Developing Human Capital: Using Analytics to Plan and Optimize Your Learning and Development Investments

Chapter 8Hard Evidence Using Advanced Analytics

Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.

—Peter Sondergaard, senior VP at Gartner

In this book, we’ve given you a progressive set of a tools to help you understand the impact your training programs are having, as well as the ways those programs contribute to business outcomes. In the past, learning and development (L&D) professionals have struggled to demonstrate the business impact of training programs, because the existing evaluation models are typically based on survey data. The traditional learning measures—Kirkpatrick’s four levels (i.e., satisfaction, learning gain, behavior change, and results) and Phillips’s return on investment (ROI)—provide incredibly useful data for the professionals who design and deploy training. As one CLO discussed in a recent presentation, they are learning’s early warning system (i.e., the canary in a coal mine). However, survey-based impact results don’t necessarily resonate with the C-suite. What is missing from L&D’s traditional measurements is the operational data that creates direct alignment of learning to business outcomes and provides a real quantitative demonstration of business impact. We’re talking about analyzing the operational business data behind those “leading indicators” and “business results” on the Measurement Map.

THE QUEST FOR ISOLATED IMPACT

Showing the value of learning programs is important work and one of the goals of just about ...