The single most important reason corporate training organizations exist is to improve the performance of the business. Most people would agree with that, although some would like to lump in a lot of other reasons, such as improving employee satisfaction, improving customer satisfaction, increasing sales, reducing costs, reducing turnover, etc. As critical as these all are, at the end of the day, they all contribute to the ultimate objective of improving the overall performance of the business.
What we’ve learned over several years of studying what makes a great training organization, is that the single most important metric for how well a training department is performing does not come from within, but rather from the client.
Training departments are highly competent at measuring a student’s performance during a class or after going back to work. They are good at measuring how well an instructor delivers a class, or even how many courses are delivered over a period of time. Each are good indicators of activity and value, but not helpful in determining whether the money we are spending on training is having impact on the company’s bottom line.
Okay, so the message sounds straightforward. So, why is it more training organizations don’t measure themselves based on how the client’s performance improves? The primary reason is because content is not always aligned to the clients needs. When your courses are directly linked to a customers needs, measuring the performance of the client is much easier. When the training is not aligned to the clients needs, such as off the shelf courseware, then measuring the client’s performance may not tell you what you want to hear.
I think the training industry is at a crossroads. Expectations from corporate executives are increasing. Being able to show results for money spent on training is increasing. Executive involvement in what type of training programs continues to rise. How we adapt to this change will be an important barometer of how well we are viewed by corporate executives. Good news is I’m betting that training professionals make the change well. They always have.
