There are two kinds of people at L&D: those who spend budgets and those who try to profitably increase human capital. If you are a «spender» don’t keep reading.
Unluckily the «investors» are often unable to measure the outcome of the learning process. Already in 1959 Kirkpatrick proposed his four levels to measure the effectiveness of learning.
Sadly, 60 years later we haven’t been able to implement it in our organizations.
I know it’s not always easy, feasible, or worthwhile, but it becomes necessary to convince top management of how we add value to the company.
The other day I came across this article at hrdive.com summarizing a study which shows some shocking data, and I wanted to share with you, my dear «investors» in human capital.
- More than half of learning professionals are unhappy with their inability to measure training efforts against business outcomes, according to the findings of a survey conducted by the Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board.
- While 93% of organizations plan to or currently measure employee response to training, only half measure its impact on performance. And only 36% measure training against specific results, such as sales.
- The data, compiled from the responses of 1,500 L&D professionals, showed that only 26% measured ROI on training initiatives in the past year; some plan to do so in the next few years, but 22% said they have no plans to do so in the future. The report says lack of data expertise and resources may be to blame.
- The results may not be a surprise to many. In fact, another recent study found that only 8% of CEOs see the business impact of training, even though 90% of business leaders believe L&D programming is necessary to close skill gaps.
- Some suggest that employers rethink the return on investment measurement and view it as a “cost per employed day” metric as it relates to learning. This includes the added productivity and profitability employees provide once training has been completed. The challenge for employees is to find a way to associate learning directly with business needs and outcomes.
- And for L&D professionals, a secondary challenge remains: Communicating those measurements and findings to both the C-suite and managers.
The Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board is a group of 1,500 professionals in the learning and development industry who have agreed to be surveyed by the Human Capital Media Research and Advisory Group, the research and advisory arm of Chief Learning Officer magazine. This survey was conducted from June to July 2017.
