Evaluating the return
Develop a balanced scorecard of business performance measures
Establish a number of indicators or critical measures of business performance which you can monitor over time.
Publish performance to staff and stakeholders
Be open about business performance with staff, treating them as partners in the business – their feedback may provide solutions, and they will be more receptive and understanding if change is needed.
Conduct focus groups with staff to explore issues in an open environment
Focus groups are a flexible, potentially quite cost effective way of getting deep insights into staff feelings and reactions. Make sure that you invite people who will be comfortable talking frankly (so it is usually advisable to avoid mixing managers and their team members, or very senior staff with junior colleagues). Also ensure that the discussions are facilitated in an open, impartial way – perhaps by an outsider to the organisation.
Work through the development plan from your previous Investors in People Assessment
If you are a recognised Investor in People, your previous Assessment Report will highlight development areas for improvement. You could use this as a basis for an action plan, and share it with staff to get their support and feedback.
Follow up telephone surveys to recontact people months after development activities
Simply measuring feedback at the end of a training course often only tells you about the course itself, not the impact it has had on participants or the resulting change in their effectiveness. Consider following up development activities once people have had a chance to put their new skills into practice, to explore how their perceptions have changed and whether they can point to tangible improvements in their performance.
Consider pre, post and follow up measurement of training impact
For skills based training such as presentations, you could measure the baseline level of skills of participants before the course, measure it at the end of the course, and recontact them at a later date to see how they have put the skills into practice.