Measuring ROI enabling L & D to Drive Value of Learning

HR Leading Edge Series Measuring ROI
FURTHER READING

Gray Matters Consulting HSPP Consultants Ltd.2
CONTENTS
1. Managing the Learning &
Development Function
3
2. Learning Strategy – Future
Investment
8
3. Identification of Training Needs 14
4. Evaluation of Learning and
Development
23
5. Kirkpatrick’s Model 32
6. Philips ROI Model 35
7. CIRO Model 40
8. Brinkerhoff’s Model 42
9. About HSPP 46
10. About Gray Matters 47
11. Facilitator Profiles 49

Managing the
Making learning and talent development strategic
Until the early 2000s, when the company was smaller,
with just three stores and one hotel, training and
development in the company was fairly ad hoc. In 2001
Garvey Group brought in an Operations & HR Director
to the board, who came from an Irish-based
multinational company where she had been responsible
for leading achievement of Excellence through People
(Ireland’s national standard for human resource
management, comparable with the British ‘Investors in
People’ kitemark).
The Operations & HR Director saw Excellence through
People as a positive way of structuring HR systems and
practices, and of linking learning and development
within the overall business strategy. So she led its
implementation in the Garvey Group. The result by the
mid-2000s was a very structured approach to training,
driven now by the business strategy. A corporate
training plan is prepared annually, costed and evaluated
through deliverables such as sales and profitability. A
modified balanced scorecard (kaplan and Norton 1996)
provides a framework for the strategy, starting with the
core belief that ‘if you had your people trained, your
operations would be right, if this was right, in turn your
customers would be happy; in turn your business would
be right. So the starting building block was always the
people’ (Operations & HR Director).
The independent audits provided by Excellence through
People were welcomed as a useful source of feedback
and suggestion, that helped the company become more
systematic. Prior to that training was more ad hoc, and
not systematically aligned with business strategy. In the
days when the Garvey Group had just three stores and
one hotel all within the same areas, this relative
informality was perhaps manageable, but as the Group
grew throughout the decade Excellence through People
was used as a framework to help grow the group, to
facilitate acquisition of other business and integrate
them in a seamless manner.
From business strategy to training needs analysis
Each year a training plan is prepared for each location.
Considerable time is spent identifying employees’
training needs, using the appraisal system to provide
opportunity to identify training needed and based on a
needs analysis for their job.
function
learning & talent
development
The Garvey Group – Case Study
Company ownership, sector and size
The Garvey Group is a family-owned retail and
hotel company in Ireland, primarily Munster-based
(covering Counties kerry, Cork and Waterford in
the South of Ireland). It has 10 stores across this
region plus two hotels and a sports and leisure
shop in Dingle, Co. kerry.
There are 850 employees, rising to around 1000 in
the summer months. Most staff are department
sales assistants working in the retail shops on the
meat or fish counter, for example, or on the tills.
In the hotels, most would be employed in the bar
or restaurant. Each store and hotel has a manager
and assistant manager, as well as at least one and
sometimes two training managers. Strategic
leadership is provided by a small board of
directors, comprising five people: the founder and
chairman, one other family member and three
non-family members.

Some training needs are technical, for example,
specific to those who work in the fish department or
meat section of the stores. The company uses a
competence based approach, with much emphasis
put on behavioural competences applicable to all
jobs, such as customer care, working as a team and
‘subtle selling’. These skills underpin the business
strategy. For sales assistants in particular, great
emphasis is placed on customer service training,
being ambassadors for the company and selling skills
– telling customers in a friendly way about
promotions, so customers might not even notice,
‘subtle selling’ as the company call it. Customer
service is seen as so central to the achievement of
business strategy that there could be training three
times a year, to reinforce and deepen the learning. In
general if people cannot complete training in their
own store they generally get to attend in another
area.
Training providers – external and internal
The main provider of training for Garvey Group is the
Musgrave Group (the Irish group that owns many
household grocery brands across Ireland, the united
kingdom and Spain and provides sales, marketing, IT,
finance and logistical expertise to retail companies
such as Garvey Group.
Garveys use Musgrave Group’s training department
for specialist retail training, for example, in flowers or
fish, whilst for specialist hotel training, such as bar
and restaurant skills, the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF)
is used. For other generic skills, such as customer
service or team building, great emphasis has been
placed on developing internal training expertise. Each
store has at least one and often two trained trainers,
even occasionally three. The HR person from each
store is one of the trainers; whilst the second one is
typically one of the checkout supervisors because of
their experience of having many people report to
them. Trainers typically originate on the shop floor,
starting on the checkout tills. They regularly meet
with the company’s Operations & HR Director and
are appraised by her. They receive training
themselves twice a year training on for, example,
evaluation, transfer to work, making training
relevant.
This emphasis on investing in people’s skills,
competences and behaviours, driven by a clear
strategic plan is at the forefront of practice in the
retailing sector, to the extent that Garvey Group
trainers are often called on to run training for other
retailers.
External trainers are used only very selectively. The
Musgrave group have a retail diploma accredited by
Dublin Institute of Technology and also operate a list
of approved trainers across the country, people with
retail experience who can deliver practical, hands-on
and experiential training directly informed by real
scenarios, rather than being generic.
Planning and evaluating
Every course has objectives, and the Kirkpatrick
model is used to identify these and to systematically
ask what individuals expect to get from any training
event. So rather than being sent on a fish course, for
instance, a person will know why they are going and
what are the objectives.
After the training, they will be asked what they
learned, whether it matched the objectives, what
they will do now. Also added in is the question of
what they will share. Employees are very much
encouraged to summarise key learning from any
course in their next week’s meeting at work. Even
with on-the-job, ‘sit by Nelly’ training, for example in
using the tills, there are training objectives set and a
review afterwards, to ensure there are no remaining
gaps. The focus is constantly on trying to make the
training relevant to the job and relevant to the
longer-term business objectives.
Training managers feed back the evaluations to the
Operations & HR Director, who communicates back
to providers, whether these be internal or external
from Musgraves and the IHF.
At a corporate level the ROI (return on investment)
measures used for evaluation were primarily sales
and profit figures. For example, comparison would be
made of fish sales and margins before and two
months after a fish course. Generally there was an
improvement evident, an uplift in sales figures
following training and this data was used to justify
training investment to retail managers and the board.

Employee expectations
When the company’s focus on training began, initially
there was a degree of apprehension from the
workforce. Whilst some of these were young college
and school students, many were 40 and older. Fears
were voiced of ‘Is there a test?’ ‘I’ll never be able for
it’. So the initial hurdle was to get people’s buy-in,
and encourage them to attend at least the first
course. As it happened, once they went on one
course, they were generally delighted to be able to
go again.
Part of this was achieved through getting their input,
for example, asking for their ideas on what is the best
way to give customer service. The company culture is
open, with an emphasis on personal development
and improvement. The team of HR and trainers
across the whole group regularly meet together
around twice a year to explore how they can we
make training better. Participation in training is
celebrated and annually people get a printout of
their training record. The company deliberately
‘hero’ their staff, for example, publicizing pictures
across the stores of a Master Butcher, Master Baker
or star of the Baby department, to give people a
sense of pride in their job and to acknowledge them
as an expert.
All this contributes to a culture where people are
positive towards training, feel a sense of
achievement and are proud of their training records.
Managing the managers
Initially the Operations & HR Director had to work
hard to persuade the middle managers (store
managers, hotel managers) of the value of releasing
people for training, because it is an industry where
the wage bill is high and they have very specific
operational targets regarding rostered hours.
To release an employee for 8 hours' training means
not only do they have to pay the person for these
hours although they are not on the shop floor, but
they also have to buy in a replacement for the 8
hours to cover the shift. So initially there was a huge
debate. However, the managers also had other
performance measures, such as mystery shoppers,
and they could see that if they did not put
investment into the training, they were not getting
the same recognition for customer service.
Often, if there was a poor mystery shopper result,
the excuse was ‘well, she never went on the training
course’. In time managers recognised a direct result
between the training of their employees and
achievement on the job. Induction was another point
of potential tension between the training strategy
and managers. Newcomers had two days invested in
their induction, covering the basics such as company
culture and the emphasis on customer service, even
before they began to learn such skills as how to use a
till.
There was a tension when a retail manager could be
crying out to have them on the till immediately and
trainers saying, wait, you want them with the right
attitudes and behaviours, they’ll add so much more
value.
Persuading the board of the value of investing in
training was not so difficult, because the Operations
and HR Director was a member of the board and was
explicitly hired into the company with this brief.
Nevertheless, it was important to highlight
deliverables and to continuously provide evidence to
link the training to profitability or sales, for example,
demonstrating improvements that followed training.
Employer branding
Garvey Group are very proud of their training record
and their recognition with Excellence through People.
They were the second Irish retailer to achieve gold
and are the first retailer and (by early 2009) one of
only 18 Irish companies to achieve platinum. These
achievements are seen as a major contributor to
their employer branding, and the logos are proudly
and widely displayed. The retail sector does not pay
high wages, the work is tough, including regular
evening and weekend working, dealing with
customers, so to make employment attractive, an
employer has to be able to highlight how they are
distinctive, For Garvey Group this is the experience
and development offered to employees.
Being known to treat employees well and train well
has meant the group recruited some excellent
employees. Once Excellence through People was
achieved it gave the company a huge competitive
edge; there was a noticeable increase in the quality
of applications and a rise in graduate applicants.
Candidates were clearly aware of the

Excellence through People recognition and would
mention it as one of their reasons for wanting to
work with the company, because it signalled they
were serious about training and learning and were a
company that could offer career opportunities.
Excellence through People put them in a different
league.
Talent management
Garvey Group have a segment in their balanced
scorecard termed 'talent management', which was
introduced because, in previous years of relatively
full employment there had been a real difficulty in
recruiting talent. For the retail sector this is a
challenge because a career in the sector is not seen
as offering great potential. Having found it difficult to
attract supervisors and good trainee managers they
made the decision to home-grow their own.
The Garvey understanding of ‘talent’ is people
‘having capacity to be more than they currently are’.
There is also a recognition that talent in this sector is
very much related to personality and whether a
person can relate to the customers or has people
management skills, regardless of the degree they
have on paper. To grow their own, investment was
made in spotting and developing talent. Managers
had, once a month, to identify someone who had the
potential to progress. Often they were someone
working on the till for a few hours after school or in
their college breaks. Talent development consisted of
an 18-month trainee manager structured fast track
development.
Trainee managers can also be recruited directly to
the programme, which involves on-the-job training to
learn all aspects of the job as well as external
training, devised with Musgraves, to be retail specific.
During the 18 months they would be met bi-monthly
to agree training objectives and there were monthly
milestones. Their line manager was accountable for
making sure they progressed and were adding value
to the store.
Each ‘talent’ is assigned a mentor, with regular
review meetings held. Mentoring, however, has
proved something of a challenge, because in most
cases the mentor has been the trainee’s direct line
manager, with the result that meetings became more
performance reviews than true mentoring
sessions. It has proved difficult with the size of the
company to give people a different mentor.
Mentoring has been more successfully used with the
store managers, who each have been mentored by
one of the Board members who is not their line
manager.
Another unresolved aspect of the company’s talent
management is that the system only developed
towards the position of trainee manager. There was
no similar system for development towards
supervisor although until the recent economic
downturn there was a need.
With the recession, there is now a flood of external
supervisors to choose from so growing internal talent
is no longer essential.
Top management development
The company to date has not had a systematic or
strategic approach to developing Board members.
Individuals have pursued development opportunities
at their own discretion.
The language of learning, training and talent
Until recent years Garvey Group spoke of training
and development in all their strategy documents.
However, one night, triggered by an Excellence
through People audit recommendation, they rewrote
all the policy documents, substituting the word
‘learning’ for ‘training’. The employee reaction was
quite unexpected. Staff questioned how learning
could be the subject of strategy or be documented
and recorded because it was what they did anyway.
Training, by contrast, was seen as involving courses,
something special and important, that could be
documented and signed off. For senior managers this
highlighted the evolution the company had been
through, coming from having no formal HR to
developing good systems to having Excellence
through People to achieving Gold then Platinum.
Employees needed more time to adjust to talking of
‘learning’ as being part of what they did each day.
The language of ‘talent’ posed a second source of
challenge, with some asking ‘are you just singling out
special people?’ The answer was, unfortunately yes,
because of the need to develop the internal
management team.

Into the future?
Overall the company has no doubt that investment in
people’s learning and talent development produces
results to the bottom line. Also, that strategically
managing training and learning is essential to get the
best out of people. But what of the future challenges
in the face of the current economic downturn? It is
tougher to keep the focus on investing and the risk is
that training will be less, not only because of the cost
of training, but also the operational impacts of
covering people taken out for training. In the
medium term the company believe that, because
staff turnover is low, there is some cushioning from
past investment in development, although that could
become more of an issue in time. There are strengths
in being closely tied to the Musgrave group and
accessing highly relevant, industry specific training.
They also have a degree of internal sustainability
through having a well-developed network of trained
internal trainers as well as the established framework
derived from Excellence through People of using
training plans, setting objectives and review.
Maintaining this will be the challenge.
ROI as process
ROI measurement is the process of collecting
and analysing this performance data, and
translating this into a measurement of real
financial benefit to the organisation. This
benefit is then compared to the cost of
creating this benefit through training and
measurement. In many cases, ROI
measurement can be linked to data collected
and analysed for the purpose of Training Needs
Analysis (TNA). If detailed TNA studies are done
prior to the training, the data from these
studies can be compared to the feedback and
performance data acquired after the training
takes place. In addition, the TNA is likely to
highlight the expected benefits and results
from the training. In this case, the change in
performance may be more accurately
determined.
ROI as Perception
So, what actually is ROI on training? It can be
considered to be a perception on the part of
the client of how valuable the training has been
in achieving their perceived goals; and these
perceptions will vary depending on whom you
talk to. For example: The Board may see a big
picture of how the training affects the
company‟s ability to achieve its corporate goals
The finance department may be looking to see
how training stacks up financially against other
ways to invest the company‟s money, and
whether the training, as carried out, was
financially more effective than alternative
forms of development. The business unit
manager may be solely concerned with the
impact on performance and productivity in
achieving the goals of their department. The
training and development manager may be
concerned with the impact training
programmes are having on the credibility and
status as the training function within the
company and its ability to secure investment in
the future to drive further business
performance enhancements With all these
potentially different viewpoints, one of the first
things you need to consider with your client, is
what the client actually considers is a return on
investment, and which views of success are
critical to the measurement process.

Learning
Introduction
Learning drives real business value. A learning strategy
is an investment in a future of growth and
organizational performance in order to both enable and
optimize the workforce during any enterprise
transformation initiative.
A learning strategy links learning initiatives to overall,
enterprise wide organizational priorities and goals. The
underlying assumption that drives an effective
learning strategy is that learning is the critical enabler
ensuring that people are continuously refreshing and
enhancing their skills and knowledge. People must
be enabled and re-enabled with the right skills and
knowledge to meet the changing demands of the
marketplace, customers and business itself. A learning
strategy helps to ensure that a business’ learning
initiatives are linked to and support the overall business
strategy.
Fully realizing the potential of learning by linking it to
competitive advantage and business success requires an
enterprise to align its learning initiatives to
organizational priorities using an effective enterprise
learning strategy.
A learning strategy must align with and support an
overall business strategy to help ensure that people are
enabled to meet the changing demands of business. A
learning strategy must align learning investments
directly to business results while providing metrics to
measure the value of those learning investments. A
learning strategy is required to identify and develop the
critical people skills and resources to help establish
alignment with business priorities.
In 2005 IBM conducted a Global Human Capital Study
(GHCS), which sought to understand how human
resource (HR) leaders in organizations are leveraging
their people to improve workforce effectiveness and
organizational performance.
People strategies, practices and metrics were surveyed
in 334 organizations throughout 38 countries.
Interviews were conducted globally with 106 top HR
leaders to understand their people priorities and trends.
This research revealed that companies’ primary
business objectives include increasing profitability,
improving customer responsiveness and reducing costs.
It also concluded that people were considered a critical
factor to achieving longterm profitable growth.
future
Strategy
Investment

Selected findings and implications resulting from the
GHCS study1 indicate the value of a learning strategy.
Following are some of these findings:
• Learning activities represent the highest single
human capital cost area; most companies,
however, are not evaluating their investment in
training like they do for other large corporate
investments.
• Larger companies are more likely to have learning
strategies that are aligned with the company’s
business objectives.
• Investments in training days at the senior level
appear to have links to greater profits per
employee.
Some of the recommendations based on these
findings are as follows:
• Develop an outcome-focused perspective on
learning activities, including an evaluation of return
on investment (ROI).
• Consider learning investments for high-potential
individuals at all levels of the organization.
• Identify how blended learning approaches using
classroom and distance learning can be used to
provide better access to corporate knowledge.
• Recognize that as organizations grow, the barriers
associated with locating and sharing knowledge and
expertise grow as well, requiring additional
attention and focus.
• Consider the need and the capability of the HR
organization to provide knowledge and
collaboration support.
IBM and ASTD’s research on the perceptions of
learning by C-level decision makers2 also provides
insight into the role of learning strategy in leading
organizations.
Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) and other C-level
executives from 26 companies across 10 industry
sectors were asked to assess the strategic value
of learning; how it translates into business results;
how it stays in alignment; and how its value is
measured.
Strategic value provided by the learning function
Chief Operating officers(COO) – “Learning help us
develop bench strength and the competencies
needed for the future.”
“Learning’s role is to build the platform to enable us
to change the business.”
Chief Executive Officers(CEO) – “The learning
function’s role is to help our company learn, adopt,
adapt and grow.”
CLO – “Learning will engage early to analyze and
improve the design of jobs and processes and
technology based performance support tools. It can
help in achieving all the critical success factors for our
company, not just the people factors. Our workforce
management process ensures that we have the best
people at the optimal price in place”.
The executives in this survey see learning’s strategic
value to build the skills necessary to address
upcoming challenges facing the organization such as
innovation, transformation and globalization.
The learning function must evolve to enable strategic
enterprise initiatives in addition to addressing tactical
business-unit performance issues. Learning
strategies, approaches and infrastructures must
become more flexible in order to rapidly respond to
both enterprise and business unit level strategic
needs.

Federal Government Agency
Challenge
A large government agency had many learning
challenges. Its learning activities and delivery were
event-driven and primarily delivered and
conducted via one on-one interaction. They found
that their learning initiatives were too expensive
and were not meeting required performance-
based metrics, that they did not
have a learning infrastructure that allowed for the
possibility of various blended learning approaches
for delivery, and that the organizational control of
learning was too centralized.
Solution
The agency wanted to change from a centralized
level of control to a dispersed
regional level of control in order to build and
maintain mutually beneficial partnerships
throughout the agency. IBM developed an
enterprise learning strategy and competency
development approach to drive customized
learning across diverse audience groups, while
providing the logistics and delivery for a blended
learning solution that included both instructor-led
and Web-based training. Additionally, the strategy
enabled a technology platform that will provide
access to embedded
learning, virtual classrooms and online
collaboration.
Benefits
The agency anticipates a reduction of
maintenance costs and previously lost tax
revenue as well as reduced loss of life and
property damage. Additionally, the
agency expects to decrease the amount of public
money it spends.
Health Insurance Firm
Challenge
After performing benchmark analysis against key
competitors, a health insurance firm learned that
its training investments were not keeping pace
with other healthcare companies. It saw it had
limited and dispersed training resources while
facing an environment of increased competition
and customer demand.
Solution
In order to become more competitive, the firm
identified several outcomes that were key to its
continued success in its marketplace including: the
requirement for a dynamic, integrated, easy-to-
navigate training system; training that is delivered
at the right time, at the right location; and an
optimized blend of instructor-led and
Web-based training. The firm wanted to ensure
these outcomes would be realized over time by
implementing enterprise wide training governance
and controls.
Benefits
The learning strategy included a learning portal
which minimized licensing and maintenance costs.
The strategy also helped ensure that people have
the skill sets required to do their jobs while
delivering better training more quickly at a lower
overall cost. The strategy ensured that proven
best practices were used for training methods and
procedures.
Examples of developing a successful learning strategy
IBM has helped many organizations develop learning strategies. The breadth of possible outcomes resulting
from the development and implementation of learning strategy are described in the examples below.

Telecommunications Company
Challenge
A telecom company realized that the knowledge
of its sales agents was not keeping pace with its
new products and services. The company did not
keep up with its training investments (in dollars
and resources) when compared with
world-class training benchmarks and its
competitors. Also, several independent,
unaccountable training organizations and/or
budgets began to appear in individual business
units.
Solution
IBM conducted a thorough evaluation of the
training operations, content development
and management, training infrastructure and
technology. The team compared the telecom
company’s existing practices to world-class
training practices within and beyond the
telecommunications industry, identified gaps and
made recommendations to close those gaps.
The gap analysis revealed an absence of enterprise
wide coordination, integration,
communication or management of the training
function. There also were no standards for course
development templates, tools, functionality or
processes. Nor were there standards in place for
purchasing training from external vendors.
Benefits
The company realized the following benefits as a
result of gap analysis recommendations:
• Reduced time-to-productivity for new agents
• Improved agent product knowledge
• Increased available informal learning and
knowledge
• Reduced time to release new products and
processes
• Integrated enterprise learning management,
content management, and virtual
classroom solution, with tangible payback over
two years.
Internet Services Company
Challenge
An Internet services company wanted to tie
training to its overall business goals. Faced with an
uncertain and changing business environment, it
sought an understanding
of critical learning initiatives needed to support its
business model while continuing to operate
through change.
Solution
The company assessed the practices of its learning
and development group in order to identify its
overall impact on the business and understand
how to address the business culture changes it
was facing. This assessment resulted
in the creation of key learning and development
initiatives that covered business benefits and
prioritized recommendations, a timeline, risks and
success factors.
Some of the recommendations included: the
creation of enterprise-level learning governance
and a requirement to focus training on staff with
the greatest need. Additionally the blend of
instructor-led versus Web-based training became
a 20 percent to 80 percent mix.
Benefits
Benefits included a new learning strategy aligned
with business objectives that provided increased
control over budgets and strategic purchases, a 10
percent cut in training spending, and a reduction
in travel costs by using virtual meetings and
collaboration. Additionally, the strategy
established new processes for annual learning
planning supported by strategic learning plans and
service level agreements (SLAs) with business
groups.

The role of learning governance
Often a learning strategy recommends implementing
a new, or enhancing an existing, learning governance
model.
Learning governance consists of planning for
learning, allocating investments to learning and
managing those investments3. A governance
structure supports these actions by defining the
rules, processes, metrics and organizational models
needed for effective decision making, steering and
control of learning to achieve business goals.
IBM’s research on the perceptions of learning by C-
level decision makers4 provides insight into the role
of learning governance in leading organizations.
Following are some of the key findings that have
emerged from the research:
• Governance of learning is no longer optional.
Learning has become too strategic, critical and
costly to manage without an ongoing effort.
• There’s no one-size-fits-all. Successful governance
structures balance the efficiencies of central
control and the effectiveness of making decisions
close to the line of business.
• Governance models evolve. The role of governance
evolves through identifiable stages from inception
through maturity.
Learning vision is a key element of learning strategy
IBM’s point of view on the future of learning3 can
help organizations understand how people will learn
and work in the future and how to develop a set of
priorities that guide the evolution of learning within
their enterprises.
The journey toward the future of learning is different
for each organization, driven by different starting
points, different objectives and different
organizational imperatives. This point of view can be
tailored or tuned to an individual organization
to help identify and prioritize appropriate
recommendations.
Successful execution of a learning strategy—and the
transformation it enables—requires a shift in thinking
and different execution across five core dimensions.
IBM Learning Strategy solution provides a framework
for thinking about learning across these five core
dimensions during the development of a learning
strategy.5These five dimensions are outlined as
follows.
Organizational alignment
Organizations that target learning investments to
areas that really impact the business use a rigorous
learning strategy development process that identifies
business goals and then links these business goals to
learning investments.
Design and delivery
Expanding instructional design to include more focus
on learning that is embedded in work, informal
learning has always played a larger role than most
people imagined. Now it’s becoming increasingly
important as workers take greater
responsibility for their own learning.
Technology
Technology helps companies move beyond
automation of formal learning to the creation of
pervasive learning environments that support vibrant
learning cultures. Many of the technologies that do
this already exist in an organization, they just may
not be thought of as potential learning tools.
Governance and management
Reinventing the role of learning by enabling a
governance and management system delivers real
business value. New leadership and governance
models will drive accountability and accelerate
organizations’ migration to the future of learning.
Culture and behavior
Recognizing this is a major change initiative with a
need to focus as much on culture as on technology is
key to a successful learning strategy. The world’s elite
organizations share one thing—corporate cultures
that value people and how
they learn.

Aligning learning with business objectives
A business case is a key learning strategy deliverable. The
business case explains how the learning strategy will
support overall business objectives, and can include
recommendations for:
• Transforming a product-based firm into the service
based business.
• Keeping up with explosive growth and new
markets.
• Decentralizing to better serve the needs of
customers.
• Improving response to regulatory demands.
The business case enables executive decision makers
to evaluate the worthiness of investments in learning
relative to other key business investments. In
quantifying a variety of benefits, it can articulate the
cost benefits of closing existing
learning gaps as well as the acceleration of future
learning initiatives.
Some potential benefits of a business case include:
• Development of concrete, top-priority actionable
steps.
• Cost reductions for upgrades, staff and
infrastructure.
• Improved employee-to-employee and employee-
to-expert collaboration.
• Ensuring that people have the right skill sets
required to do their jobs.
• Increased training productivity—delivered faster,
better, and ultimately less costly.
• Support of the idea of “Build upon our greatest
strength—our people”.
• World-class standards for training methods and
procedures.
• Measurement and reporting on the effectiveness of
training.
• Elimination of duplicate training activities, job roles
and activities.
• Assessment of learning effectiveness through
benchmarking.
Conclusion
Consider developing an enterprise learning strategy if
you see imminent change such as a merger or
acquisition, downsizing or growth. Organizations are
recognizing that learning accelerates change and that
the right learning strategy can help speed time-to-
competency and achieve greater business results.
When organizations ask their workforce to change,
with new job roles being created and existing roles
being redefined, new skills are required and learning
can play a critical role in transforming the
organization.

Identification
Introduction
Identification of training needs is the stepping stone in
the appropriate management training system on which
the entire edifice of a training program is built. Like the
prevalent management development and training
systems, appropriate management training system does
not take a generalized view of training needs. It
attempts to take a specialized and individualized view
of training needs of different categories of managers
performing more or less similar jobs in similar
organizations. Assessing training needs is treated as
important and crucial training function before designing
and conducting a program.
Concept
An organization normally employs sufficient number of
managerial and non- managerial personnel with
required competence to perform given jobs leading to
accomplishment of organizational objectives. Effective
performance of a job requires a standard of
competence in the job holder consisting of vital areas
such as job related knowledge, skill and attitude. But
due to one or other reasons the existing competence of
the job holder may fall short of the standard
competence required in a job. The process of assessing
and finding the gap between the standard competence
required in a job and the existing competence in terms
of vital knowledge, skill and attitude in the job holder
may be called as the identification of the areas of
deficiencies and the resultant inventory of gaps in the
job holder in terms of knowledge, skill and attitude may
be said as his training needs. This logic highlights two
processes: first identification and definition of standards
of knowledge, skills and attitude required in a job and
second assessing existing level of knowledge, skills and
attitude of the job holder. These two processes are of
critical importance and should be carried out as
accurately as possible because the outcome of the
comparison between the two provides the information
from which an appropriate training program is
developed.
Identification of training needs is the stepping stone in
the appropriate management training system on which
the entire edifice of a training program is built.
Training
Of
Needs

Assessment Of Training Needs
Almost all the books in training suggest formal
assessment of training needs as pre – requisite to
training programs. ILO’s book has taken a very
comprehensive view on needs assessment and has
described the process of identifying training needs
under two situations – ideal and less than ideal.
Needs assessment under ideal situation, consists of
steps like to take an inventory of present manpower,
to make forecasts of future requirements, to find the
people needed and to decide what to do to develop
manpower. This process under ‘less than ideal’
situation includes stages such as considering terms of
reference, considering the situation within the
organization, considering information available in
respect of new and existing employees, considering
the problems which arise within the organization
and considering possible approaches like
observations, management requests, interviews, job
analysis, questionnaire surveys, performance ratings
and tests.
United States of America which is considered to be
very innovative in the field of training and
development, surprisingly lacked sound information
concerning U.S. employee training not to talk of the
specific areas of needs assessment till the publication
of the study report in 1986 conducted by Opinion
Research Corporation and sponsored by the American
Society for Training and Development.
The report has indicated that although the first step
approach to training programs is a formal needs
assessment, about half the training executives
indicated that this step is not taken most or all of the
time. The frequency of needs assessments declines
with the job level for which the training program is
being developed. When needs assessments are done,
the most frequent methods include personal
interviews (83%), direct observation of the work of
the prospective trainee group(80%),examination of
performance or productivity measures (75%),
questionnaires (66%) and task analysis (64%).
Like United states of America, there is a lack of
information about training scenario in India in
general and assessment of training needs in
particular except sporadic writings and studies
conducted by some training institutions.
In general, the private sector organizations gave
more weightage to different methods of training
needs identification such as job analysis and job
specification, performance appraisal b y others and
by the individual himself and growth potential of the
individual.
,
Realizing the drawbacks in the cooperative training
system, National Cooperative Development
Corporation, a development financial institution gave
a new dimension and direction to cooperative
education and training. It established its own training
centre called as Topic Training Centre which started
functioning following systems approach to training in
1985. It regards identification of training needs as
specialized and prime task and follows a well defined
system. Due to systematic and accurate assessment
of training needs, its training programs are highly
specialized, effective and result – oriented.
Approaches To Identify Training Needs
There are two approaches to identify training needs
accurately for different categories of personnel
particularly managerial personnel – role analysis and
job analysis.
Role may be defined as a set of various expected
behavior of a person occupying a leadership position
in an organization. It is highly personal and dynamic.
Job may be defined as a set of tasks assigned to a
position. Organization expects at least a fair behavior
from the position holder in line with the assigned job
and tasks. Job, thus, is static and impersonal.
In order to identify training needs, role and job
descriptions are prepared along with their
specifications following organizational analysis.
Individuals capabilities and qualities occupying the
position are analyzed in light of role and job
specifications to find out performance deficiencies
constituting training needs.
Thus, systematic and accurate identification of
training needs involve three processes –
organizational analysis, role and job analysis and
individual analysis.
Organizational Analysis
It is the process of studying, collecting information
and analyzing the state of affairs of an organization,
its working in light of its objectives, performance of
different category of personnel ranging from top
management to bottom level employees and
recording performance problems associated with job
category. Since this effort involves huge paper work
and resources in terms of cost, time and energy of
training specialist and the organization in question, it
should be used with discretion and differentially
depending on the occasions when training needs
have to be identified either at the level of a section
or a department or the whole organization.

Need to Conduct Organizational Analysis
Most of the organizations in India do not have
systematic approach towards training for their
managerial personnel. They have two alternatives for
management training: in- service training
department and off-the-job.
Many organizations maintain training departments
which usually cater to the training needs of in-service
people specially of lower level employees and
supervisory personnel. Middle and top managerial
personnel are sent to off-the-job training in some
specialized training institutions. Organizational
analysis serves useful purposes in both the systems
of training.
Present and Future Training Plan
Understanding about working of the organization and
discussion with its managerial personnel help the
trainer to appreciate the strengths, opportunities,
weaknesses and threats of the organization, its
development plans, investment programs,
technological progress, products or services planned,
competitors condition, manpower planning etc. The
knowledge of present and future scenario serves as a
base to identify different types of training needs and
a trainer can thus suggest to the management a
training plan covering present and future training
requirements of the organization.
Organizational analysis helps a trainer to analyze
various training needs and decide about the status of
training whether they are displaced, inadequate or
partial training needs. Further it also helps to decide
who should be trained and what type of training
intervention is required. Thus, a total picture of
training situation is obtained.
Methods to Conduct Organizational Analysis
Organizational Analysis is basically a process of
studying and collection of information on various
aspects related to organization’s functioning and to
find its training and development needs. Normally,
three methods are used for the analysis such as
observation, discussion or interview and reference to
documented information. Since the analysis will
provide objective and professional advice on human
resource development to the top management
enabling them to decide the nature and extent of the
role of traini8ng in accomplishing organizational
objective in light of training investment, it is
pertinent that the organization study and analysis
should be conducted systematically.
Organizational analysis, thus reveals a variety of
training needs at organizational level, at the job level
or at the individual employees level from the point of
view of its objectives.
Harmonizing training needs are perceived by an
individual employee with that of organization is very
significant and a judicious synthesis between the two
is beneficial for organization and employees.
The revelation of various types of job – oriented or
job- specific training needs raises several issues
needing special attention such as visualizing standard
level of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and interpersonal
skills requirement of each job and existing
competence in terms of knowledge, skill and
attitude, etc., of an employee against the standard
requirement. These issues may be considered by
using job analysis technique. Job analysis is used for a
variety of purposes, its use is basically for the
purpose of identifying job oriented training needs.
Job-Oriented Training Analysis (JOTA)
Job analysis is the process of studying, collecting
information on and examining various aspects of a
job. It produces two important documents: job
description and job specification.
Job Description
JD is a statement of duties and responsibilities
assigned to a position. Hence, all the job of a position
are described and further each job is broken down
into independent responsibilities, duties or tasks.
Job Specification
It is an organized statement of human qualities
required to perform a job effectively. Therefore, each
task of a job is examined to visualize requirements of
human qualities for its effective performance. It is
developed by considering the nature and
characteristics of tasks involved in a job.
Individual Analysis
An organization employs various personnel to
perform various jobs and tasks considering their
competence in terms of knowledge, skill and attitude
while selecting them. But due to several reasons
individual competency may fall short of the standard
competence required to perform the job. In order to
ascertain the extent of gap of competence, the
existing competence of persons is analyzed by using
the technique of individual analysis. This technique
denotes recording the existing or actual level of
qualities in the man

performing those jobs in terms of knowledge, skill
and attitude. It starts with analyzing person’s
educational qualification, professional competence,
experience, training etc. followed by other
techniques.
Prioritizing Training Needs
The training needs identified through the above
stages are prioritized with reference to importance
and relevance in consultation with the persons
concerned, their superior and top management and a
final training needs are prepared.
Identifying Training Needs
Identification of training needs is the stepping stone
in the appropriate management training system on
which the entire edifice of a training program is built.
Training need are related to performance of the
organization as a whole. Training need identification
is done to find out whether the organization is
meeting its current performance standards and
objectives. Training need identification focus is on
needs as opposed to desires of the employees for a
constructive outcome. A training need can be
described as a specific skill which an individual must
acquire in order to perform a task efficiently and
effectively. It is process of assessing and finding the
gap between the standard competence required in a
job and the existing competence in terms of vital
knowledge, skill and attitude in the job holder.
Importance of TNI
• To pinpoint if training will make a difference in
productivity and the bottom line.
• To decide what specific training each employee
needs and what will improve his or her job
performance.
• To differentiate between the need for training and
organizational issues in order to bring a match
between individual aspirations and organizational
goals.
Purpose of TNI
• To identify areas of particular strength or weakness
in the organisation
• To develop plan to build on strength and reduce
weaknesses i.e. improve performance.
• To enable priorities for action to be established
• To plan the most effective development of limited
resources, for instance, to ensure cost effectiveness
and value for money.
• To justify investment in training by showing how
training will contribute to achieving corporate
objectives.
• To provide a basis for integrating training into the
business by getting line management involvement
and commitment.
Objectives of TNI
• To determine whether training is needed.
• To determine causes of poor performance.
• To determine desired training and development
outcomes.
• To provide basis of measurement.
• To gain management support.
Methods of TNI
1.Stakeholder Analysis(groups, individuals,
organizations who have a claim, gain or benefit, or
who feel they should have some ownership of a
process, program or project)
It clearly indicates how important it is to identify all
possible stakeholders with an interest in the training
process, including the identification and assessment
of the training needs. Stakeholder analysis in the
context of needs assessment will reveal the
importance and possible influence of the
stakeholders in TNA Training Needs Analysis, their
type of participation, interest and possible impact on
them.
2. Selecting and using the research methods to
identify training needs
Identifying training needs is a form of research. First,
evidence suggests that there is a basic problem which
can be addressed through training. It may also be
necessary to address the problem with non-training
measures. So it is important to identify clearly the
training gap. This is found by comparing an existing
situation with a future, desirable situation, and then
finding out how training can bring us from here to
there.
3. Planning identification of organizational needs
There are two steps:
�List organizations with a stake in the training.
� List questions to ask them, e.g. what are the
critical changes affecting the work and operations of
the organization? What are the relevant policies
within the organization? What are the current
strengths and weaknesses of the organization? What
opportunities and threats are being presented from
the external environment? Etc.

4.Planning identification of job needs
This should be carried out using a participatory
methodology, ideally with the trainees themselves,
prior to the training, or with other stakeholders who
are able to provide good quality information - a
source of data or sensory input, organized or
arranged into a pattern which can be
interpreted. about the professional activities of the
target group.
5. Planning identification of individual needs
Here, it is important to estimate the training needs of
individuals, by preparing a variety of questions to
them, such as the following:
• What tasks do you do regularly?
• What difficulties do you face when doing these
tasks or your job?
• What could help you to do your job better?
• What kinds of knowledge do you need to do your
job?
• What skills do you need to do your job?
• What kinds of attitudes do you need to do your job
effectively?
• Which of these KSA do you lack now?
• How long have you worked in this job?
• What do you like most about your job?
• What do you like least?
• What would you like to change about your job?
• Do you think you are doing a good job?
• How do you know if you are doing a good job?
6. Data collection
This is the point when plans become action. If the
planning has been effective, then the data collection
should go smoothly, but always expect the
unexpected. Flexibility, commitment, energy,
organization and a sense of humor will all be needed
during this period.
7. Analysis of the data collected in the TNA
It is important that data is sorted out as the TNA
survey progresses. This has two advantages. Firstly, it
will not be necessary to fight with a huge amount of
data at the end of the survey. Secondly, there will be
a better understanding of important issues emerging
during the survey, which may be explored in more
detail or clarified in some way. Identify categories
into which data can be inserted.
The knowledge skills and attitudes (KSA) identified
will form the basis of the curricula to be developed.
Once these KSA have been identified, it will be
necessary to prioritize which training programs can
or should be offered, and when.
It is therefore important to develop a training
strategy once the results of the TNA are known. For
any training course/programme developed, there
should be clear evidence which justifies its provision.
The information collected in the survey which is not
directly related to KSA will provide this evidence, and
can be useful when developing a training strategy. It
can also be useful in identifying non-training needs.
Training is not the answer to every problem!
8. Presenting the TNA data
There are different ways in which the data could be
presented.
• Target Group
• Existing KSA – 1,2,3, etc
• Future Required KSA - 1,2,3, etc
9. Reporting the data
It is essential to prepare a report of the initial
consolidated results of the TNA. This could be
organized under the following headings:
� Policy.
� Environment.
� Client organizational issues.
� Tasks and activities (existing and future).
� Training provider organizational issues.
� Individual needs.
� KSA (existing and future/required).
� Curricular which are going to be planned
(including time frame, and a rough idea of content).
10. Sharing the results
All the stakeholders involved in the TNA should
have the opportunity to give feedback on the results.
This may be done through a workshop, to which key
stakeholders are invited. The results may be
presented, and then participants should have the
chance to discuss the results in detail, either in small
groups or in a plenary session. It is not always
possible to invite all stakeholders to a workshop; in
this case the results of the TNA should be
disseminated in some other ways (for example, the
written report). Where data is collected from groups
or individuals who cannot participate in a workshop
to discuss the findings and have no access to written
reports, it is important to provide opportunity for
their feedback during the data collection process. A
meeting could be held, for example, where the
researchers present the findings from the field
directly to those who contributed their ideas. This
improves the chance for feedback and validation of
the results. It also emphasizes the importance for the
researchers to sort their data as they proceed with
the collection.

Levels of TNI
At the individuals level :Identification begins with
the job description. This will provide a list of the skills
and knowledge required. It can be compared with
the actual skills and knowledge that the jobholder
processes. managers will also be able to identify
training for their subordinates. One of the best ways
of achieving this is through the appraisal interview,
where agreed training needs can be identified.
At the organizational level: Training needs may be
identified through the performance appraisal system.
This may provide the key channel for feeding back
individual needs. The information should be
processed by human resource development
department in order to plan the overall needs of the
organization.
At occupational level: Training need at this level
refers to training that is required to upgrade certain
job functions. It concentrates on skills, knowledge
and attitudes necessary to carry out various duties
related to a particular job function.
Needs at level of TNI
Needs at Organizational level – Where a general
weakness in the organization exists, where training in
the organization is most needed.
Needs at Occupational level – What is needed in
terms of skills, knowledge and attitude to carry out
the various responsibilities related to a particular job.
Needs at Individual level – Determining deficiencies
in particular skills, knowledge and attitude on the
part of the individual.
The Business Needs Drive Training Evaluation
Determining when a training solution is the right
solution to a performance problem is at the very
heart of what we do as learning professionals. Being
able to clearly articulate the link between business
needs, performance gaps and the impact of the
learning solution is where we prove our value as
professionals to our business partners. But how do
we do that?
It Starts with the Business Need
Our process starts with the initial request for training,
when a perceived deficiency in performance is
identified. By analyzing performance deficiencies
around training development, we identified
performance gaps of training professionals in the
bank related to developing training solutions to solve
specific business goals.
Dana Gains and James Robinson developed their
well-known Performance Relationship Map (PRM) as
a tool for doing up-front analysis. We used the PRM
to clearly identify the business need, desired state
and performance gaps within a large U.S. bank to
develop a blended learning solution later called the
Instructional Design Foundations course. With this
approach, the desired state of performance was first
identified. Then the current state of performance
was identified and the difference between these two
states, known as the performance gap is identified.
The cause of these gaps was first thought to be solely
due to knowledge, skill or ability deficits when, in
fact, there was a number of contributing factors to
the performance deficiencies. Since a training
solution is best used to support increased capabilities
in knowledge, skill and ability, it had to be
determined that there truly was an actual gap in
required knowledge, skill or ability of a sufficient
number of associates to justify the development of
the course. This process and the resulting
information helped us obtain senior leader support
for the training solution and helped to have clear and
measurable outcomes to measure our success
against.
Linking Needs, Solutions and Evaluation
Once the business need is properly identified,
objectives are developed to be observable,
measurable and linked to identify business needs
through performance objectives. In our case the
need was identified as a lack of knowledge and skills
around performance needs assessment, instructional
design and training evaluation. Participants’
preferences or learning styles were also considered
when developing learning objectives and helped us
tailor the e-learning approach to fit associates
learning needs that meant anytime, any-place
learning from their own desks. This also helped
facilitate the transfer of the learning to the actual
workplace.
We used electronic pre- and post-assessments built
around the module objectives for both the associate
and the associate’s manager. An electronic reaction
survey was also used to capture the associate’s
reaction to the course immediately upon finishing
the learning modules.
To determine behavior change on the job and
business impact we structured the post assessments
to report use of the knowledge and

skills on the job 90 days after completing the training
and asked both the associates and their managers
about the business impacts they had achieved in
their workplace that could be directly attributed to
the training.
The graphic above illustrates the link between the
needs analysis we completed using the PRM and
training evaluation plan we implemented using pre
and post assessments.
As shown on the left, the value proposition of the
business problem begins the process of determining
the business need, which in our case was that
trainers throughout the bank had varying degrees of
knowledge and skill in using performance consulting,
instructional design and training evaluation. This
helped identify the behaviors required to achieve the
desired state. The desired state was that trainers
should be better able to link training solutions to
business needs and identify the behaviors that
needed to be developed to address the business
need. Training professionals throughout the bank
were not consistently using industry best practices to
develop solutions that would enable their business
partners to increase efficiencies, decrease time to
market and reduce costs.
To change behavior, new knowledge and skills
needed to be learned and shared across the bank.
The Modules within the course were built around
useable chunks of information and case studies to
drive home knowledge and understanding. To
maximize their learning, the preferred learning styles
of the associates were addressed by making content
bank relevant and accessible from their desks,
eliminating time away from work.
This also proved to be very popular with both the
associates and their managers, which were captured
during the post training surveys and follow-up
interviews. The link between training objectives and
business needs must be considered at the beginning,
instead of at the end of a program, when it becomes
an after-thought. If we don’t link the solutions to
business needs, we risk becoming irrelevant and
expendable in the eyes of our business partners. The
up-front analysis determines whether a training
solution is required, what type of performance
solution is best and the level of evaluation suited to
the solution and the business needs.
Implications for Practitioners
As training professionals, we must maintain a
business focus, analyze performance gaps to be sure
that training is the best solution and ensure that any
training solution is linked to performance analysis
and identified business needs.
The business impact shown to have the greatest
positive impacts was quality, efficiency, reduced re-
work, and associate satisfaction. The ability to
capture this data has created a “chain of impact,” as
Jack Phillips refers to it, which has enabled us to
calculate a Return-on-Investment (ROI).
The ROI was achieved after collecting the fully loaded
costs and the benefits of the training solution and
inserting the numbers in the ROI formula:
ROI = Net Program Benefits/Program Costs X 100 = X
% .
Determining Business Needs In Instructional System
Design
Start With The End In Mind
Begin with the end in mind — a learning or
performance initiative should be a means to an end.
Thus, learning and performance initiatives need to
show how they will improve the business or
organization, such as increase revenue, reduce costs,
or speed up a process. For example, training
salespeople in order to reduce the percentage who
fail to make sales will both increase revenue through
more sales and reduce turnover costs.
Successful training and development → More
effective and efficient performance → Improved
business outcomes.
Since the flow of causality of the above pathway is
from left to right, training must be planned in the
opposite direction:
Desired business outcome → Required changes in
performance to produce business outcome→
Experiences and skills needed to produce the
desired performance.
Thus, designing a viable learning program should
proceed in a manner similar to this:
Analysis Phase: Determine the business outcome —
How does it link to the business unit(s)?
Design Phase: Determine required changes in the
learner's performance.
Development Phase: Create the experiences that will
change the learner's performance.

The analysis phase is the foundation of a learning or
training process. The deliverables of this phase are
the building blocks for all subsequent design and
development activities. It accomplishes this by
discovering:
• Desired business need or result
• If a learning process will fulfill the desired business
need
• Performance requirements that supports desired
business outcome
• What must be learned
• The standards of performance
• How the learning process will occur
• Who needs to improve their performance
This analysis phase is sometimes called a Front-End
Analysis in that while you normally perform some
type of analysis throughout the entire ADDIE process,
this “front end” of the process is where the main
problem identification is performed, such as
identifying the problem, analyzing the job and
selecting the tasks to train (U.S. Army Field Artillery
School, 1984).
Business Needs
To determine the business need, investigate the
problem or performance initiative to see how it
supports the mission statement, leader's vision,
and/or organizational goals. Fixing a problem or
making a process better is just as good as a Return on
Investment (ROI), if not better. Organizations that
focus strictly on ROI are normally focusing on cost-
cutting. And you can only cut costs so much before
you start stripping out the core parts of a business. A
much better approach is to improve a performance
or process that supports a key organization goal,
vision, or mission.
When senior executives were asked the most
important training initiatives, 77% cited, “aligning
learning strategies with business goals”; 75% cited,
“ensuring learning content meets workforce
requirements”; and 72% said, “boosting productivity
and agility” (Training Magazine, 2004). Thus, senior
leaders are not looking at training to be a profit
center (that is what other business units are for),
rather they are looking at performance improvement
initiatives to help grow the organization so that it can
reach its goals and perform its mission.
Identifying and Analyzing TNI linkages with Business
Needs
In order to fully understand all your training
requirements, you should:
• Look at your business objectives - any training that
contributes to these may be a priority.
• Implement a training programme - identify what
you want to achieve, and inform staff of the
learning and development plans
• Ask for staff input - find out what training they feel
they require, and how should this training be
delivered
• Carry out a full skills audit - some staff may have
skills that you didn't know about, or that they
haven't had a chance to use yet
• Once you have found out which skills you are
missing, you can identify what training is required
to fill that gap. Remember that training should be
applicable to the job, relevant to the person
carrying out the job and tied to business objectives.
• Once you have identified the training needs of your
staff, you will need to find out the type of
training that will best suit your needs.
• People learn in different ways, and you need to
make sure you tailor the right training course to the
right person to produce the desired outcomes.

Case Study
Tony Devlin set up Glenovation in 2002 and
is the managing director. Glenovation
provides multimedia, web and database
development support and helps
companies apply for public sector
contracts in the UK and Ireland. Tony
employs four full-time members of staff to
help meet the demands of his growing
company.
What He did?
Brushed up his own skills
Once he made the decision to become
self-employed the first skill gaps to address
was his own. Whilst he was very
comfortable in the dot com world he didn't
have previous business start-up experience
and had an immediate training
requirement in this area. He registered
on business start-up programme, which
was a great benefit and gave him
invaluable skills around marketing the
company. This really helped to get the
business off to a good start.
He was also afraid to go into situations
with large groups of people. With the help
of the start-up program he was able to
start effective networking.
Sought advice from training experts
As the business began to grow he started
to recruit and currently employ four full-
time people. He did an audit of collective
strengths and skill gaps which included
marketing and promotion of the company.
In order to fill up the gaps he brought in
three marketing gurus who specialized in
training staff to be more market aware and
spot customer opportunities from every
situation. The staff responded really well to
outside support and he noticed an
improvement in their skills, which has also
helped improve his overall performance.
Other benefits included increased staff
confidence which ultimately lead to an
improvement in his profit margins.“
Devoted time to staff development
For a small business he spend a lot of time
on staff development. He organize group
workshops every three to four months to
encourage and develop teamwork and
communication skills. This includes how to
deal with customers; how to spot business
opportunities; developing brand awareness
and becoming more efficient in their job
roles. The time invested in this really pays
off as it increases staff motivation and has
demonstrable benefits on the bottom-line.
What he did differently
Carry out a staff skills audit and design a
training programme
He ensured members of staff are equipped
with the correct skills from the outset. As
well as providing high quality training for
the team it's important to train yourself.
Linking up with at least one business
mentor is a great way to learn from other
people's challenges and be able to take
these forward positively in your own
business.

Evaluation The value of learning and development for
organizations
The most basic reason for providing learning and
development is to ensure that an organization's
employees are able to carry out their current role. Some
training may be mandatory in relation to health and safety
or occupation-specific issues but much of it will be
discretionary where organizations appreciate the added
value that they will gain from having highly skilled and
knowledgeable employees.
Organizations which are keen to improve their
productivity, efficiency and profitability will look to move
beyond mandatory training and look at more diverse
learning and development activities which will enable the
employees to maximize their potential and provide a
valuable resource for the organization. Learning and
development can be a source of competitive advantage
where employees gain appropriate new knowledge and
skills (Towler and Dipboye, 2009) which provides a strong
argument for organizations to invest in their employees so
that they can reap the benefits and differentiate
themselves from their competitors.
However, provision of learning and development
opportunities alone do not mean that an organization will
be more productive and effective, there are many more
steps needed. Firstly the opportunities need to be
appropriate in terms of content and the way that it is
delivered so that they will add value to the employees and
the overall organization. As well as looking at
appropriateness from an organizational perspective it is
also necessary to consider the fit with teams in the
organization and individual employees to ensure that their
needs can adequately be met.
In addition the learning and development activities need
to be delivered in such a way that practical benefits to the
workplace can be observed and to enable the employees
to be able to transfer their new knowledge and skills to
the benefit of all of the key stakeholders.
Chiaburu and Lindsay (2008:199) comments:
Training programmes are effective only to the extent that
the skills and behaviors learned and practiced during
instruction are actually transferred to the workplace.
Development
Of Learning and

In addition many organizations recognize the value of
providing suitable learning and development
provision where it supports accreditations such as
Investors in People which may be highly desirable.
With heightened awareness of corporate and social
responsibility, different stakeholders may have an
interest in the learning and development
opportunities offered to employees.
Prospective employees may also be enticed through
the provision of a good range of learning and
development opportunities as a way of
differentiating employers who offer similar salaries.
As well as the sometimes tangible benefits of the
training this commitment to employees sends out a
message that employees are valued and supported
within the organization.
It is increasingly recognized that employees need to
be actively aware of an organization's strategies and
objectives and the provision of learning and
development opportunities can help to cement this
where clear links are drawn between the learning
intervention and how it is aligned with the overall
strategy.
Felstead et al (1997:v) also emphasize “moulding
attitudes and generating enthusiasm for corporate
objectives”
What do we mean by evaluation of
learning and development?
Training evaluation can be described as a systematic
process of collecting and analyzing information for
and about a training program which can be used for
planning and guiding decision making as well as
assessing the relevance, effectiveness, and the
impact of various training components (Raab et al.,
1991). This demonstrates the wide range of activities
that are associated with it as well as the many
benefits.
James and Roffe (2000:12) provide a simplified
explanation of evaluation: “comparing the actual and
real with the predicted or promised” which
emphasizes the need to reflect on what was achieved
in comparison to what was hoped for. This definition
also highlights the potential subjectiveness of
evaluation for different individuals are likely to have
diverse expectations and their review of the event(s)
may also differ depending on a wide range of
variables, for example; the learning interventions
may be heavily focused towards one particular
learning style. Dawson (1995:3) provides another
explanation which suggests that the process should
be impartial and devoid of subjective opinion:
It is useful at this point to consider just what
evaluation of training really does mean. The
evaluation of training is the systematic and impartial
collection of data for managers and all other
interested parties. This information equips them to
draw conclusions about the effectiveness of
particular training measures as a way of achieving
organizational objectives, implementing policy and
promoting organizational learning .
Dawson’s (1995) definition is useful in illustrating the
wide range of issues that evaluations are intended to
capture as well as the assortment of reasons why
evaluations might be necessary. It is therefore clear
that organisations will need to have clarity in their
rationale for evaluating and they need to ensure that
this is shared with all of the relevant stakeholders.
Failure to do this may lead to a mismatch in the data
provided, thereby providing limited use to the
organisation and/or the trainer(s).
The importance of evaluating learning and
development activities
Mann (1996:14) states “With the huge investment in
developing training strategies, the question is no
longer “should we train” but rather “is the training
worthwhile and effective?”. This is consistent with a
wide range of literature which accepts that training is
important and recognizes the evaluation of it to be a
key issue so that its ‘worth’ can be proven.
Lewis and Thornhill (1994:25) state “there seems to
be widespread agreement with the proposition that
evaluation is the least well conducted aspect of all
training activities” which suggests that there is a need
for organizations to focus on this area of the learning
and development process in order for evaluation to
reach its potential. This attitude was confirmed in the
CIPD (2008) Learning and Development survey
whereby only one in five (21%) of the respondents
said that they spend most of their time monitoring or
evaluating training at the moment. Athanasaou
(1998) indicates similar results when research was
undertaken in Australia.

The importance of the process can be viewed from
the perspectives of different stakeholders:
To the organization
There are a number of reasons why organizations
should evaluate their learning and development
activities and this includes the following:
• To help make decisions about what interventions
should (or should not) be replicated in the future.
• To provide evidence of investment in their
[organizations] human capital.
• To demonstrate the value that interventions bring
to the organization (Burkett, 2005a).
• To enable training departments to justify their
expenditure, particularly where there is an
increased focus on spending less whilst generating
more outcomes (Goldwasser, 2001).
• As part of business efficiency considerations (The
Industrial Society, 1998)
• To reinforce the importance of an evaluation
process when trialing new programmes for
employees (Russ –Eft and Preskill, 2008).
• To assist in determining who should attend training
programmes (Mann, 1996).
• To allow the organization to identify whether there
are better ways to achieve things rather than
through the provision of formal learning and
development interventions i.e. job aids which are
more effective (Simpson, 2002)
Mann (1996) identifies beneficial legal implications of
having effective evaluation data so that if necessary,
organizations can demonstrate the job relatedness of
training programmes (the work of these authors is
set in the American context).
APSC (2005:2) suggest that evaluation is even more
important in the public sector and state: Effective
evaluation is part of an accountable, professional and
ethical public service. It is fundamental to good
governance, good practice and good management.
This suggests that public sector organizations need to
pay particular attention to this issue so that they can
demonstrate the values and benefits that they accrue
from their investment into training and development.
In the current economic and political climate where
there is a strong focus on public sector expenditure
this area of spending is likely to be particularly
important. In addition a comprehensive evaluation
process may lead to cost savings and support the
requirement from Gershon (2004) to reduce public
sector expenditure.
To individuals
Evaluation provides individual learners with the
opportunity to give feedback to their trainers;
perhaps this is most useful when it is gathered early
on in the process so that they can benefit from any
resultant adjustments.
Individuals in subsequent cohorts can also benefit
from the evaluation process if feedback is acted upon
for the benefit of the programme. This relies on
individual learners taking the time to actively engage
in the evaluation process and to provide honest
feedback in the most relevant areas. Learners may
also be able to benefit from the evaluation process if
they are members of particular professional bodies
which require reflective evidence of continuing
professional development (CPD).
To trainers/facilitators
Evaluation data may be used as a performance
indicator which justifies the existence of a training
department and/or investment in trainers.
Independent trainers may also depend on their
feedback to gain future business and/or to engage
with potential new clients as an indicator of the
quality of their provision and delivery. Trainers or
facilitators can also benefit from evaluations so that
they can update or amend it accordingly; this may be
particularly useful if they are working in specific
sectors or types of organization.

Importance of evaluation
In many countries Governments may also play a
significant role in the expansion of learning and
development activities either through the delivery of
programmes or the provision of free or subsidized
funding for industries or organizations. Where this is
the case providers are likely to have to prove the
value that they add in a more transparent way
(Massey, 2004).
Purpose of evaluation
APSC (2005) provide a simple overview of the
purpose of evaluation and state that it has the
following four objectives:
I. Assess if intended learning and development
objectives have been met
II. Continuous improvement of learning and
development
III. Assess whether resources are used wisely
IV. Assess the value for money of the learning and
development
From these four options organizations may decide to
address all of them or concentrate on some of them.
For example, many organizations do not have the
resources to be able to assess the value for money of
the learning and development so may focus more on
the other three objectives. Other issues that may
impact on the extent to which programmes are
evaluated are:
• The size of the organization
• The availability of expertise to generate evaluation
frameworks and subsequently analyze the data
provided by learners
• The objectives of specific training programmes – in
some cases the focus may be almost exclusively be
on ensuring that the program-specific objectives
have been met.
The original four objectives shown above were later
expanded by APSC (2005) to include the following
purposes:
• To Determine success
• Assess if objectives have been achieved
• Make improvements
• Ensure quality
• Ensure accountability
• Meet external requirements
• Account for activity
• Assess value or merit
• Assess risk
• Justify investments
• Facilitate decisions whether to
continue/discontinue the activity
• Ensure appropriateness and alignment
• Identify strengths and weaknesses
Clegg (1987) believes that a key purpose could be to
establish guidelines for future programmes by
building upon strengths and identifying areas for
development. It could also be argued that the
evaluation process could also be used to review
diversity related issues as Schmidt (2009) believes
that a major challenge for training practitioners is
being able to meet the needs of diverse groups.
This section of the review has highlighted the many
different reasons why organizations use evaluation as
part of their processes and it is likely that
organizations will vary significantly in the reasons
why they use them but they must have a clear
understanding of their purpose so that they can
collect the necessary information in an appropriate
way. It is important that this purpose is also
communicated to all of the relevant stakeholders,
particularly the trainers and facilitators so that they
can ensure that appropriate information is collated.

Linking learning, development and
evaluation to business strategy
Learning and training can provide a pivotal link
between an organization's human resource strategy
and overall business strategy (Mabey, Salaman, and
Storey, 1998) by ensuring that the organization's
employees have the relevant skills and knowledge
needed to be able to execute the HR strategy. This
should also give the HR strategy an improved chance
of success if they have a clear understanding of
capabilities and whether investment and
development is required. Smith and Smith (2007)
uncovered evidence that more and more employers
are demanding that training is deliberately aligned
with the strategic needs of the organization.
It is clear from a range of papers that researchers
have identified the importance of linking learning
with organizations' overall strategies and business
objectives, particularly where their people are one of
their sources of competitive advantage. This means
that those responsible for learning, development and
evaluation have to have a good understanding of the
strategy and objectives and discuss the key issues
with a range of stakeholders.
The extent to which learning and development can
be linked to the strategy depends on how close an
alignment exists, for example; whether or not
learning is explicitly referred to within the strategic
planning document and whether there is ongoing
communication and links between the learning and
development function and the senior managers
(Anderson, 2009b).
Anderson (2009a) believes that the alignment of HRD
to organizational strategy remains problematic. This
concern was also identified in the earlier findings of
CIPD (2007) where only one third of their survey
participants felt that learning and development
implications are considered when organizational
strategy is constructed.
As strategies are updated or refocused it will be
necessary to review the learning and development
process and therefore an ongoing dialogue is needed
between those responsible for learning and
development and senior managers. This section
suggests that whilst alignment with wider HR and
organizational strategies are needed there is
insufficient evidence of this in operation.
Models of evaluation
The Kirkpatrick model
In the 1960’s Donald Kirkpatrick wrote a series of
articles on evaluation where he identified four stages
(or levels of evaluation). Despite its age, Kirkpatrick’s
model continues to be used in contemporary
research (Schmidt et al, 2009 and Elliott et al, 2009).
Kirkpatrick (1977:9) divided the evaluation process
into four segments or stages.
Stage1: Reaction
How do the participants feel about the program they
attended? To what extent are they ‘satisfied
customers’?
Stage2: Learning
To what extent have the trainees learned the
information and skills? To what extent have their
attitudes changed?
Stage3: Behavior
To what extent has their job behavior changed as a
result of attending the training program?
Stage4: Results
To what extent have results been affected by the
training program? (Results would include such factors
as profits, return-on-investment, sales, production
quality, quantity, schedules being met, costs, safety
record, absenteeism, turnover, grievances and
morale).
Moving beyond Kirkpatrick
Phillips (2002) cited in Burkett (2005b) suggested the
addition of a fifth stage on return on investment
(ROI) to measure the monetary costs of providing the
intervention with the monetary benefits received.
This concept of ROI has become an area of increasing
interest and is discussed in more detail later in this
review.
The CIRO model focuses on three questions as shown
below in Figure 2 (cited in Elliott et al., 2009) and the
main difference from Kirkpatrick’s model in that it
focuses on measurements taken before and after the
training has been carried out. Perhaps a key strength
of this model is that it takes into account the
resources of the organization (within the input
measure) and their objectives (within the context
measure) thereby responding to some of the
criticisms of Kirkpatrick.

CIRO model of evaluation
Context – what needs to be addressed?
Input – what is likely to bring about the changes?
Reaction – how did the learners react to the training?
Outcome – what are immediate, intermediate and
ultimate outcomes?
Brinkerhoff (2006:302) gives examples of
organizations that deliver exactly the same training
but that have very different levels of impact and
suggests that this can be explained by:
“The answer lies in the way that companies make use
of training, the way it is organized, planned,
implemented, and above all, followed up and
supported”.
The role of training needs analysis
It is clear from all of the literature on learning and
development that an effective system has to begin
with a comprehensive training needs analysis process
so that the organization, departments and individuals
can identify their specific needs. Through the careful
identification of these needs the organization can
identify where gaps exist in skills and knowledge and
offer appropriate interventions to try to address
these gaps.
The process of training needs analysis can take a
variety of forms; at an individual level it may be
discussed as part of the performance management
process; it may be a discrete activity in its own right
or they may be driven from other organizational
data. The increasing use of staff surveys is an
example of using data to identify specific areas
requiring development. Throughout the training
needs analysis process attention should also be paid
to the linkage with the overall organizational strategy
and goals to ensure that there is consistency and that
learning interventions have the potential to have an
impact. A critical success factor for effective training
needs analysis is the need for learners to be honest
(Tennant et al., 2002) otherwise the learning and
development opportunities offered will not be as
effective.
Naturally the training needs analysis process has a
close link with the evaluation of learning and
development as the objectives of the
programmes/interventions should be considered as
part of the training needs analysis process.
What should we measure?
It is clear from the literature base that measuring
satisfaction with the programme is important;
however this should not be the sole focus. Learners
may enjoy attending a programme but not actually
learn anything/enough to have an impact on their
performance in the workplace which minimizes the
value of the programme.
To a certain extent many of the evaluation criteria
may be quite specific to individual programmes and
their contexts as well as the purpose of the
evaluation. It is important that the key stakeholders
agree on the evaluation criteria to ensure that the
data will meet all of their needs. There is a need to
include a range of stakeholders in making the
decision on what should be evaluated, including
business unit managers (Goldwasser, 2001). There
may be some core evaluation criteria which should
be collected from each program but these could be
weighted differently depending on specific
programmes.
As well as looking at skills and knowledge it will often
be appropriate to measure behaviors. Of further
interest is to look at behavior both within
participation in the intervention and when they
return to the workplace (Mann, 1996).
Results from the survey undertaken by Industrial
Society (1998) suggest that management training is
the most likely to be evaluated followed by technical
and IT training and those focusing on developing
interpersonal skills. This may be because these are
the most frequently delivered programmes.
It is therefore important to make clear judgments on
what should be measured, Ellis (2005) refers to this
process as calculating the ROI on ROI. The significant
work of Philips recommends that only 5-10% of
training interventions should be evaluated at this
level which means that organizations need to give
careful consideration to which programmes would
benefit the most from this in-depth approach.

Return On Investment
There is a growing need for HR professionals to be
able to provide performance measures for the
activities that they carry out (Mulvaney et al, 2006)
and particularly for those where there are direct
cost implications, for example; the provision of
learning and development interventions.
Specifically they need to provide the bottom line
impact of training programmes. Expressed in simple
terms; ROI allows organisations to identify the
impact of a specific investment on the bottom line
(Simpson, 2002). Despite the fact that there is
widespread appreciation of the value of using ROI,
few organisations do so (Hall, 2003).
Rowden (2005:31) provides a particularly useful
introduction which emphasises one of the
challenges of evaluating learning and development
activities:
“The ‘bean-counters’ in the organization are likely to
know exactly how much training costs but they may
have little idea of its value. HR must be able to
supply that information if it is to truly become a
strategic part of the organization”.
This infers that HR have significant role to play in
changing the perceptions of some about the value
of training and ensuring that supporting data
(whether qualitative or quantitative) can be
provided. Management need to be clear about
what they want from their training and
development (Rowden, 2005) so that appropriate
investment measures can be used though
Giangreco (2009) argues that it would be too
simplistic to think that simple linear relationships
can be drawn from attendance at training and later
results. Hick (2000) believes that return on
investment is important for six main reasons .
The importance of return-on-investment
• HRD budgets have grown and so has
accountability.
• Total quality measurement and continuous
process improvement has put a bigger focus on
measurement.
• Focus on bottom line due to its outsourcing;
restructuring this places a link on training meeting
business needs (strategic)
• Economic issues
• Must show contribution to business
• Increased awareness that training can be
measured.
Organizations and trainers may have reservations
about attempting to calculate return on investment
(ROI) due to concerns about the cost, time and
human resources that would be needed to carry it
out with confidence (Burkett, 2005a). It is therefore
necessary for them to generate appropriate criteria
to determine which programmes will be evaluated at
this level. Ellis (2005) provides an interesting quote:
“bottom line; it’s better to measure strategically than
constantly” which reinforces the need to make
decisions about which type and level of programmes
need to have their ROI measured.
In response to the costs associated with calculating
ROI on programmes (assuming that an organization
has a large portfolio of training interventions that
they offer) Burkett (2005a:12) identifies ten cost
saving approaches to ROI (provided below in Figure
7) which should reduce the costs involved in
undertaking the ROI process.
Philips (1996) suggests that only 10% of interventions
should be explored at ROI level and Ellis (2005)
defines specific criteria to identify the most
appropriate interventions to be calculated at the ROI
level:
• High level of visibility
• Those with strong management interest
• Those with strong ties to company objectives
A wider advantage of the return on investment
approach is that it allows the HR team to speak the
same financial language as the management team
and increased credibility and input into strategic
decisions (Purcell, 2000). As ROI is particularly
expensive to carry out and the literature suggests
that it should only be used on a small number of
projects it may be useful to also use return-on-
expectations.

Measuring ROI enabling L & D to Drive Value of Learning

Measuring ROI enabling L & D to Drive Value of Learning

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