Feb
3
Written by:
Chris Osborn
2/3/2011 11:12
AM
It’s impossible
to watch any
news this week
without being
informed about
the winter storm
that hit the
country.
However, even in
the midst of
this big storm,
Punxsutawney
Phil made his
annual
prediction about
the onset of
spring. This
year – Phil is
telling us
spring is near!
The whole event
is a quaint
custom, but we
don’t take the
predictions
seriously – and
for good reason.
The
challenge of
e-learning
metrics
today was
summed up by
Tom Peters,
who said in
an interview
with ASTD,
“I’m 100% in
favor of
measurement
and I’m 100%
terrified of
it because
most of the
time we
measure the
wrong
thing.”
I’ve been
thinking a lot
lately about
predictions and
measurements,
and the
celebration
around
Punxsutawney
Phil
made me look a
little more
closely at just
what sort of
effective
predictors we
can identify
around training
initiatives. As
I see it, there
are three key
pieces of
information you
need to make
reasonable
predictions of
the success of
training
efforts.
-
ROI measured
beyond
simple cost
comparisons
-
Measureable
business
outcomes you
are looking
to
influence.
-
Learning
objectives
designed to
exert the
influence on
outcomes you
desire
Effective ROI
measurements for
training are
more refined
today than ever
before, and you
can find
countless free
ROI calculators
on the web. Most
of the
calculators
focus on the
hard costs
associated with
training
expenses like
travel time,
materials,
facilities, etc.
Truthfully, it’s
fairly easy to
figure out what
you spend on
training. What’s
hard to
calculate and
measure is what
you GET from
these
expenditures.
What the
numerous online
calculators fail
to help you do
is link the
training
expenses to
actual business
results or the
actual
effectiveness of
the training
program.
For instance, if
you are trying
to improve
customer
service, ROI and
the measurement
of the
effectiveness of
the program, it
will depend upon
your ability to
pull meaningful
metrics from
your current
customer service
efforts. Do you
have rankings,
questionnaires,
renewal rates or
other
measurements
that illustrate
business value?
If you have such
metrics, can you
create
benchmarks for
pre and post
training
measurement and
comparison? If
so, you’ve got
the beginnings
of some
meaningful ROI
calculations for
your customer
service training
efforts that go
beyond a simple
costs savings
measurement.
Furthermore,
you’ve laid the
foundation for
understanding
whether your
training efforts
are effectively
performing to
meet your
learning
objectives,
which lead
directly to
making some
reasonable
predictions for
the possible
success of your
training
efforts.
So beyond the
pure expenses
associated with
training, here
are a few things
you might try to
capture as you
look to make
reasonable
predictions of
success.
-
Business
driven
metrics tied
directly to
your
expressed
learning
objectives.
-
Benchmark
data from
BOTH before
and after
training –
again tied
to your
learning
objectives.
-
Survey
information
about how
useful the
training
participants
found the
training
material and
lessons
learned.
Depending upon
the objectives
of your training
program, there
are probably
many other
important pieces
of information
you’ll want and
need to
evaluate. If
you're trying to
predict the
success of your
training
efforts, it's
very important
to be able to
understand and
explain to
stakeholders the
ROI measured
beyond a simple
calculation of
costs for one
program compared
to costs for an
alternative. You
must be able to
look at the
actual business
outcomes you are
trying to
influence. Which
means that you
must be able to
measure current
performance
against
benchmarks you
believe actually
indicate
success. With
this information
in hand, you are
much more
prepared to
offer
reasonable,
professional
predictions of
the success of
your proposed
training
efforts, because
you've been able
to make the link
between current
performance,
business
outcomes and
learning
objectives and
content designed
to improve the
performance you
are measuring.
