Effective training administration

First of all, we can probably all agree that decentralized training administration is inefficient.

It becomes a problem when there are multiple administrators in multiple groups completing the same tasks or transactions, but doing it in multiple ways. Various groups within an organization have differences in their processes and procedures, such as registration needs or course description details. But often these variations are driven by lack of bandwidth or minimal training.

Take as an example the process of uploading courses to an LMS. If an organization has various people doing this, it’s common to see different administrators using different course-naming schemes and course descriptions.

So, centralization of learning support and learning operations management is critical, which goes without saying.

On the flipside, it’s not a good idea to develop inflexible processes that don’t adapt to the needs of your customers, the business units. Be careful about trying to eliminate customized support that they’ve grown accustomed to. Dissatisfaction quickly rises when executives feel their needs and interests are not heard, considered, and acted upon.

Establishing a decentralized approach to customer training support is that business units have enough control over employee learning and can tailor all aspects of learning to the specific needs of their employees.  Long term, you get ever closer to the elusive goal of aligning learning with business objectives.

To learn more about the concept of Centralized Services and Decentralized Processes, download the white paper.

For more information on this topic and the nine ways to trim operational expense, please download the recent webinar or read our white paper, Eliminate Waste and Reap the Rewards: Nine Ways to Trim Operational Expenses to Fund Strategic Learning, both available at http://www.trainingefficiency.com/.

If your organization wants to increase the training efficiency in terms of your learning technology or training processes, contact us.

For more information log on to www.expertus.com

www.trainingefficiency.com

Looking at more valuable ways of measuring training

Recent conversations with learning executives, conducted through Expertus Learning Intelligence Forums, revealed that attitudes about learning measurements are changing for the better.

Overall, executives are talking much less about traditional measurements and much more about business-related measurements. The Kirkpatrick measurement model is mentioned, but most often in reference to what organizations are NOT doing.

Getting visibility into the business impact of learning has become increasingly important because corporate learning is now widely viewed as a business service. The vast majority of training reporting is done for internal business customers, such as sales executives, call center managers, and business unit leaders.

One VP of learning said, we have to start looking at measurements that are relevant to our business more than those which are based on training by the pound . Measurements such as total learning hours, pages accessed, class registrations, completions, and assessment scores have little if any value to internal customers  as well as to business-focused learning executives.

According to a senior director of education services, “we can’t train just for the sake of training. We have to be able to answer questions about business impact. The Kirkpatrick model is great theory, but it’s very expensive and time consuming to get to level five. Practically, you have to find a measurement system that uses what’s already in place.  Good learning business intelligence which increases the visibility and provides insight to improve business decisions is the need of the hour.”

The discussion with learning executives can be summed up into a few simple guidelines for effective training measurement:

• Make sure your metrics are meaningful to your customers.
• Metrics should be simple and practical. The fewer the better.
• Invest time in identifying metrics up front, not after the fact.
• Go out of your way to communicate and explain findings to your customers and to senior management. Don’t wait for them to ask you.

In addition to providing real insight into the value of your training programs, practical and meaningful metrics can help you educate your stakeholders and raise important business issues.  By taking a proactive and collaborative approach with your customers, you have a chance to define the playing field and establish realistic expectations.

If you’ve got questions about learning strategies or if you have a good example of measurements done well, contact us. We’d be happy to offer an objective and practical perspective.