What should be the financial goal of an internal training division that ONLY undertakes technical/product training to the workforce. Being essentially an cost/expense activity, is there any other way to look at it?!!!!!!!

Financial goal?... Hmmm... seeing as how we, as an internal department do not directly generate revenue for the business, we don't really have a financial goal, but the closest I can come to that is:

To remain an integral, necessary part of the business by ensuring that all learning opportunities directly impact performance points and those performance points directly impact business goals.

Whenever I can demonstrate to company stakeholders that the training we are offering will assist in one way or another with achieving a business goal, they see the value in having us around. That's why I am so adamently against creating training just because someone (who knows nothing about performance improvement, analysis, or learning) asks for it because they think it will solve whatever problem they're having.

I agree with Laura that the learning opportunties should definitely impact performance that is directly related to the business. In this context, the training organization definitely has a financial goal that is tied to the business.

Each job role is tasked with a contribution to the financial goals of the business, and the business can only achieve results through people. The training organization is tasked with transforming learning into performance, and thus training people to achieve results.

The most obvious, yet elusive, financial goal for most training organizations to demonstrate Return On Investment (ROI). ROI is merely the return in revenue over and above the expense to generate that revenue. Training is one such expense, therefore an immediate financial goal for a training manager is to improve the performance of people at the minimal expense.

After all, training organizations do not typically receive unlimited funds to train people, therefore the training department will find itself prioritizing projects so that key training programs that have the most relevant impact to the business are developed first.

ASTD has some benchmark data regarding the average cost of training per employee for various size companies in various industries, so providing training without exceeding a target average cost of training of competitors in a comparable industry and size could also be a financial goal.

Understanding more about the business impact of the training programs you are creating can help make the link between training and results, even without generating ROI. What this means is that the business may have metrics that can be correlated to business performance.

For example, an improvement in specific area of a customer satisfaction might correlate to an increase in revenue, therefore training can be created to target improvement of those customer service metrics. Training therefore has an impact in increasing revenue by improving customer service as measured by customer satisfaction surveys that correlated to business results.

So, as Laura indicates it is extremely important to create training to target a specific performance requirement, and not just because it is asked for. I also believe that you can take it a step further and establish the financial impact of that training during the initial needs assessment and translate that into a financial goal of that training in regards to value, budget, ROI, and the monitoring of expense of training per employee. This could help establish a benchmark on which to establish financial goals.

Just my $.02

"I also believe that you can take it a step further and establish the financial impact of that training during the initial needs assessment and translate that into a financial goal of that training in regards to value, budget, ROI, and the monitoring of expense of training per employee. This could help establish a benchmark on which to establish financial goals."

Good stuff, Pat. Thanks for sharing this. It will come in handy when I meet with my manager!!

Vereen,

Our colleagues have described your question
from the training perspective of roi. Since training has never been known for such expertise owning to lack of skill or philosophy.
Perhaps you need to look at it in terms of how your organization defines roi(or any other financial measure).Speak at length with the numbers folks in your organiation for starters.
Each organization has its own particular manner of defining what roi is, what it means, and how it is communicated.

If you use the training approach to explain
you are superimposing a methodology that is inadaquate to the task, especially when one system already exsists that management(which you are a part of) deems authentic, and easier to communicate.

Nero Wolfe