Measuring Impact Rather Than Activity

Many training managers miss out on gaining the respect of their companies because they go about proving their worth in the wrong way—they measure activity rather than business impact.

Executives don’t care about how many training programs have been run (unless they are concerned about how much it is costing the organization). Instead they want to know their return on investment. How has the money invested in training improved business?

Instructional design consulting experts maintain that training managers need to improve their diagnostic skills.

1. They need to first know how to evaluate what’s going wrong.
2. They must observe the symptoms of poor performance, interpret the data they gather, and then determine the cause.
3. And finally, they must be able to recommend a solution.

The solution should not necessarily be training. Often the root cause of poor performance is not lack of skills but problems with strategic clarity, organizational culture or talent management. It is up to the training manager to work with the key business stakeholders uncover the true problem, propose a solution, and then measure the business impact in a way that makes sense.