A while back I posted the following quote under the title "thought for the day"
"If you cannot quantify your value you are not priceless, you are worthless"

291 viewed the posting, but no one commented. Here we are 1.5 months later and, unfortunately, my thought has become a reality for many in our industry. Many people in the T & D industry are among the first to be cut in the layoffs that are happening pretty much universally. The thought by many in executive management being that training is a "nice to have" not a "must have".
Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to remind all of you that it is of utmost importance that at any given time you can relate your work back to a significant, positive and measurable effect that your work is having on the organization you work for. If you cannot do this immediately stop your current work and focus on something that does contribute in a quantifiable way.

We all know that a great trainer is as important an asset to an organization as a great sales person, engineer, marketing person etc. We just need to find ways to show it in the way that sales people or engineers show it.

quote:

Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to remind all of you that it is of utmost importance that at any given time you can relate your work back to a significant, positive and measurable effect that your work is having on the organization you work for. If you cannot do this immediately stop your current work and focus on something that does contribute in a quantifiable way.

I didn't see your post. While I think your comments are laudible, generally speaking, it's virtually impossible to do what you suggest in a manner that a smart, educated person would perceive as meaningful.

To put it simply, the problem is in "quantifiable". As I've said elsewhere it is virtually, practically impossible to do what you ask and establish cause/effect relationships.

Seriously. And pretty much nobody is willing to pay to study those cause effects relationships properly.

So, I'm not sure whether presenting badly compiled analyses that are logically flawed will convince anyone. And if they do, one has to wonder what is being accomplished.

If I was to offer advice on how to enhance the perceptions of the training function, I'd include:

1) Treating all training as part of a consulting intervention.
2) Firing any trainers, regardless of in class skills, who cannot speak in the language of a)their sponsors and clients, and b) the language used by business executives.
3) Extensive outreach into the management levels of the organizations to ask them what ongoing problems they face, and how the "training" department might help them.
4) Removing the emphasis from training to organization development and performance improvement.
5) If I ran the "training" department, I would make sure that each of my employees understood the importance of organizational politics (which is a major component of consulting, anyway).

I'm sure there's tons more. Step one is to make sure training staff are not of the mindset to blame others for their failures, and that they don't blame their clients or sponsors. Fire them and fire them fast if they cannot respect, or even take the time to understand the world of decision-makers whom they serve.

The Training World
http://thetrainingworld.com

Here's another perspective for those working in internal training or "employee development" departments:

If you are being asked to quantify your value, you're not doing your job very well.

You need to be viewed not as a department to merely serve the needs of the business. Rather, strive to become a partner who helps the business leaders formulate strategy and the direction of the business. Don't just follow the business leaders, join them in leading the organization.

The key is to build the perception in executive leadership that they couldn't imagine doing business without you. Obviously, this is much easier said than done, especially is organizations where training is "under" HR or another functional area.

Anyone willing to provide some examples of tools or techniques they have used to build the kind of leadership partnership I've described above?

Robert-

Why, in heavens name, shouldn't training be quantifiable??!! Are you being asked to increase retention? Increase productivity? Increase sales? Increase knowledge?

Every objective of every training program that I offer has some quantifiable way of ensuring that participants have learned something impactful.

Training design 101
Given an understanding of A:
Participant should be able to B:
As demonstrated by C:

C must be quantifiable, otherwise why offer the training?! Training must impact something otherwise why waste your time. Decisions about what training to do must be based on the one's that will have the highest impact. How do you measure impact!?

BTW, I manage a global training team for a multinational org with 20K+ employees. Training includes, HR, OD and Technical training.

Dvsnhd99,

What you have written above is a three-part performance objective. All it tells you is whether or not the learner can accomplish A to the standard specified in C at the end of training - not a day or more later. It has absolutely nothing to do with impact. Read Kirkpatrick if you are interested in impact. (I can't believe I am recommending Kirkpatrick, but...........)