Our 2019 measuring the business impact of learning survey revealed a series of telling insights about attitudes and activity around learning measurement.
What we’ve seen over the last three years of the survey is that the pressure to measure the business impact of learning is showing no signs of going away and intentions to get started are now at an all-time high.
At the same time, respondents are also reporting that they struggle to achieve their measurement aspirations because they:
Don’t know how to get started
Are struggling to get to grips with data
Are not sure what tools or processes to use
Practical Solutions to Achieving Learning Measurement Goals
But these are practical problems with practical solutions. In our experience, there are two main routes to overcoming these types of barriers (although in some cases, we might combine elements of the two).
One route is to dive straight in and get your hands dirty. That means breaking away from your traditional learning evaluation activities and experimenting with using a big data approach to gain insights into the impact of your learning.
You can use a Learning Record Store (LRS), such as Watershed LRS, to collect and analyse some data. This pragmatic approach is at the heart of our three-step measurement program, which enables organizations to move from planning, through to road testing and then finally, full-scale roll out.
The other is to start by building the capabilities of your team, so they’re equipped to design and run their own measurement programs.
Our measurement consultants helped Intercontinental Hotels Group take the latter route with a tailored workshop-based solution. This was designed to equip their L&D team with the skills and tools to build an impact measurement process into their day-to-day activities.
The insight we’ve gained through working with many organizations on measurement programs is that the ones who move fastest are those that have one or two people within the L&D team who really know what they’re talking about. One person with a passion for using data to gain insights makes all the difference.
RECOMMENDED READING | 'Measuring the Business Impact of Learning: The Definitive Guide'
Our Learning Measurement Workshops
We’ve now created three focused workshops for organizations looking to bridge skills and knowledge gaps and empower their staff to successfully design and implement a learning measurement strategy.
Each workshop will be run by one of our measurement consultants, who have delivered measurement strategies for global organizations.
The areas we cover are:
1) Learning Measurement Foundations
This discovery workshop gives attendees a thorough grounding in approaches to learning measurement and how you can use data insights to support and drive business performance.
Attendees also have the opportunity to understand where their organization currently is on its measurement journey and how to define a clear plan for moving forwards.
Workshop outcomes
At the end of this workshop, you’ll be able to:
- Understand and articulate the power of big data approaches to measuring learning impact
- Understand how to use data to drive performance in your organization
- Benchmark where you are on the measurement journey
- Identify business drivers and success measures
- Build the ‘evidence chain’ to analyze and find the ‘gold’ in your data
- Put together a business case to justify the investment in measurement
2) Performance Consulting and Data Workshop
Successful efforts at measuring the business impact of learning require L&D professionals to transition into a performance consultant role. This means developing the skills and confidence that will enable them to have business performance conversations with senior stakeholders.
Gaining this understanding of what the business needs to achieve enables L&D teams to develop effective learning programs. The impact of these programs can then be linked to overall business performance using data collection strategies.
Workshop outcomes
At the end of this workshop, you’ll understand:
- The role of measurement in driving business performance
- How to initiate the measurement conversation
- How to work with front line managers to identify performance problems
- How to use data to design effective learning programs
- How to put in place a continuous improvement process
3) Learning Analytics, Strategy and Implementation Workshop
We know that getting to grips with data is a common stumbling block for L&D teams looking to harness data effectively in their measurement programs
The Learning Analytics, Strategy and Implementation workshop tackles this barrier head-on. Our consultants will cover how to effectively collect and analyze learning data, as well as the tools and technologies that will make this possible.
Workshop outcomes
At the end of this workshop, you’ll understand:
- How data is managed and analyzed in organizations
- How to build hypotheses and correlations
- How to identify viable data sources
- How to use APIs to extract data
- How to create high-impact dashboards