The cover story of this month's T&DJ is called "Moving From Evidence to Proof." The authors once again exhort training practitioners to stop making excuses for failing to evaluate training beyond learner satisfaction and to get to the bottom line: ROI.

Will Measuring Training ROI Mean Career Suicide?

I have a problem with using ROI to prove the value of training. By this point, the company has presumably spent tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars on the training. I don't know about you, but I don't relish the thought of committing career suicide by telling senior management that the results of the evaluation show that this investment was all for naught. It feels like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped.

Reframing the ROI Discussion

Does this mean that you shouldn't ever evaluate the ROI of training? Absolutely not! But you should reframe the purpose of that evaluation. Evaluation should be done to make sure that training works so the company can realize a return on its investment. It shouldn't be done to prove that value exists.

So, if your evaluation data shows that training didn't work, you dig deeper to find out why. Do you need to revamp the design or change the delivery method? Is the right target audience being trained? Is post-training coaching needed to help learners incorporate what they learned into their work routines? Do systems and processes need to change so they are not preventing learners from applying what they learned? Armed with the reason the training didn't get the expected traction, you can take action to fix the problem and salvage the investment. 

Only now is it time to measure the ROI of training to see how the actual ROI compares to the anticipated ROI. This measurement can help stimulate conversations about what to do differently so better training investment decisions are made going forward.

Hard Conversations

You can save yourself some of the angst that accompanies this process by having some hard conversations with your business partners up front. Let them know what they need to do to ensure the training works so there is a return on investment. That's right. The efficacy of training rests not only on the shoulders of the Training Department, but also on collaboration with the business.

Some things to talk to the business about include:

1. Making the application of new knowledge and skills on the job a priority for both learners and their managers.
2. Revamping existing systems and processes so they support the skills the business wants employees to learn.
3. Establishing goals that are aligned with desired results.
4. Arranging for learners to have uninterrupted time to focus on learning.
5. Supporting the need for coaching after training to ensure that learners incorporate what they learned into their work.
6. Supporting the need to evaluate training to make sure it works and to troubleshoot if it doesn't.
7. Validating that the skills the business wants employees to learn result in the outcomes the business wants to achieve. Far too often, the business wants employees to do "A" to get result "B," but no one ever validates that skill "A" consistently produces result "B."
8. Using ROI to select which training projects to invest in rather than to prove the value of an investment that has already been made.

Ultimately, these conversations may result in less training being offered in any given fiscal year because each project will require more resources. But, this is a better situation than throwing together a lot of training that doesn't work.

In the end, taking this approach allows you to ensure that there is a return on the investment in training while building your credibility and political capital with senior management. What more can you ask?