Bringing Government Training into the Measurement Era

I recently spoke at a meeting for education and training personnel from a variety of Texas state agencies. Needless to say, it was an education for both sides. Recognizing the need to measure training effectiveness is more apparent in the private sector (think profits), and less developed in the public sector.

In the corporate world, training departments are maximizing their ability to be internal consultants to better align training deliverables and outcomes with corporate goals and objectives. The main goal for a corporate training initiative is to improve people's skills, knowledge and abilities to positively affect the bottom line. In the government arena, training departments have a budget and they need to spend the money or lose it the following budget cycle.

My entire purpose in this presentation was to demonstrate the many ways workplace competencies could be used to measure and demonstrate the ROI (Return On Investment) of training through conversion of performance improvement into dollars. Dennis Kravetz of Kravetz and Associates has written and spoken at length on this incredibly valuable topic.

One of the areas I covered was using individual and aggregate workplace competency scores to determine focused training and development needs. Many of the group stared at me like I had grown a second nose. One attendee commented, "You mean training departments actually get that kind of information?"

Another person told me, "All we really use are smile sheets, and we know that's not enough."

I proceeded to educate the group on the variety of uses for workplace competencies, all of which better align training delivery with the needs of each job. In addition, if you have a baseline of the individual's competency, you can re-measure after training delivery (or after time back on the job) to further assess the true impact of the training on workplace performance.

By the end of the meeting, each person had a new box of tools to take back to their department - measurement was their new motto.

Despite the fact that many technology advancements have come from the military in the past, I think it's safe to say that the corporate world is leading the way in development of targeted training and measures of effectiveness.

Remember, what can be measured can be improved!

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Shannon Martin is the President of Austin, Texas-based TrainUtopia (www.trainutopia.com) and has been helping companies improve their organizational performance to meet their business goals. She is also considered an expert in training effectiveness measurement. Shannon publishes a monthly newsletter “Training News You Can Use” http://www.trainutopia.com/news.htm jammed with resources, articles and tips to help companies improve their approach to training and development. She can be reached at smartin@trainutopia.com.