Learning Effectiveness and ROI Evaluation

The continued need for individual and organizational development can be traced to numerous demands, including maintaining superiority in the marketplace, enhancing employee skills and knowledge, and increasing productivity. Training is one of the most pervasive methods for enhancing the productivity of individuals and communicating organizational goals to new personnel.

Effective training involves the idea of imparting knowledge. And knowledge is similar to data and information in that it is an intangible asset. It can appear difficult to measure the value of a set of concepts or the formal development of a proficiency in skills. This brings us to the question of how we can measure the effectiveness of training and learning. Luckily there has already been extensive work done on this topic. And the effectiveness of learning is (relaltively) easy to measure.

At the heart of the Bay Hewitt's approach is the latest Kirkpatrick ‘Return On Expectations’ (ROE) model of training evaluation. The Kirkpatrick Model for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Training programs is a widely used method for training evaluation. When originally developed by Dr Donald Kirkpatrick in 1959 the model consisted of four levels. Dr. Jack Phillips later proposed a fifth level building upon Kirkpatrick’s work.

The Kirkpatrick model allows organizations to evaluate their training function on a number of levels, with the most important levels, from Level 3 upward, providing an assessment of whether the training has had a lasting effect on the trainees and the organization as a whole.

However, because it can be informative to use a range of ways to evaluate the contribution and impact of training, we have also included elements (e.g. example evaluation questions) taken from other training evaluation models, such as Bersin’s ‘Learning Impact Measurement Framework’, Brinkerhoff’s ‘Success Case Method’, Phillips’ ‘Return On Investment’ approach and the ‘Balanced Scorecard for Skills’.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to training evaluation. The individual circumstances and priorities of each organization will define what is possible, practical and useful. Put very simply, sometimes all you may need to do is measure, say, compliance, while in other cases you will want to drill down into the bottom-line impact of the training.

For this reason Bay Hewitt offers both a wide choice of training evaluation content and flexible authoring capabilities, which together mean you can define and carry out the kind of training evaluation which is most appropriate for and meaningful to your organization.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help you, please email us at info@bayhewitt.com or contact us via our form HERE. You may also request for a proposal now based on your needs by clicking HERE.