However, launching evaluation programs that accomplish these objectives often proves to be a daunting challenge for organizations. In fact, 44 percent of the 199 talent development professionals surveyed by ATD in its new research report Evaluating Learning: Getting to Measurements That Matter thought their evaluation efforts were helping greatly with reaching organizational learning goals. An even smaller 36 percent thought their efforts were helping to a large extent with meeting their employer's business goals.
Not surprising, ATD found that the 35 percent of organizations that evaluated the business impact of any learning programs saw considerably higher evaluation effectiveness than those that did not. Indeed, moving beyond just participant smile sheets or quizzes and taking a look at actual business outcomes, such as customer satisfaction, sales, or profitability, pays off for organizations.
So what's preventing organizations from conducting rigorous, results-focused evaluations? Among the major roadblocks identified by participants were an inability to isolate the impact of training on results, the talent development function's lack of access to the necessary data (for example, financial and sales data), and the cost of tools and staff time. One way to get around these barriers may be for talent development leaders to identify a critical business metric needing improvement first, design a learning program around improving it, and then measure again. Such a strategy also may encourage other departments to partner with the talent development function before the program is launched and share data and evaluation resources.
Another reason to carefully plan ahead when designing evaluation programs is the shortage of talent development professionals with the skills needed to conduct rigorous evaluation efforts in today's job market. The majority of those surveyed found it difficult to attract qualified staff. Thus, talent development leaders should consider investing in the evaluation skills, knowledge, and capabilities of themselves and their teams.
Read more from CTDO magazine: Essential talent development content for C-suite leaders.