Challenges in Measuring ROI on Soft Skills Training
Measuring ROI on soft skills training is a perennial challenge. Concentrate on that factor; everything else is secondary.
The second challenge is that soft skills training is not treated on par with any functional training like sales training or training on purchase and inventory management.
The third challenge for soft skills trainers is the way it is conducted. They concentrate mostly on the methods and tools of the training like games, role plays, etc. Because of this, soft skills trainers are very good at managing the boredom of the participants. Since they manage the boredom, they receive very good feedback. Many training managers ignore the results and concentrate on the feedback alone. This is nothing but missing the wood for the trees.
Incorporating Numerical Examples in Training
If you are really serious about bringing change, then you need to insert numerical examples in your training. For learning subjects like finance, purchase, quality, etc., trainers give some numerical examples. This is an inescapable part of the training. Bring in your soft skills training something like this. For example, prepare numerical calculations on teamwork, conflict handling, decision making, etc., and let them calculate it. This is far easier said than done. But then, if you could do it, you would be far different, and then the focus will shift automatically from games to the actual business problems.
I tried creating some numerical examples, but so far, I have not succeeded completely.
Ok...
DVD
Regards,
Isha Khanna