Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

HR strategyHuman capitalProductivityOpinion

Inside track: Real routes towards value for money

by Personnel Today 6 Sep 2005
by Personnel Today 6 Sep 2005

One of the presenters at a session at this year’s American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Conference in Florida began as follows: “Several years ago, I lost my job as a training manager in a medium-sized manufacturing company, because I did not have the information available to prove that my activities delivered a sufficient rate of return”.

He then, predictably, went on to outline a complex, if ingenious, approach to determine training’s return on investment (ROI).

A whole industry has developed around ROI – countless seminars present new ways of isolating the impact of a training intervention from other activities taking place at the same time to measure its effectiveness.

The assumption seems to be that if you assemble information from multiple sources, analyse it correctly and package it appropriately, the chief executive will see the light, your role will be enhanced, and your future will be assured.

I find it hard to believe that the speaker had lost his job because he’d failed to acquire the necessary information to prove ROI.

What may have actually happened – and has certainly happened in many other cases – is that the chief executive reached the conclusion that the training manager was not delivering sufficient value to the organisation to justify their salary.

If this was the case, firmly held impressions would not have been altered by a column of figures.

This does not mean that training metrics do not matter. It is essential that those responsible are managing the resources effectively and delivering value, and that this value is demonstrated and accepted by senior management.

We need to develop a fresh perspective, rather than burrowing further down into the dark ROI tunnel.

Helpfully, some new work is emerging from the ASTD Research Team, which can help us in developing this new approach. It is due in October, but some interim findings were presented at the Florida conference.

The ASTD, in a joint project with IBM Research, has been exploring this issue of value.

The ASTD research will argue that if the chief executive has a high level of trust in the chief learning officer, over-elaborate metrics become less important. To quote from a slide at its presentation: ‘there is more value in front-end alignment than back-end isolating proof’.

This, it seems, is the way forward. The role of the trainer is altering in light of new economic and business demands: the way we demonstrate and deliver value is only one dimension.                      

Martyn Sloman is CIPD adviser, learning, training and development



Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
BBC unveils HR supplier shortlist
next post
Assessments jeopardise government skills plan

You may also like

Davos 2022: ‘Invest in social jobs to save...

27 May 2022

Davos 2022: Upskilling workers necessary to overcome business...

26 May 2022

Davos hears that ‘wages can rise’ without creating...

26 May 2022

Adapt culture to hybrid work: do not force...

20 May 2022

Women in FTSE 350 leadership: ‘A lot of...

20 May 2022

Squishy, flabby, foggy HR? Andrew Bartlow talks to...

20 May 2022

Bald move: Tribunal was right in sex-related harassment...

17 May 2022

How employers can support women during the HRT...

13 May 2022

Maya Forstater: What is a woman?

10 May 2022

Robin Moira White: What is a woman?

10 May 2022
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+