Hi There!

I am in the process of developing ROI metrics for a leadership development programme and I would appreciate your contributions.

I have since benchmarked the cost of the programme compared with similar ones in the market but I would like to go a step further and focus on non-financial metrics i.e retention etc.

Thanks

Sometimes I just think of it as a research subject. If I manipulated (implemented LD program) a variable what am I hoping the outcome will be?
ROI is really a hypothesis. "By implementing a Leadership program I will lower attrition the attrition levels of Star employees". Then I run the program and see if it runs true. If it does, I run it again. If not, I stop.
So, if your goal is retention, performance, revenue etc. set a goal, measure it now and measure it again when you are done.
Avi

I am sure you are well on your way to completing your evaluations, but I just wanted to respond regarding the actual purpose of the ROI. This is the fundamental debate with leadership development evaluations versus skill training.
Kirkpatrick's 4 levels are easily applied directly to skill development. Phillips' ROI (also referred to Level 5 evals) is also easily applied when addressing specific skill development. However, it might help you to ask yourself what the real purpose is with your leadership development training and the measurements. Meaning, are you justifying your existence in learning & development, or is your role to gather relevant data and information for your upper management to base decisions on?
If you are justifying your existence (as we all are asked to do now and then), then by all means, I would encourage a very detailed and specific ROI. However, if your upper echelons value learning & development and already realize that there is a price tag (regardless of size) with developing leaders, then I would refocus so as to provide the type of information they need to make decisions. This might actually be retention and attrition numbers, but the actual data gathering would be vastly different and not as detailed. Remember what your strength and your business is. Be careful not to turn development into only something that can be counted.
As Einstein stated "Not everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that is counted counts."

Hi Rodney,

At the risk of sounding patronising I feel compelled to ask "what are the drivers for implementing a leadership development programme in the first place?"

I'm guessing that the drivers are not directly financial, in which case your search for non-financial metrics may find what you are looking for in knowing these underlying drivers.

Best wishes,

Martin

Why are you using ROI ? What were the circumstances or expectations etc. Were other financial measures considered?

Nero