I’m a firm believer in metrics and measurement. There’s a quote I like from Dr. Jac Fitz-enz which says, “If the language of business is dollars, then the alphabet is numbers.” And I think there’s real truth in it.
Especially when it comes to training. There are times when training gets a bad rap because sometimes companies implement training programs for issues that aren’t training problems. Then when they try to measure the results, well they can’t because it wasn’t a training issue in the first place. But instead of admitting the right tool wasn’t used, the whole concept of training is declared ineffective.
I listened to a speaker recently who challenged my thoughts about the importance of calculating return on investment. His thought was 
alignment and impact of training are more important than ROI. My first reaction was to call bravo sierra on this one but after noodling it over, maybe he’s right.
The function of training and development, like human resources or any other department, should be aligned with the organization. Ultimately, this means training programs need to be aligned to an organizational goal. If they are, then the results should have a positive impact on the business.
In no way does this imply that hard data results will not be available or used to show impact.
If training initiatives truly address training matters and are directly tied to organizational goals, the return on investment calculation falls into place. And a thorough assessment would ensure the data is available because you have to know:
- What is the business need that training will address?
- Where is the metric that shows the current situation?
- What department or position owns that metric?
- How often is the metric calculated?
These answers are a necessary part of a comprehensive training assessment.
My takeaway from the speaker’s presentation: I still believe metrics and measurement are important. But if you put organizational alignment first, then the numbers aren’t the challenge we sometimes make them out to be.
Jason Pereira says
The statement “His thought was alignment and impact of training are more important than ROI” is contradictory. How would he assess the impact of the training on the employee? Metrics (ROI) are tools used to measure the impact of a training on the individual and then correlate this with the business results. For example companies measure ROI by asking reps whether or not they applied their training in closing/increasing sales. The problem with this approach is that there’s no way to tell if the sale was made because of that specific training or because of something else.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the comment Jason. The ROI calculation is an indicator of whether or not the investment made in training came back to the company. I agree this is important. There are types of training for which no ROI is expected (certain types of compliance training immediately come to mind), and that’s fine.
What the speaker made me realize is that it’s possible to see ROI without seeing impact. So the focus should be on aligning training with company goals.