What Do I Measure?
“I get that measurement is important, but what do I measure?”
This is the most common question I get when having measurement discussions with folks. The answer is elusively simple: what you measure depends on what decisions you need to make (thanks again Doug Hubbard) from the data. In the training industry especially, I find that folks are so hell-bent on measurement that wondering what to meaure takes precedence over figuring out what they’re trying to accomplish.
Raise your hand if you have ever received a report or a dashboard (or heaven help you, a 45 page PowerPoint document) full of lovely information that had zero bearing on how you run your business. Yes. Yes. You, too? Yes. OK, there are tons of us who have had this experience.
In answering the question “what do I measure?”, here is my recommended recipe:
What is the business process your training will support? Possible examples:
- Sales
- Product Sales
- Hazardous materials handling
- Manufacturing
- Customer service
What is the measure of success for that business process? Possible measures related to the above:
- Sales – Revenue, repeat business, re-licensure, new customer acquisition
- Product Sales – Specific product revenue
- Hazardous materials handling – Hazardous waste
- Manufacturing – cycle time, materials waste,
- Customer service – customer satisfaction, first call resolution
How is that business process performing now? What’s the baseline?
The answer to the baseline question will be the beginnings of a lovely front-end analysis for your training program. If the measure is performing at or above expectations, one might ask why you’re being asked to create a training program to support it. If the measure is performing below expectations, a little more detailed analysis might illuminate some detail about the below-expected-performance that will inform the analysis.
At the end of the conversation, the ID or other Learning Professional will understand the relationship between the training “ask” and the expected outcome in the business. THAT’S what to measure. Anything else may be an indicator or may just be fluff, but at the end of the day (end of the budget), the ability to support business processes is the right measure of training success.
~Geek~
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment