The ROI of Training in HR: A Critical Examination
If there is one part of HR that seems constantly under question for its "ROI" potential, credibility, or plain effectiveness, it is what is usually known as "Training"—or in the new world as "Learning," "Management Development," etc. The reasons for the questions are not difficult to spot. Training is the only group in HR that actually spends hard cash externally, as opposed to Recruitment or Compensation and Benefits that spend it as salaries. Once people see money flowing out of the organizational budget, they are quick to question the 'effectiveness' of these trainings.
The training professionals in organizations haven't actually covered themselves in laurels when it comes to their work. The reasons for these are varied. Here is my diagnosis of the reasons:
Challenges in Training Departments
Training is usually organized as a monolithic sub-function within HR and is junior staffed. This usually means a fresh graduate gets the fancy title of "training assistant manager" or some such designation and becomes a gopher for meeting various training requests. Why is training being asked for? What skills/competency gaps will it fill? What is the follow-up program for that training? Questions like these are scarcely asked.
Metrics and Measurement Issues
Metrics used to measure training are usually uni-dimensional. Lacking either content expertise or process expertise, the training department or person is measured by the HR head on factors like:
- Number of training programs conducted
- Satisfaction ratings
- Number of people trained
- Number of training days conducted per employee, etc.
- Budget variations to plan
As a result, the training department or person essentially tries to meet these metrics. None of these metrics even talk about the linkage of training to business needs or outcomes. Is it any wonder why training fails to link up strategically?
A New Role for Training
Different groups need to own different parts of training. Content expertise, for example, resides in the various groups. The training group needs to act as a facilitator and help these groups discover their own knowledge and learnings. The role that training needs to play is less of a 'content provider' and more of standard settings and inculcating a similar language across various organizational silos.
Training also needs to engage with various groups to help them share localized learnings across the organizations.
Strategic Alignment with Business Needs
At a horizontal level, training needs to work with business and identify developmental areas of various levels to meet current and emerging business needs. By doing that, training will need to play a role that even HR is struggling with in most organizations—linking to strategic business needs. That can happen best when training is led by someone who has been in business or can demonstrate in-depth understanding.
The Path for Training to Become Strategic
To uncover the way to become strategic, training groups need to start doing the following:
- Ask Questions: Most training professionals are so 'task-focused' that they do not seem to be able to ask 'why am I doing this?' 'How will this impact my firm's bottom line?' If they do not think about ROI, others will think it for them.
- Think Numbers: Training professionals need to think about a new set of metrics that focus more on effectiveness and less on efficiency. They have to rise from Kirkpatrick's level 1 to level 3 and 4.
- Realize that Learning is More than Training: Let's face it. Face-to-face, classroom training probably accounts for less than 30% of what a person actually learns in an organization. Trainers have to start thinking about how factors like supervisor and management support will help in learning, how they will help in applying concepts learned to increase workplace productivity. Attending training programs should not be the end; increasing workplace productivity should be.
- Involve Line Managers: Training professionals should involve line managers to be responsible for their employees' training, and where possible, they should conduct the training themselves. Outsourcing training might help in the short term, but it does not pass organizational culture along.
- Transparency: People who are getting trained need to understand the larger context of where the training fits in with organizational strategy. Their managers and training professionals need to paint the whole picture to help them understand and communicate it effectively.
- New Skills: Trainers themselves should pick up new skills like business and financial skills and not just be event managers. They need to understand the linkages between knowledge, learning, and performance to figure out how they can add value to the organization.
Regards,