The Real Value of Training: Measuring and Analyzing Business Outcomes and the Quality of Roi - Hardcover

Stone, Ron

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071759972 ISBN 13: 9780071759977

Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education Ltd, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

GET THE TOOLS AND KNOW-HOW THAT MAKE ROI MORE THAN JUST A NUMBER

"Ron does such a great job answering the question that has baffl ed many learning professionals for years: How do we measure and demonstrate the value of training. Applying his methodology of ROI is inspiring in that the exercise helps to translate training activities into improved performance and, ultimately, tangible business outcomes, rather than mere calculation of numbers."

— JUDY FENG, Director, Talent Management, Baxter Asia Pacific

"Those who have criticized ROI will be pleased with Stone’s ROI Quality Analysis (RQA). HR directors and training managers will benefit from implementing this credible technique, and Stone's 'secret sauce ingredients' allow instructional designers to serve up a five-star training program."

— STEPHANIE MOOSHEGIAN, Ph.D., Chair, Saint Louis University's Organizational Studies Program

"Loaded with robust and practical methodologies, templates, and proven tools, The Real Value of Training masterfully demystifies ROI. As a seasoned learning and development practitioner, I can now add a valuable ROI approach that when used with both tangible and intangible results tells a powerful story of how signifi cant learning events contribute to positive business outcomes. Great book!"

— MERIBETH GERMINO, Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, Biopharmaceutical Industry Leadership Development Executive

"The uniqueness of this book is that it will benefit any leader who wants to transform the organization through training solutions totally focused on alignment with performance through integrating training with individual development and business goals."

— VIDYADHAR S. DABHOLKAR, Head of Human Resource Development, HILTI Manufacturing India Pvt. Ltd.

The financial crisis and ensuing recession permanently changed how business is conducted. Executives and other decision makers, pressured to accomplish higher goals with lower budgets, are demanding greater levels of accountability from their people. And when it comes to investing in business processes, they want quantifiable proof that any new initiative will contribute to solving problems, serving customers, and improving the business.

The Real Value of Training gives you the tools not only to prove that your program will deliver solutions; it goes one step further, so you can explain exactly how much it will deliver. Presented by training ROI expert Ron Stone, The Real Value of Training offers an 11-step process for qualitatively and quantitatively measuring the value of training.

Stone's methodology brings ROI to a new level of scrutiny and credibility by helping you successfully:

• Collect critical performance data
• Analyze results and adjust for causal influence and sustained impact
• Assign a monetary value to business-outcome data
• Calculate the fully loaded cost of the solution design
• Calculate the ROI and its level of quality
• Predict and quantify performance improvement

Using Stone's groundbreaking methods, you will create a training program that is powerful but flexible enough to refocus at a moment's notice, so it remains aligned with the organization’s interests, no matter what happens—whether it's another economic meltdown or a shift in business strategy.

Take your training ROI to a new level of credibility! With The Real Value of Training, you have everything you need to verify that your training solution is directly aligned with business strategy and to determine and communicate its ultimate value to the organization.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ron Stone is a globally recognized authority on analyzing and improving training and performance interventions and measuring results. President of the Center for Performance and ROI, Inc., he is the author of Aligning Training for Results and coauthor of The ROI Field Book, How to Measure Training Results, and The Human Resources Scorecard. Stone lives in Birmingham, AL.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The Real Value of Training

Measuring and Analyzing Business Outcomes and the Quality of ROI

By RON DREW STONE

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Ron Drew Stone
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-175997-7

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Talking about Performance Results
Chapter 2 Stone's Measurement and ROI Process: A View from Above
Chapter 3 Begin on the Right Foot: Partner to Create a Measurement 
Strategy
Chapter 4 Collect Relevant Performance Data
Chapter 5 Analyze Results and Adjust for Causal Influence
Chapter 6 Analyze Results and Adjust for Sustained Impact
Chapter 7 Go/No-Go: Assign a Monetary Value to Business Outcome Data
Chapter 8 Calculate the Fully Loaded Cost of the Solution Design
Chapter 9 Calculating the Return on Investment and Assessing the Quality 
of ROI
Chapter 10 Measuring the Contribution of Solutions: Alternatives to ROI
Chapter 11 Communicate the Results
Chapter 12 Opportunity Forecasting: Predicting Performance Improvement and 
ROI
References
Index

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Talking about Performance Results

Yes, this book is about measurement and evaluation. The process of measurementand evaluation actually begins up front, when a training professional partnerswith a client or sponsor to address the performance issues and expectationsinvolved in a specific training solution. Prior to negotiating and designing alearning engagement, the professional and the client or sponsor must agree aboutthe end in mind. When there is a failure to identify the end in mind for atraining solution up front, the alignment of the solution with the business isleft to chance. It is also difficult to successfully measure and evaluate atraining solution whose expected outcome has not been defined.

VIEWING RESULTS THROUGH A PERFORMANCE-CENTERED LENS

When they are addressing the needs of workplace performers, trainingprofessionals often focus too much of their attention on learning and not enoughon performance. Perhaps we should emphasize that the focus on learning is takingplace at the wrong time. The time to identify a solution for operatingdeficiencies or strategic issues is after the performance factors and root causehave been properly identified, not before. Sometimes the client has done thisprior to calling the training department, but sometimes she has not.

Training as a Single Solution Is Gone Forever

There was a time when a training solution consisted of a few learning strategiesaimed at facilitating the knowledge and skills required to deal with a specificperformance need or deficiency. These isolated "training-only" solutions weredesigned and implemented in the belief and hope that training alone was enoughto bring about the desired results. Often, only a limited effort was made toseek reinforcement from management, and only rarely was attention given to suchthings as companion strategies. Because this procedure was rarely challenged andbecause evidence of results was rarely required or presented, this became theroutine way in which training was delivered in many organizations.

Today, some managers, clients, and others still believe that training can besuccessfully delivered in this isolated way—no management reinforcement,no companion actions and strategies, no bundled solutions, just a trainingcourse by itself, doing its performance thing. Send people to the training roomor the desktop, and when they return to the work setting, things will improve.Training professionals today have experienced enough frustration to know thatthis is not the case. The unfortunate truth is, training as a single solution isgone forever. The performance-centered framework challenges those involved inidentifying solutions to think about and analyze all the relevant performancereadiness factors beyond learning.

The framework that many training professionals have historically used inevaluating the need for and fit of a training solution is too narrow. Many ofthem have relied on Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation as a performanceframework. This limited view places a narrow focus on learning (Kirkpatrick'slevel 2) as the solution to a performance issue. Many potential performancefactors are overlooked when the training is focused only on "knowledge andskills."

When a client or sponsor requests a training or development program, it isnatural to launch into a conversation about the learning because that is why thetraining department has received the call. But training professionals mustresist closing the deal on a learning solution before sufficient conversation(and perhaps even a little rapid research) to identify the deficient performanceissues and the root cause of those issues has taken place. Only then canexpectations be clarified and a proper solution (nonlearning as well aslearning) be identified, designed, and delivered.

A Twenty-First-Century Performance-Centered View

The training professional should partner with the client and use a simpleperformance framework to enable discussion about how a requested trainingsolution will address specific performance needs. A performance frameworkprovides a context that helps to

• Frame the right questions to identify the desired performance, analyzeperformance deficiencies, and identify the root cause of the problems.

• Identify performance objectives and measures for projects and performancesolutions.

• Communicate with clients, team members, training suppliers, and others tonegotiate expectations and determine readiness solutions and strategies(learning and nonlearning) aimed at closing the performance gap.

Figure 1.1 illustrates a performance-centered framework that can be usedas a tool to facilitate a performance discussion, while at the same timeassuring the client that his needs will be met.

The three components of the performance-centered framework (business outcome,execution, and readiness) are linked within a relationship—that is,performance readiness should influence the desired execution, and execution, inturn, should influence the desired business outcome. Without going into how toconduct a needs analysis, which is beyond the scope of this book, let'selaborate on the relationship among these three components. This should help inunderstanding how to reframe a discussion about learning into a focuseddiscussion about performance. The performance discussion should focus onbusiness outcome and execution and eventually lead back to decisions ondesigning, delivering, and supporting an appropriate solution. The idea is tomove up and down the framework until all relevant questions are answered.

Business Outcome This component refers to how a business or governmentagency will benefit when the performers involved execute as expected. Businessoutcomes include improvements in key performance indicators and other businessmeasures that represent the end in mind, such as

• Reducing the cost of doing business

• Improving the profitability of the business (for nonprofits, diversity andsustainability of funding)

• Improving the quality...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education Ltd
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071759972
• ISBN 13: 9780071759977
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 302
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar