How Learning Drives Software Adoption and Business Value: Insights from Ashley Hodge of Siemens
Organizations invest heavily in technology, but purchasing software doesn’t guarantee employees will use it effectively. Realizing the value of that investment requires people to develop new skills, adapt their workflows, and continue learning as technology evolves.
For learning leaders, this raises an important question: How do you demonstrate that learning contributes to the success of a technology investment?
In this episode of TrainingPros’ Learning Leader Spotlight, host Kelley Kalbas talks with Ashley Hodge, Senior Director of Learning Services at Siemens, about connecting learning to customer success, preparing for an AI-enabled future, and finding professionals who understand both learning and technology.
What Should L&D Leaders Measure
to Demonstrate the Value of Technology Training?
Quick Answer:
Training completions tell you who participated, but not whether the technology investment is paying off. Ashley Hodge suggests looking at whether employees can perform the intended tasks, become proficient with the software, and reach productivity faster. These measures, combined with adoption data and the organization’s business goals, help L&D leaders evaluate whether training is contributing to the outcomes the technology was purchased to achieve.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why software adoption requires continuous learning rather than one-time training.
- How to connect learning to technology adoption and measurable business outcomes.
- Where AI could change personalized learning and employee reskilling.
- Why certain combinations of learning, technology, and business expertise are difficult to find.
- How leadership coaching can help L&D professionals contribute more confidently.
Learning Is Part of the Technology Investment
As head of Siemens’ global learning services organization, Ashley oversees learning platforms, content design and development, operations, go-to-market activities, and regional learning delivery. Her team’s mission is to help customers build the capabilities they need to use Siemens software successfully.
That responsibility doesn’t end when the software launches. As Siemens introduces new capabilities and customers’ needs evolve, Ashley’s team must maintain learning content, gather feedback, and continually improve the learning experience. This approach offers an important lesson for corporate L&D teams supporting technology implementations.
Training is often concentrated around a system launch, but employees need support long after implementation. New features, changing workflows, and evolving responsibilities create ongoing learning needs.
The opportunity for L&D is to become a continuing partner in technology adoption rather than simply delivering training before go-live.
Measuring Learning Impact Through Business Outcomes
One of the most interesting aspects of Ashley’s role is how closely learning connects to customer outcomes. When Kelley asks how Siemens measures the value of its learning services, Ashley acknowledges that measurement remains challenging.
Her team works to connect learning with software adoption and business outcomes. Doing that requires collaboration with sales and other customer-facing teams that understand the customer’s goals and have access to relevant data.
Ashley describes several questions that help guide measurement:
- Are users becoming proficient with the technology?
- Can they perform the tasks the software is intended to support?
- Are they becoming productive faster?
- Is the organization realizing value from its software investment?
These questions shift the focus from what training delivered to what people can accomplish afterward. For L&D leaders, the takeaway is that meaningful measurement often requires partnerships beyond the learning department. Understanding the business objective and gaining access to performance data are essential to demonstrating learning’s contribution.
Listen around 4:57 to hear Ashley explain how her team works with other business functions to connect learning with customer outcomes.
Business Metrics Every Instructional Designer Should Know
Continuous Learning in an AI-Enabled Workplace
Ashley believes the definition of learning is changing. With information increasingly available at the moment of need, learning is no longer limited to classrooms, courses, or formal programs.
Looking ahead five to ten years, she expects learning to become more integrated into everyday work. AI could accelerate this shift by making learning more personalized, recognizing what individuals already know, identifying what they need next, and delivering relevant information when it’s needed.
But Ashley emphasizes that the pace of technological change also creates a need for continuous reskilling. Rather than treating development as something employees complete during onboarding or when transitioning into a new role, organizations will need to support learning throughout people’s careers.
The conversation also touches on a related challenge: preparing employees to work alongside AI agents. As AI becomes part of everyday workflows, organizations will need to rethink the capabilities employees require and how learning can support those changes.
For L&D leaders, this means looking beyond AI tools for content development and considering how AI will change the work employees perform. Ashley’s perspective on continuous reskilling is especially worth hearing.
Listen around 6:18–7:30 for her thoughts on how learning may evolve over the next few years.
The Talent Challenge: Finding People Who
Understand Learning, Technology, and Business
Building a learning organization that supports complex technology requires an unusual combination of skills. When Kelley asks which positions are hardest to fill, Ashley identifies two challenges.
Combining Technical Knowledge with Learning Design Expertise
The first is finding professionals who understand both sophisticated software and effective learning design. Technical experts may know a product inside and out but lack the instructional design skills to create effective learning experiences. Experienced learning professionals may be excellent designers but unfamiliar with the complexity of enterprise software. Finding professionals who can bridge those disciplines isn’t easy.
Finding Learning Professionals Who Can Sell Solutions
The second challenge is finding people who can architect customized learning solutions and communicate their value to customers. These professionals must understand customer requirements, design solutions that meet those needs, and demonstrate why customers should invest in larger learning programs.
Ashley describes this as a relatively small talent pool.
While her organization operates within a software company, the challenges are relevant to corporate L&D teams. Not every team member needs all these capabilities, but learning leaders need access to the right combination of technical expertise, learning design, and business acumen. That may mean developing existing employees, hiring specialists, or engaging experienced consultants for projects requiring capabilities not available internally.
A Leadership Lesson: Recognizing the Value You Bring
Beyond technology and business outcomes, Ashley shares a personal lesson from working with leadership coach Natalia Harm. The experience helped her stop questioning whether she belonged in certain meetings and focus instead on the value she could contribute.
It’s a perspective many L&D leaders may recognize as they work to establish themselves as strategic business partners. Ashley also recommends The AI-Driven Leader by Geoff Woods, describing how she uses its frameworks to approach AI as a strategic thought partner rather than simply another productivity tool.
Listen around 9:10 for Ashley’s reflections on leadership confidence and the advice that changed her perspective.
Key Takeaways for Learning Leaders:
- Plan beyond implementation. Technology adoption requires ongoing learning support as software and workflows evolve.
- Measure what people can do. Connect learning to proficiency, productivity, adoption, and business outcomes.
- Prepare for continuous reskilling. AI and technological change will make ongoing capability development increasingly important.
- Build complementary expertise. Effective technology learning requires a mix of instructional design, technical knowledge, and business skills.
- Recognize your strategic value. Learning leaders have an important role in helping organizations adapt to technological change.
Listen to the Full Conversation
Hear Ashley Hodge discuss her work at Siemens, the future of continuous learning, and the leadership lessons that have shaped her career.
Listen to the complete Learning Leader Spotlight episode:
Episode Highlights
| Timestamp | Topic |
|---|---|
|
01:27 |
Ashley’s role leading global learning services at Siemens |
|
02:52 |
Why learning content and platforms need continuous improvement |
|
04:10 |
How the definition of learning is changing |
|
04:57 |
Connecting learning to software adoption and business outcomes |
|
06:01 |
AI, personalized learning, and continuous reskilling |
|
08:32 |
Preparing employees to work alongside AI agents |
|
09:10 |
Leadership coaching and recognizing your value |
|
10:47 |
Finding professionals with learning, technology, and business expertise |
|
13:31 |
Using AI as a strategic thought partner |
Related Learning Leader Spotlight Episodes
Sarai Jacko — Why L&D Belongs at the Business Table – https://trainingpros.com/podcast-summary-why-learning-development-belongs-at-the-business-table-sarai-jacko/
Stagility: How L&D Leaders Can Navigate AI-Driven Change with Ashley Corcoran of The Home Depot – https://trainingpros.com/podcast-summary-stagility-how-ld-leaders-can-navigate-ai-driven-change-with-ashley-corcoran-of-the-home-depot/
Jennifer Baker – Rewriting the L&D Playbook for AI: Closing the Gap Between Training and Performance — https://trainingpros.com/podcast-summary-rewriting-the-ld-playbook-for-ai-closing-the-gap-between-training-and-performance-with-jennifer-baker-of-foot-locker/
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