Learning and Development Audit
The word audit very often conjures up images of the Gestapo arriving to torture individuals of a team until they have made a confession regarding all of the mistakes the department has made. However, it is imperative that the learning and development function is a department that leads by example. As learning practitioners we must be willing to proactively learn from what has happened, both good and bad, and respond to that learning by developing, changing, and renewing to become more effective and more efficient.
Given the speed of change in the organizational environment, regular evaluation of what, how, and why are essential to managing expectations of the business leaders and demonstrating the value that the learning and development function is delivering. Too often, learning practitioners expect business leaders to know the value they are delivering without disclosing what it is, exactly, that the learning and development function actually does. For most employees their only knowledge of what the learning and development function is doing is the few workshops they are invited to attend. For many others the workings and machinations of learning and development are little more than voodoo magic and result in business leaders wondering why the learning and development budget and team are as big as they are or why the function has a budget at all. What exactly is it that learning and development do? This can lead to false assumptions and an inaccurate belief that learning and development is pink and fluffy and somewhat detached from the realities of the day-to-day business of running the organization.
Therefore; a learning and development audit goes beyond simply evaluating the efficiency of the learning and development function, and assures senior leaders they are getting value for money. An audit promotes the professional management of the learning and development function and the professionalism of the learning practitioner. It provides a benchmark against which improvements can be made, both in systems and practices, and aids growth and expansion into different areas, going beyond transactional learning and development practices into the realms of learning and development acting as a trusted adviser on the development of the organization’s most valued resource, its people.
In Chapter 1, typologies of evaluation were explored. A comprehensive evaluation of the learning and development function is required to conduct a learning and development audit. This will examine the following:
- Strategy: In what ways are the long-term and short-term plan vertically aligned with the organizational strategy and horizontally aligned to the human resource (HR) strategy? What evidence is there that the learning and development strategy is fit for purpose? Where and how can the strategy be improved?
- Strategic Planning: What value does the learning and development strategic planning bring? How efficient is the strategic planning process? Who is involved in strategic planning? Who should be involved in strategic planning in the future? What improvements can be made to the strategic planning process? How can these improvements be implemented?
- Structure: What evidence is there that the functional design of learning and development ensures that interventions are delivered by the right person, with the right skills at the right time? In what ways does the structure of the learning and development function support business needs and ensure that learning practitioners are close to the business? How is collaboration and cooperation encouraged and enabled? What evidence is there that the structure flexible enough to react to business changes? How does the structure impact the attitudes of internal customers toward learning and the learning and development function? Where and how can the structure be improved?
- Systems: What evidence is there that the learning and development systems support the learning and development cycle (LDC)? In what ways can processes be described as efficient? How do systems enable the internal clients to interact with the learning and development team effectively? Where and how can systems and processes be improved?
- Practices: What evidence is there that the learning and development practices are fit for purpose? How does learning practitioner continuously improve their practices? What methods are used to keep up to date with the latest development in learning and development? How are new developments shared and where appropriately incorporated? What pockets of excellence exist and how can these be shared among the wider team? Where and how can learning and development practices be improved?
Intervention Value Evaluation
The format for a learning and development audit requires the learning practitioner to look inward to the workings of their own function and focus on what has been delivered in terms of work and the processes of work that are taking place. It includes an examination of the working relationship between team members as well as the outcomes of the work the team has delivered. The focus is on value of task outcomes as well as the efficiency of the processes that produce those outcomes. It is possible to calculate the value of outcomes produced by the learning and development function by using the value equation.
Quality in the value equation is an assessment of the value added by an enhancement that participants achieve either in skills, knowledge, or ability as a result of their higher education. Quality is organization specific, but can be captured and monetized by the learning and development function.
Energy Transformation Value Evaluation Case Study
- Situation: Through discussions with managers about “what will make the biggest difference,” the focus was on improving customer satisfaction, which was below industry average.
- Task: Following an investigation into the existing customer satisfaction, development areas identified included empowerment to solve problem, breaking siloes to have one company working and developing commercial thinking in the service engineers.
- Action: Delivered a diagnostic theater of inquiry for managers. Observed and interviewed engineers. Ran Design group included members of the target participants and piloted program. Showcased workshop to Board of Directors to gain buy in and support required for organizationwide intervention, especially realizing staff to attend workshops. Delivered coaching customer service for managers prior to workshop roll out.
- Result: Delivered 32 days of facilitated workshops with over 204 participants, 2-day workshop each.
- Customer satisfaction improved by 47 percent, above industry standard, and was maintained for over 12 months, £200,100 additional revenue was attributed to this increase.
- Breakdowns reduced by 13 percent, saving £205,000.
- Self-reporting of applying learning in practice resulted in an identified benefit of £804,000 in 12 months.
- Materials and external facilitator costs were £90,000 for the program.
- *Cost based on an average salary of four × learning practitioners of £30,000 per annum, 290 working days per annum.
- Time is based on a six-month LDC.
Value of Learning Experience Delivery
Alignment to strategic priorities can be generated around the principle that the quality of learning and development interventions must take into account not only learning outcomes, but also the delivery of learning experience.
It is possible to calculate the contribution that learning opportunities make to employee commitment, engagement, and productivity. Although not an exact science, rough estimates can be provided which can contribute to decision making both within the business in terms of understanding the value that the learning and development function delivers, and also within the function itself to decide which intervention activity is creating the most value.
The value that learning experience delivery can contribute to the organization can be measured using Reichheld (2003) Net Promoter Score (Figure 8.1) by asking participants in learning interventions one question: How likely is it that you would recommend this learning experience to a friend or colleague?
Figure 8.1 Net promoter score
Although passive scores do not affect the overall net promoter score, they are counted as part of the total number of respondents.
On a monthly or quarterly basis, the accumulated net promoter response results, over a variety of learning interventions, can then be plotted against the organization’s revenue growth rate and other identified key people performance metrics identified in Chapter 3. This will provide the learning and development function with the data for a longitudinal correlation analysis between participant satisfaction and organizational performance. It is also possible for the learning and development function to examine the relationship between participant responses and actual career development, turnover or absence data.
Outcome Evaluation of the Learning and Development Function
In addition to a comprehensive evaluation of the value that the learning and development function is delivering via their operational effectiveness, it is also possible to develop an outcome evaluation of the way short- and long-term changes in group behavior of the learning and development team work outcomes are delivered. This provides an evaluation of the group dynamics in regards to interdependence of task. Metrics that can be utilized as a value outcome include the following;
- Line manager time spent resolving conflict within the function
- Line manager time spent resolving conflict between function and other functions
- Line manager time spent resolving conflict between function and external suppliers
- Frequency of workgroup conflict and the time to resolve issues
- Process improvements as a result of workgroup collaboration
- Longitudinal mapping of team performance improvement
Harmonious Community Outcomes Case Study
- Situation/Task: Learning and development teams in a global organization were siloed. Communication and sharing best practice was limited, resulting in duplication of effort, blame, and misunderstanding.
- Action: Introduced communities of practice, learning buddy, and job shadowing program as part of team building intervention. Established learning zone on the intranet and introduced a learning and development chat forum. Introduced certified practitioner standard.
- Result: Increased networking and one organization thinking in the learning and development team. Recorded £146,000 of improvements in productivity in six months. Some communities of practice important to future innovation generation in key strategic areas.
Summary
- Regular evaluation of what, how, and why are essential to managing expectations of the business leaders and demonstrating the value that the learning and development function is delivering.
- An audit promotes the professional management of the learning and development function and the professionalism of the learning practitioner.
- A comprehensive evaluation of the learning and development function is required to conduct a learning and development audit.
- It is possible to calculate the value of outcomes produced by the learning and development function by using the value equation Quality/Cost × Time = Value.
- An outcome evaluation measures the short- and long-term changes within group behavior of the learning and development team to provide an evaluation of the group dynamics in regards to interdependence of task.