by Susanne Conrad
Many training and development leaders say they don't measure the financial impact of their training and development programs because management doesn't ask them to do so. Measuring impact, however, should not be done solely at the request of the CEO. There are other very important reasons to measure.
Many T&D leaders fear measuring because the outcomes may show the learning interventions have no positive financial impact. Let's put that fear aside. Credibility with senior management comes not from proving that the resources you spent already were worth it. Resources spent are resources spent and cannot be recalled.
True credibility comes from demonstrating your dedication to continually improving your contributions to the organization. And that means having the guts to measure the impact of your efforts and being willing not only to say, "See, this is what we added to the bottom line with this training" but also being willing to say, "See, this didn't work as we expected/deliver the results we were looking for and, therefore, we need to make changes."
Ultimately it is our responsibility as T&D leaders to make recommendations for the most effective use of resources allocated to T&D. The best way for us to make those recommendations and have them heard and accepted is to demonstrate that we are willing to measure results and adjust our approaches to deliver against goals - even when management has not asked for the measures.
Measures help us determine what has the most positive impact on the business, what we need to cut, what we need to adjust and what we need to do more of. Let's get over our fear of others' perceptions of "how well we did" and re-focus on building perceptions of how well we can adjust what we recommend and deliver based on objective information about what works and doesn't work for the organization.
THE QUESTION FOR YOU:
What keeps you from measuring the financial impact of your T&D efforts?
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