Human Resources

Measuring the Return on Investment of Training Programmes

Training evaluation usually stops at whether delegates enjoyed the course, which is the one measure that predicts nothing, and the practitioner asked for a return figure then has nothing to build on. This course supplies the method. Delegates work through evaluation levels from reaction to result, and deciding before delivery which level a programme warrants. Defining the business measure the training is meant to move follows. Baseline data and the discipline of collecting it beforehand are covered, since retrofitting a baseline is the usual reason a study fails. Isolating the effect of training from everything else that changed is addressed properly, including control groups, trend analysis and estimation with its stated error. Converting benefits to money and costing a programme fully follow. The course closes on reporting a figure you can defend and on saying plainly when the answer is that it cannot be measured.