance.3. Mobile and Flexible Learning ExperiencesYour learners are juggling packed calendars and competing priorities. If training doesn’t fit into their reality, it won’t get done. That’s why flexibility matters. An LMS designed for today’s workforce supports learning anytime, anywhere, whether that’s mobile-first modules during a commute, asynchronous courses for distributed teams, or blended options for complex topics.For you, this isn’t just about convenience. It’s about engagement. When learning feels accessible and relevant, learners stick with it. And when they stick with it, your programs deliver the outcomes you’ve promised.4. Seamless Integrations With HR and Business SystemsYou didn’t get into L&D to spend your days managing spreadsheets. Yet for too many teams, manual enrollment and disconnected systems waste time and energy that should be spent on strategy. A modern LMS changes that.When your platform integrates directly with HRIS and CRM systems, enrollment happens automatically, data flows where it needs to, and reporting is streamlined. The result is less administrative overhead, more consistency across the organization, and more space for you to focus on designing programs that actually move the needle.5. Credentialing and Skills Validation“Completed” doesn’t mean “capable.” In an environment where skills gaps can slow productivity and derail growth, leaders need clear visibility into what their workforce can actually do. An LMS that supports credentialing—through digital badges, certificates, or role-specific pathways—gives you that clarity.For learners, these credentials act as milestones that motivate progress and prove value. For organizations, they provide a reliable signal of workforce readiness. For you, they’re evidence that the programs you’ve designed build real, transferable skills that matter in the workplace.The Bottom LineAs an L&D leader, every course you design is an investment in your organization’s future. To do that, you need tools that help you prove impact, scale programs efficiently, and meet learners where they are.The right LMS makes that possible. The right platform becomes the backbone of workforce growth, helping you build skills, demonstrate impact, and position learning as a growth engine.

5 LMS Features Every L&D Leader Needs in 2025

Learn how to bridge the divide between learning and business strategy. Explore the importance of linking learning to business outcomes, effective learning evaluation strategies, and achieving learning ROI.Get ready for a startling statistic: ATD’s 2025 research report, The Future of Evaluating Learning and Measuring Impact: Improving Skills and Addressing Challenges, found that only 4 percent of organizations excel at using learning data to inform business decisions. L&D professionals are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of their initiatives, yet outdated measurement methods and fragmented systems often hinder their ability to prove learning impact. This devastatingly low number highlights a significant disconnect in how companies leverage learning to drive strategic outcomes. It also begs an important question: What if learning could transform from a perceived cost center into a catalyst for tangible business growth? Why This Gap ExistsThere are several factors that contribute to the divide between learning and business strategy. A common obstacle is the over-reliance on “smile sheets” and participation data—sure, they count who showed up, but old-fashioned feedback forms fail to capture the true impact of learning on performance. Plus, many organizations struggle to get access to performance-related data because it’s scattered everywhere, making training feel separate from actual work. According to McKinsey research, L&D managers often spend a disproportionate amount of time—nearly one full day a week—on administrative tasks, leaving little room for strategic initiatives. These challenges weaken the link between L&D activities and strategic business outcomes, making it difficult to demonstrate learning ROI and secure stakeholder buy-in. The Case for Linking Learning to Business StrategyOur findings reveal that only 43 percent of organizations report a strong alignment between learning and business goals. That’s a pretty big gap! However, when learning is linked to business strategy, L&D teams gain:Better stakeholder buy-in: Stakeholders who see a clear connection between learning programs and critical business objectives are more likely to champion L&D’s efforts and provide the necessary support.Increased investment in L&D: Companies that recognize learning as a strategic driver of success are more willing to allocate budget and resources to adopt innovative technologies, high-quality content, and a talent development strategy that helps employees thrive.More meaningful learning initiatives: By understanding the specific knowledge and skills that employees need to reach business targets, L&D can create programs that actually hit the mark. This means tackling those skill gaps head-on, boosting how well people perform, and ultimately getting the results the company’s aiming for. Strategic alignment isn’t just about planning; it’s about demonstrating measurable impact and showing how your learning initiatives contribute directly to KPIs. If learning is tied to the company’s goals, L&D goes from being a support team to a key player in making the organization successful. What High-Performing L&D Teams Do DifferentlyProficient organizations, as defined by the ATD 2025 research report, are all about using data. They don’t just look at training feedback but also track performance and business results from at least four different sources. This helps them see how training makes things like productivity, quality, customer happiness, and sales better.These companies are also great at communicating data effectively to stakeholders. They use dashboards and charts to make it easy for leaders to see how training pays off. Plus, they tell stories with the data, showing wins and areas to improve, which gets everyone on board with training.What they do best is start with the company’s goals. They work backward to figure out what skills people need to hit business KPIs, then design training to match. This way, training becomes a key part of making the business succeed and staying ahead of the game.Embedding Learning Where Work HappensSolutions like Learn365 LMS are emerging to help L&D teams close the gap by embedding learning directly into Microsoft 365 tools like Teams, Outlook, and Power BI. This strategic embedding fundamentally shifts the paradigm of workplace training. Instead of isolated, scheduled events, learning evolves into an organic process that’s a natural, trackable part of employees’ workday. Using AI-powered personalized learning pathways and incorporating sophisticated built-in analytics, these platforms enable smarter measurement and a tighter alignment of learning initiatives with strategic business goals. Ultimately, this maximizes learning ROI and fosters a culture of continuous growth within your organization.Is Your Learning Strategy Aligned?It’s time to rethink how your organization measures learning impact and identify opportunities for improvement. Is your learning strategy truly connected to your business strategy? Explore how tools like Learn365 are empowering L&D professionals to translate insights into outcomes, creating learning that transforms rather than just informs. 

Mind the Gap: Closing the Distance Between Learning and Business Strategy

Mary Camuto ’s first book, Make the Most of Your Workday: Be More Productive, Engaged, and Satisfied as You Conquer the Chaos at Work, has been published by Career Press. While Mary did not plan to specialize in chaos, this subject became a major focus when the American Management Association asked her to facilitate a popular course in 2004 called “Managing Chaos: Tools to set Priorities and Make Decisions Under Pressure.”Mary helps her clients build the connection between an organization’s goals and its culture, leader, and employee training. Her experience working at both the organization and individual levels has formed the basis for her approach to training and also for writing an empowering book for individuals. Make the Most of Your Workday was written to help any individual who longs for a better workday. This book will also benefit teams and leaders through collective strategies, tools, and common language to improve engagement and eliminate some chaos.Mary founded MC Consulting, a firm specializing in leadership and organization development, training design, and group facilitation services in 2002. Her clients have included individuals, teams, executives in the energy, telecommunications, and healthcare industries as well as nonprofit, legal, local, federal government organizations and government contractors. Mary has designed course material and facilitates for the American Management Association. She is passionate about helping organizations connect the dots between their results and collaborative work cultures, accountability, training, and development. Mary is also dedicated to helping individuals to take charge of their own workday happiness.

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