Zeroed-In Technologies (www.getzeroedin.com)

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Get Zeroed-In on Learning Measurement

Inaugural Issue

Summer 2005

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In this issue

-- Is measuring learning ROI enough?

-- Benchmarks: Measuring the impact of learning rates highest

-- Featured Measure: Fit Cost

-- Case Study: Aetna Measures Up

-- Opinion: Business performance management versus training analytics

Greetings!

Get Zeroed-In on Learning Measurement is a quarterly newsletter devoted to learning measurement and the people and processes surrounding it. Each issue contains feature articles, benchmarks, case studies, opinions, and upcoming events relating to learning measurement, learning analytics, and strategic reporting inside and outside the learning organization.


Is measuring learning ROI enough?

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Measuring the return on investment (ROI) for a learning initiative gives clear insight to your ability to produce a set of desired results that exceed in value the financial investment required to plan, develop, deliver, and measure the learning initiative. Positive ROI is a good indicator of learning effectiveness, and in fact, it is the "holy grail" that many learning organizations seek. But is it enough to simply measure ROI and the corresponding effectiveness measures (reaction, learned, application) leading up to the results? Many organizations, like NCR Corporation, say "no". In a recent presentation at the Skillsoft Perspectives User Group, Jim Bauman, Director of Operations for NCR University showed that NCR looks beyond ROI when it comes to measuring the success of their learning organization. While ROI is important, it is not the only factor that NCR measures and monitors. NCR established a series of key learning indicators that include Job Readiness, Operational Excellence, Learning Effectiveness, and Leadership Outreach. Each indicator aligns to a strategic goal and is comprised of one or more outcome oriented initiatives or objectives. Each objective is established with targets in mind and is measured through the collection of a defined key measure such as "completion rate", a measure of readiness, or "enrollment rate", a measure of operational efficiency. NCR monitors progress at the objective level and rolls that progress up into an overall indicator progress score. By expanding their measurement beyond ROI and across multiple areas, NCR has a broader, in-process view into how their efforts are meeting the needs of their internal clients.

ROI and the effectiveness measures that precede it are post-delivery measures (e.g. lagging indicators). You only know after the fact whether you hit the mark or not. Yes, you can make improvements the next time you deliver the learning. But you may not get a second chance. NCR shows us that measuring "progress to date" in conjunction with learning effectiveness gives us the opportunity to respond to automated alerts and apply corrections at the time when a gauge of performance slips below planned levels or shows a trending forecast for less than the set of objectives allow.


Benchmarks: Measuring the impact of learning rates highest

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Measuring the impact of learning rates highest among critical problems facing learning organizations. The poll, being conducted by TrainingOutsourcing.com, asks learning professionals "What is the most critical problem your organization faces regarding employee learning?" Of the seven responses, measuring the impact of learning rates highest (27%). Aligning learning with business goals (13%) also poses concerns for many professionals.

To view the complete results of the poll ...


Featured Measure: Fit Cost

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What it means: How well did we / can we prepare a worker to fit a position and at what cost.

How it's measured: The average total cost expended on preparing a worker to fill a specified position from the time they enter the organization (e.g. new hires, reassigns) to the time they begin performing their job duties self-sufficiently. All costs are captured and prorated to the individual worker including but not limited to tuitions, salaries, materials, facilities, equipment, instructors, travel, accommodations, meals, etc.

Who's using it: The United States Navy led by VADM Kevin Moran of the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) uses "fit cost" as a measure of both efficiency and effectiveness in preparing a sailor to perform his/her duties. Using "fit cost" as a strategic measure helps ensure the Navy continues to win the war for talented people and provide a world-class organization by creating the best fit among the position, the Sailor, and the learning opportunities.


Case Study: Aetna Measures Up

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Aetna, one of the leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits, uses core business measures right off their financial statements to measure the success of their leadership development initiatives. "We chose these measures because we knew their importance, and we knew our target audience could apply what they learned to influence the numbers," said Joyce Petrella, learning head of executive development at Aetna. They were able to work with the leaders to build curriculum maps by identifying the skills necessary to execute the strategy and pinpoint those metrics from financial statements that leaders could track.

Read the full article ...


Opinion: Business performance management versus training analytics

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What's the best approach for measuring your learning initiatives -- business performance management or training analytics? The answer depends on what you're looking to achieve.

Business performance management takes a top-down approach to measuring and predicting the outcomes of your strategic goals and objectives by aligning and tracking key measures against defined targets. Training analytics takes a bottom-up approach to measurement by capturing and analyzing related (and sometimes unrelated) measures looking for correlations and relationships between the sets. With business performance management, you're assured your measuring the right things, because the measures you're focused on are those that are driven and influenced by the underlying work processes and outcomes for your strategic learning objectives. With a pure training analytics approach you may be measuring things that have no bearing on your strategic goals or objectives.

Many firms expect training analytics to uncover that "holy grail" of learning ROI, a correlation between the outcome of a key learning program and the outcome of the business measure it was intended to drive. But if you already know the business measure you're looking to influence, why not simply monitor it in conjunction with the key indicators that measure your success? A business performance management approach to measuring the outcomes of your strategic learning initiatives offers the best of both, whereas pure training analytics may not.


Pertinent Articles and Resources ...

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·  Seven key learning indicators your CEO really needs to know

·  Measuring effectiveness with learning analytics

·  Using models to manage strategic learning investments

·  CLO Dashboard - Performance scorecard and dashboard for learning



Contact: Chris Moore, Zeroed-In Technologies

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phone: 410 859 0478

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