Measuring Business Impact – The Holy Grail of Training Assessment?

One of the perennial issues facing the training industry is the extent to which one is truly able to measure business impact. Often, at an intuitive level, one can be confident that a programme is delivering excellent results. But a more detailed assessment is challenging in practice, particularly where it is a necessary part of securing further resources.

Some of the basics are reasonably painless. It is relatively easy for example, to measure the extent to which skills are being adopted during the training; it is also reasonably straightforward to assess the extent to which these skills are being used back in the workplace. But is the investment producing something that is truly tangible in terms of business impact? And even if tangible results are being achieved, are these a direct consequence of the training, or are other factors responsible? Perhaps more importantly, could even better results be achieved?

These imponderables can be frustrating for everyone involved. Those who invest in training have been promised value and they want to see if it is being delivered. If it isn’t, they want to drill into the reasons why, so they can ensure action is taken to realise the anticipated value. The scenario is similarly frustrating for the trainer, or the training company, because they have promised to deliver value and they want to be able to demonstrate that they’re being successful in doing so. If they aren’t demonstrating value, they want to take action to ensure that they do, helping their client and preserving the relationship at the same time.

Many of our clients have developed their own measurement systems and we have been happy to work within such frameworks. The difficulty for the client is that these can be very labour intensive and in many cases they are creating a measurement system from scratch. This, of course, is very demanding, particularly in today’s environment when resources may be scarce.

Some training companies also offer their own measurement and assessment. But I know that some clients have concerns about these – after all the training company is under pressure to show value and there may be a temptation, even unconsciously, to look for evidence of success – and that can be at odds with being truly objective.

We at AchieveGlobal wanted to find a solution, which was truly objective; hence, our recent partnership with Knowledge Advisors. They are specialists in this complex, labyrinthine field and can develop robust and highly credible tools to lead you out of the measurement maze. Moreover, they have considerable experience and resource, so their processes, from a client point of view, are extremely straightforward.

We are hopeful that this alliance puts us a considerable step ahead in the quest for effective evaluation. Feel free to share your own experiences of measurement and let us know if you have found your own Holy Grail.

Mike Hawthorne, Managing Director

Fuelling discontent

Mike Hawthorne, Managing Director

I imagine there are some people who actually enjoy buying petrol.  You may even be  one of them.   Most  people are probably indifferent, but for me it’s a banal and joyless experience.  Not as bad as completing  a tax return and way better than root canal, but joyless none the less. 

Perhaps the origin of this lies in some past, forecourt -related trauma.  Perhaps I have a particular dislike of getting diesel on my soles.  But  whatever the cause, the problem definitely got worse for me once petrol stations decided to  “maximise their site’s retail potential”.  Now fan belts, oil  and other motoring essentials fight for space with barbeques,  pies and latte.  The net effect is to make the whole process  even longer.  In many garages the increased transaction time ensures vehicles are stuck at the pump.  And at a well-known garage on the A3 this frequently leads to tail-backs on to the main road.  In my own case I’ve been known  to drive with the gauge in the red in the hope  I’ll  come across an old -school filling station, that just sells fuel.  By the time I find one, the car’s usually on vapour, which makes for quite a lucrative petrol-only sale.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with trying to sell related products and services.  Done well it provides the customer with additional benefits and it helps boost profits.  But this illustration demonstrates some of the risks.   It shouldn’t be detrimental to the original service and it definitely shouldn’t jeopardise the relationship.

At AchieveGlobal we’re often asked to help by giving service providers the skills to sell,  either in business to business or business to consumer environments.  One of the biggest challenges can be that the individual service people are concerned at the prospect of  selling  - often because they’ve experienced it being done badly.  When they see how the skills can actually improve customer attitudes, they become much more positive.

Speaking of positive experiences, recently I was getting my passport application pre-checked at the Post Office (not an AchieveGlobal customer).   The clerk asked when I was travelling and offered travel insurance and  currency.  Perhaps others wouldn’t have liked this approach, but my response was positive.  They met all the golden rules, being friendly, relevant and targeted to me. 

There are many organisations who could learn from this.  And for some of them,  here’s today’s free consulting tip:   Can we please have a fuel only queue,  or as a compromise,  a line for three items or fewer?