Ultimate Performance: Measuring Human Resources at Work

Approaches to Development Metrics

Development defies measurement in many ways. Unlike staffing, development is a virtual kaleidoscope of activities, only a portion of which are under the control of the organization. Development ranges from the informal and nearly impossible to measure, when one employee teaches another how to do something, to the formal and easily measured activity of employees attending formal training. It would be easy to throw up our hands in frustration, claiming it can’t be done. But organizations demand accountability, so it is incumbent upon us to think creatively to produce metrics that advance accountability for development, even if they are still imperfect.

There has been a variety of attempts to create development metrics. In this section, we review six different approaches to measuring development. For each approach, we discuss the metrics, present examples, and identify the shortcomings in each that have led us to create new metrics for widespread use.

The American Society for Training and Development Approach. Each year the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) prepares a state of the industry report that provides a comprehensive overview of employer-provided training in the United States. This report provides organizations with important benchmarking information for training, learning, and performance improvement processes, practices, and services. In short, it’s a snapshot of investments and expenditures made in training across organizations. ...