Holly Higham is Global Head of Marketing at Impact
Reflection is one of the four elements of experiential learning, and this is a particularly reflective time of year at Impact, as our annual global client experience survey has just concluded, thanks to the overwhelming response of our 400+ client partners.
We’re delighted that 96% of our clients describe the quality of Impact’s services as either outstanding or excellent. When asked “How likely are you to recommend Impact?” a net promoter score of 82% was backed up with a variety of reasons, including professionalism, creativity, participant satisfaction, and results.
Here's what we learnt from our clients' feedback...
What are your top priorities when choosing an L&D partner?
A human-centred approach.
Something we find every year is that the thing our clients appreciate most about us is our human-centred approach. This year 68% of (free type!) responses referenced the human qualities of working with Impact. Choosing an L&D partner is, as one client put it, also like choosing an "extension of your internal HR team", so it's no surprise that a human-centred approach based on understanding, empathy and trusting relationships is crucial. Moreover, with a lack of social touchpoints recently named as one of the biggest failures of typical leadership development programmes, our emphasis on social connection, peer-based learning and relationship building is key.
"I very much associate Impact with the people, they take the time to understand our business, our goals and us as people. That human touch sets Impact aside from others in the market."
A deep understanding of client needs
Context is everything in learning. So designing custom content to meet specific business objectives requires a deep understanding of the organisation, people, strategy, culture and more. We heard from 39% of clients that Impact people go above and beyond to truly understand their world before creating learning experiences.
“They really spent time trying to understand our needs and our business, so they could design a solution that was perfect for us.”
Quality
The third most-referenced factor this year is a big one, with 38% of client partners writing about Impact's excellent quality. Custom-designed experiential learning must be memorable, consequential and transferable. And to get the required results, excellent facilitation is non-negotiable. Impact have an experienced, international team of designers, consultants and coaches who are highly skilled at facilitating in-the-moment learning, boldly challenging and supporting your people to liberate their potential.
“World-class.” … "High-quality, engaging learning experiences coupled with excellent vendor relationships. A pleasure to work with.”
Flexibility
Finally, 35% of responders referenced our flexible approach as a key differentiator. In a world of rapid change and disruption, the abilities to adapt, respond to change, and continuously improve are especially important. And a learning mindset is key – if your learning programmes aren’t developing and adapting to the context, how can you expect participants to?
“I like the way you have translated our requirements, also showing flexibility when needs change or with new requests. And you do some pretty cool work.”
What are the greatest organisational challenges for 2025?
We also asked our clients about the biggest challenges facing them in the year ahead. The results are incredibly varied, from mergers to multi-generational workplaces, new markets to people retention. But five big themes stood out:
- 28% referenced navigating change and complexity
- 22% referenced a need to build leadership capability
- 22% referenced the tough economic environment we’re operating in
- 17% referenced lean budgets
- 12% referenced managing business growth
Interestingly, when asked if their biggest organisational challenge has changed, 37% said their challenge for the year ahead is new. This adds to the bigger picture, reminding us that learning and development is increasingly about how to equip people with the skills and abilities to drive change in their organisations, in order to adapt to volatile external environments.
Thriving into tomorrow
Many consultancies’ change management approaches focus on lean optimisation and creating economies of scale. But Impact's view is that organisations can only change if people change – and this starts with learning. Creating a human-centred organisation built on trusting relationships, support, challenge and purpose empowers people to develop a learning mindset, and to innovate, thrive and grow. And when people thrive, their organisations thrive. By prioritising learning and putting people at the centre today, businesses will successfully navigate the pressing challenges of tomorrow.