If the most critical step in the learning and development cycle (LDC) is to build alignment to business strategy, then it makes sense to ensure that the learning practitioner has a clear idea of what the organization will look like the business strategy has been achieved. There are many models available to help understand the importance of describing goals fully, whether that is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (Collins, 2001) or a Wildly Important Goal (Covey, 2015), but what is important is that both the learning practitioner and the rest of the organization are clear on:
- What does the organization look like?
- What does the organization feel like?
- How would our people behave toward each other, customers, suppliers, and so on?
- What would our competitors, suppliers, and customers say about us?
- How would employees talk about the organization?
- How would the managers behave toward their line reports?
- What skills, knowledge, and capability would exist in the organization?
Until the learning practitioner has a clear mental image of what the strategic goal for the organization is, it is difficult to diagnose the performance gap between where the organization is now (current state) and where the organization will be if organizational goals are achieved (future state).
A strategic goal can be likened to a holiday destination. There are many variations and possible holiday destinations that can be visited, depending on whether the traveler is looking for heat, snow, family friendly, adventure, city break, and so on. What clothes are packed into the suitcase and travel plans will be determined by your destination. A swimsuit is great if you are going to Miami Beach but perhaps not suitable for sightseeing in the Middle East or climbing Everest. Similarly, organizations can develop strategic goals, which are as different as a sun lounger is from a white water raft. Organizations may develop strategic goals that rely on, for example; high quality service, low price good, focused markets, differentiated ranges, global reach, local delivery, for profit, not-for-profit, and so on. Therefore; it is essential that before consideration is given to how to measure success, there is clarity on how to recognize success when it is achieved.
Begin with the End in Mind
Once there is clarity as to the strategic destination of the organization, the learning practitioner can begin working on some expectations in regards to what the organizational achievements may need to be in regards to required performance levels, in order for the organization to reach its strategic goals. Quite simply, this is identifying what measures, if achieved, will result in achieving the goal. Some measurements will track whether the strategic plan is on track, output measures. Other metrics will measure high impact activities that have a direct influence on the achievement of outcome, input measures. For example, if turnover is reduced, recruitment costs will fall.
It is important at this point to be clear that this does not require a reinvention of the organizational metric wheel. The best place to start when considering what the end will look like is to look at the performance measures that the organization has set itself. This ensures that the performance measures that are being used for evaluation are measuring outcomes, which are valued by the organization. There will most certainly be headline figures in regards to growth rates, revenue, and profit but within the business strategy will be the building blocks of the strategy presented as a clearly defined set of financial measures. If the organization has a robust business strategy, it will also include a detailed workforce plan. This should hopefully include information regarding a variety of people performance metrics expressed as a monetary value (Figure 4.1).
Figure 4.1 People performance metrics examples
If no workforce plan exists, then it is essential that the learning practitioner works alongside the wider HR team and their colleagues in the finance department to ensure that a clear workforce plan is developed before diagnosing needs. Key questions that will need answering in order to define the end are as follows:
- What is the size and shape of the employee population?
- What new skills, knowledge, or abilities are required for the organization to achieve its desired future state?
- What existing skills, knowledge, or abilities need to be updated or will become redundant?
- What are the challenges and opportunities that the organization will face and in what way can learning and development contribute to overcoming performance hurdles?
- What changes need to occur in organizational behavior and culture for the future state to be achieved?
- What knowledge needs to arise in the organization, and where and when does that knowledge need to be available?
- What do we know we don’t know at this point, and what impact does that have on the strategic plans?
- What are the risks directly related to learning and development and where do we need to develop contingency plans?
Measuring the Impact of Learning and Development
All employee performance improvements whether in knowledge, skills, abilities, or behavior will lead directly or indirectly to greater organizational effectiveness resulting in increased profitability or improved efficiency leading to reduced costs. This is a bold claim, and often it is hard to identify the effect of subtle changes in individuals. However, just like it is not possible to spot the incremental physical growth and changing maturity of a child on a day-to-day basis, performance changes are gradual and a sum of the system.
From a LDC perspective, once the people performance metrics, which measure the success of the business strategy, have been identified, it is then possible to begin developing a set of learning and development performance measures. This will be both return on expectation (ROE), which measures success in terms of organizational environment, behaviors, culture, knowledge, and skills and metrics that can be used to determine the monetary, or return on investment (ROI), people performance improvements. Since these measures already exist in the organization, it is also possible to use existing reporting mechanisms in order to track the identified metrics on a regular basis. It is recommended that the learning practitioner requests a regular report from a friendly business analyst in the finance department at this stage.
Typologies of Evaluation
There are numerous types of evaluation that learning practitioners can engage in, all of which have a different purpose, time frame, and usefulness in the evaluation process as shown in Figure 4.2.
Figure 4.2 Typologies of evaluation
The choice of evaluation type will depend on what information is required by key stakeholders within the organization to make decisions in regards to the added value that the learning and development function is delivering to the organization. The type of evaluation will also be reliant on the skills and knowledge of the learning practitioner in conducing evaluations, as well as the time resource available for this type of activity. The decisions made about the type, quantity, and quality of evaluation used is determined by organizational needs. However, in regards to winning the battle of hearts and minds to the cause of learning and development, how much the learning practitioner values the usefulness of evaluation will determine the robustness of the evaluation that takes place.
Summary
- The learning practitioner needs to ensure they have a clear idea of what the organization will look like when it achieves the business strategy.
- Begin with the End in Mind means establishing performance expectations of organizational achievements by identifying what measures, if achieved, will result in achieving the strategic goal.
- If no workforce plan exists, then it is essential that a plan is developed before diagnosing needs.
- The best place to start is to look at the performance measures that the organization uses in the business strategy.
- By using performance measures that already exist in the organization, it is also possible to use existing reporting mechanisms in order to track the identified metrics on a regular basis.
- There are numerous types of evaluation all of which have a different purpose, time frame, and usefulness in the evaluation process.
- The type, quantity, and quality of evaluation used will be determined by organizational needs.