Measuring the Impact of Training
Paradoxically, we find that many of the top learning organizations are rarely required to justify the impact of their work. Top learning organizations closely link their efforts to the needs and strategies of the business, and gain the support of senior management who see the inherent value of learning to organizational performance and alignment.
Lagging training organizations feel compelled to justify the value of their work. Instead of searching for models to measure the relevance of what they do, their challenge must be to link their efforts more closely to the business drivers so that their value will not continually be under question.Since measuring the business impact or ROI of training is complex, time-consuming, and costly – another reason it rarely gets done – a measurement strategy that makes sense is to focus on a very small number of mission-critical projects. These projects are often enabling key business strategies, such as revenue growth, globalization, or continuous improvement, so the time and effort required to set up control groups and measure the outcomes of these efforts provide valuable management information. In addition, the business results of such projects are much easier to measure than the bread-and-butter work of L&D, which is providing employees with the skills they need to do their jobs. How do you value that?
