Performitiv published its Impact Optimization Model earlier this year.
If you've not read the model, download it for free. This blog post is a summary of the model and highlights ways to gather evidence of learning impact. To do this, follow these 4 steps:
1) Collect impact data (largely controlled by L&D and linked to learning programs - ex. Job Impact Rating). Do this by using conditional questions on your evaluations. For example, if you're measuring a leadership program and employee engagement is a metric important to stakeholders, ask a question on the evaluation that is evidence of this. For example, "As a direct result of this learning, how much more motivated and committed are you to our organization?" If you trend this over time and see strong scores, it shows a connection between engagement and the program.
2) Gather outcome data (influenced by L&D but not directly linked to a learning program - ex. Compliance Incidents, Sales Growth Rate). This is operational data typically gathered on a monthly or quarterly basis. L&D is looking for the final, approved, key performance indicator that the business would use. L&D is looking to trend this data before, during, and after the program and look for the contribution of L&D to this measure during the time the measuring has changed. For example, in a leadership program, leader turnover is important. If you request and receive this metric from the HR operation, you should expect that to go down over time for program participants. You'd want to call out the L&D contribution to this as it is likely the program reinforced a commitment to the organization.
3) Share impact scores on the program, people, and results, then trend outcome data looking for associations to L&D. In this step, think about simplicity. Use basic scorecards that show the evaluation data and the operational data as actual vs. goal scores. Next, color code this data so the stakeholder understands it. Finally, trend the data over time so the stakeholder knows if it is moving in the right direction or not.
4) Act on the data to continuously improve. Not all data can be rainbows and unicorns. So if there is an L&D issue, fix it. If there is a less than desired link to business results, collaborate with the business on the steps to be taken to improve this. Action plans should be clear and should call out a person to do a step that contributes to future, positive, performance improvement.
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The Performitiv Team
