Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2019 - 33

"Is leadership training
really worth it?"

TRAINING TIMES

Extra! Extra!
Grab the greatest
business news!

VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 19

$3.00

WAS IT WORTH IT?
MEASURING THE
IMPACT AND ROI OF
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
BY PAUL LEONE, PH.D.
Taking leaders of any level away from their everyday
roles is a costly proposition. If business leaders and
stakeholders are truly going to be convinced and buy
in to leadership training, they're going to want tangible
evidence of bottom-line business impact. So, as training
evaluators, we always have to ask the question: "Do
the revenue-generating or cost-saving benefits of the
leader training outweigh the costs of the entire training
experience?" In other words, is the leadership training
really worth it?

Another question training evaluators
should be able to answer for their
stakeholders is, "How much does it benefit
the business to send participants through
the training sooner rather than later?" For
instance, what's the benefit of training new
leaders in the first three to six months of
their new role, as opposed to postponing
or putting off the training? Many leaders
and their managers think they can't afford
to leave the business for one or two days
to go through training. As an evaluator, I
wanted to conduct a case study to prove
that leaders can't afford not to go through
training. The following case study is based
on a two-day leadership training program
for new leaders that I evaluated at Verizon.

What We Measured
To provide evidence of the impact
of training, we implemented a
comprehensive evaluation strategy that
measured success at every level and
milestone of the trainee's experience. That
is, were they engaged and satisfied with
the experience? Did they learn anything
new? Did they apply the training and

improve any key leadership behaviors
back on the job? Did those behaviors
impact the business? Which performance
metrics did their teams and direct reports
improve? What were those improvements
worth to the organization in dollar value?
Did the dollar benefits outweigh the costs
of training, and what helped or hurt the
transfer of learning back to the job. Why
would some participants get a bigger
impact and return on investment (ROI)
than others?
This approach is based on the five-level
Phillips/Kirkpatrick model of training
evaluation, with the addition of a level
six added to understand what transfer
climate factors were at work to improve
impact and ROI.
* Level 1: Did they like it? Were
participants engaged with content,
facilitators and overall delivery of the
training experience?
* Level 2: Did they learn anything?
What new knowledge and skills did
participants gain from the training?

* Level 3: Are they doing anything
differently
or
better?
What
improvements have they had in
key behaviors back on the job after
attending the training?
* Level 4: Are they impacting the
business? Are these improved behaviors
increasing their key performance
metrics that can increase revenue or
create cost-saving efficiencies?
* Level 5: Was it worth the investment?
Did the benefits of training outweigh
its costs?
* Level 6: What maximizes training
impact? What factors back on the job
can help or hinder the application and
transfer of learning?
This is powerful data to show stakeholders
because it describes how successive
rollouts can be optimized and underscores
the importance of things like manager
endorsement of the training and manager
support back on the job.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MAGAZ INE -LEARNING ANALYTICS 20 19 I WWW. T RAININGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

| 33

https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine

Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2019