Leadership programs are strategic, visible and costly. The strategy to measure these needs to be specific, yet simple. To do this, use impact indicators and business results.
Impact indicators are questions from surveys. It represents one or two key talking points, where the program should make a connection and contribution - for example, employee engagement. Ask a question like, "As a direct result of this learning, how committed and motivated are you to be with the organization?" If you consistently ask this question for leadership programs, you will get a good idea of its connection to employee engagement.
Next, look for business results, which are data points from the operation. In leadership programs, you could use turnover. Leaders going through the program should voluntarily leave the company at a lesser rate than their peers that did not attend the program. If you track turnover data before, during and after the training for both the trained group and non-trained group, you will be able to see if there are differences. Hopefully you'll see the trained group turns over less than the non-trained group.
Finally, for both the survey data and business result data, do the following to analyze these indicators properly. First, show the actual vs. a goal so you can understand how it is doing vs. expectations. Second, show the trend over multiple periods so you can determine if the metrics are moving in a positive direction or not.
You can use similar concepts for other programs like sales, onboarding, risk management etc. Just identify specific, yet simple, survey questions as impact indicators and then identify a specific operational metric that the program should have connected with or made a contribution.
Good luck with your strategic program measurement!
The Performtiv Team
