Organizational Development & eLearning

Do you ever wonder how effective your learning and organizational development tools are to your team and to your business?  There are several ways to measure your success and actually attach a return on investment to your efforts.  The secret is to start combining the right measurement tools and evaluation models to your learning and development arsenal. 

If you want organizational change, improved guest service, or more productivity, you need excellent lesson plans, dynamic eLearning design and a series of management tools.  Those tools have to include several ways to measure the effectiveness of your training.  

Scorecards that measure specific standards or objectives from lesson plans are an excellent starting point.  Although many trainers use quizzes throughout their training processes, some don't measure their employee performance and behaviors in real time well after the eLearning takes place.  

An actual example will help me illustrate this evaluation model.  A short time ago, after teaming up with a successful leader, he and I decided to give his associates some custom training to improve sales and guest service. While designing our project, we decided that it is one thing to create effective, engaging eLearning lesson plans, training manuals, brochures and classroom discussions, but it is quite another thing to measure the results of those efforts.  In this instance, I started to add to our training plans, a series of measurement tools that would assist him in evaluating his success.  We created surveys, scorecards, online evaluations and tests that would measure the on-the-job effectiveness of the team. We conducted internal secret shops, made audio recordings, and written evaluations that directly measured the achievement of business goals and the eLearning content. We were evaluating behavioral changes in actual work scenarios, not in the virtual training world.

The most effective tool I added was a scorecard that systematically went through each step of the process from the lesson plan.  The scorecard was easy to complete.  There were just 35 questions that could be answered "yes" or "no".  The scorecards were completed by internal secret shopping teams, often made up of other employee groups.  These employee groups were happy to participate in the evaluations.  They were always conducted incognito and without warning.

When we started sharing the "yes" percentages from the scorecards with the team that completed the actual eLearning content, the results were astounding, even when the LMS (Learning Management System) test scores were lower than desired.  Associates wanted to know their "secret shop" score, and then wanted the coach and counseling session from their leader.  You see, they wanted to know if they had any behavioral change in the real world.  

Discussions with team members revealed that they also wanted to record for themselves, higher scores in the LMS (Learning Management System) and they even starting asking me for opportunities to re-take the eLearning classes.  They were now hoping for 100% scores on their learning profiles.  And in several instances, top achievers could hardly wait until next time their individual performance was evaluated.  They even started helping their co-workers with the lowest scores, do better on their upcoming tests.  

This process didn't create any unhealthy competition or jealousy but rather it sparked an interest in overall team success and the group measurement of very specific service standards.  It was fun, because whenever I stepped into this department, those team members asked me when they could be evaluated next. Also, when we attached scores to actual performance of the team standards and goals, the sales in that department grew and the service had a very measurable and sudden growth spurt.  We could then attach an actual return on investment.

Putting in place a few simple measurement tools and some consulting to back it up at 30-60-90 after training has occurred might really be the key to your success as a learning and organizational development professional.  Capture data, survey your customers and eLearners.  Watch their actions and reactions.  Then use coach and counseling sessions with your employees as one of your blended learning approaches.

In my business of hospitality, people development and guest service, there are so many evaluation agencies that are great at measuring service and evaluating performance.  Secret shoppers and a host of rating tools are available to tell us how we score.  However, very few of those organizations are willing to partner with you on how to get there.  Get where?  To a measurable return on investment.