Article in Training Australia magazine

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Check your organisation’s pulse – are you an Investor in People?
Denise Meyerson, Director, Management Consultancy International

It seems like most learning and development practitioners have no difficulty in finding the right places to implement training interventions. But how effective are such interventions? Should management simply spend the money sending staff on a harbour cruise?

Here’s my challenge to learning and development practitioners. Spend a few moments giving thought to a recent training intervention that you either coordinated or delivered. Formulate a single sentence that captures the essence of the goal of this intervention, for example “The report writing training was designed to …”. Next, create a further sentence that clearly describes the impact the training had on the individual or team. Start with these words: “The training resulted in these changes in the level of skills or behaviour in the business:…”. This last sentence should avoid mentioning how much the training participants enjoyed themselves or how wonderful the facilitator was.

It is the follow up evaluation of the effectiveness of training where so many learning and development practitioners trip up. Like any management professionals, we should ask ourselves if the results of our training are both value for money and properly aligned to the goals of the organization.

The potential wastage of resources on poorly developed training interventions is huge. In Australia, the average spend per person on training is $450*. This is in addition to the $2.5 billion in federal funding of the apprenticeship and traineeships schemes this financial year. Add to those figures the $280.6 million set aside by the federal government for skills vouchers and we can begin to understand the massive scale of L&D spending and the potential for squandering these resources on misconceived efforts.

There is little research conducted on the specific impact that training has on business results. As professionals, could we hold our heads high when discussing the impact that our interventions have in terms of concrete business outcomes?
As a training consultant, my mantra is if training doesn’t lead to change, why do it at all?
It would be far better to spend the money on a cruise around Sydney Harbour than engage training where it isn’t needed or appropriate. Not only will it cost you less but I can guarantee that it will also lead to far greater levels of employee motivation and engagement!

Traditionally the development cycle in learning and development has always been “plan, prepare, deliver and assess”. However, this framework is not enough in linking the specific learning generated by training to business performance. A far more useful tool to implement is the ‘Investors in People’ standard. This is the only recognised globally recognised HR. standard used to determine whether an organisation’s performance improves due to a planned approach to people development. The standard is available on the Investors in People website: www.investorsinpeople.co.uk.

The Investors in People benchmark provides us with a framework to continuously evaluate our training and determine what difference our learning strategy makes to the both the participants and the organisation as a whole.
In the UK, over one-third of the workforce work in organizations which use the Investors in People standard. Research has shown the profitability increases that these organisations experience – a jump in annual profit of £353 per employee attributed to Investors in People.*2

Let’s look at Investors in People a little more closely. The standard has 3 main principles; ‘plan’, ‘do’ and ‘review’.


On the Investors in People website, you’ll find a useful tool to help you diagnose your organisation to determine whether you meet the evidence requirements and criteria of the standard. There is no charge for using this tool and it allows you to conduct an internal survey of where stakeholders feel the business stands against the benchmark’s requirements.
Here are some further challenges I have for learning and development professionals who are keen to ensure that their training delivers this elusive ‘return on investment’:
1. Know the budget that is spent on training and express this as a percentage of payroll.2. Start changing the types of conversations that take place around training. Avoid talking about delegates who had positive feedback or training that "all went well". Of course this is important, but it’s more urgent to find out what difference the training made in situ. Once this has been investigated, learn to express it in a few sentences for example "As a result of the intervention, we increased sales by twenty-seven percent” or, “There were better customer feedback reports” or, “we noticed that the team worked more cohesively..". Such success stories need not be strictly quantitative as other factors may provide equally useful information to management.
3. Conduct the ‘Investors in People’ diagnostic and have a strong sense of where you currently stand against the criteria of the standard. Understand the areas of your operation which are close to meeting requirements and areas in which you have further work to do.
4. Set in place some action items that allow you to move closer to the benchmark. Determine realistic goals – it’s no use throwing your hands up in desperation believing that you are too far off the mark to even get started!
5. Never go to a budgeting meeting with a begging-bowl - asking for more money for training. Set yourself the objective of having so many positive stories illustrating the impact of training on the organisation that purse-holders are keen to provide the funds.
In summary, all learning and development practitioners know that investing in people makes commercial sense. It’s now our task to prove this in a more concrete manner. The Investors in People framework provides a way of monitoring your progress. Remember: What gets measured, gets done! Investors in People can help us make these measurements to guide your journey forward.

* This figure is quoted in the latest survey of the retail industry 2006
*2 This is figure quoted in extensive research available on www.investorsinpeople.co.uk



Denise Meyerson PhD
Denise is the Managing Director of Management Consultancy International, a leading provider of training solutions and an advising organisation for the Investors in People standard. Visit our website on www.mci.edu.au

AITD Conference

I spoke last week at the Australian Institute for Training and Development conference in Melbourne. My topic was - Check Your organisation's Pulse - are you an Investor in People?
We had some very positive feedback with many delegates saying that this was the most worthwhile session of the conference and the most inspiring.
I discussed what needs to be in place in an organisation beyond the traditional learning and development cycle of plan, prepare, deliver and assess. This framework certainly needs to be there but it is not nearly sufficient in terms of linking learning to business needs. A far more useful benchmarking tool is the Investors in People standard which is the only recognised HR standard used worldwide to determine whether an organisation improves its business performance through a planned approach to people development.
The standard is available on the Investors in People website - www.investorsinpeople.co.uk
There is also a very useful tool there on how you could diagnose your own organisation to determine whether you meet the evidence requirements and criteria of the standard.
In Australia the average spend per person on training is $450 (this figure is quoted in the latest survey of the retail industry). in addition to this there is $2.5 billion in federal funding of the apprenticeship and traineeships schemes for this financial year. There is also a further $280.6 million set aside by the government for skills vouchers to boost skills shortages.
With all these telephone numbers floating around of money spent on training, there is little research being done on the impact that this training is having on business.
My mantra is:
If training does not lead to change, why do it at all? Rather spend the money on a cruise around Sydney Harbour - it will cost you less and also lead to a more motivated workforce who are so pleased to have had the day off work.
Investors in People allows us to continuously evaluate our training and determine what difference it is making to the organisation as a whole or at least to individuals.
My challenge to the group was to:
1. Find out the budget that is spent on training and express this as a % of payroll.
2. Start changing the types of conversations that take place about training. Don't talk so much about the fact that delegates were "happy" with the training or that "all went well". This is important but more urgent is to find out what difference the training has made and to express this in a few sentences. "As a result of the intervention, the following happened. We increased sales or there were better customer feedback reports.."
Have fun using the Investors in People framework and if you decide that you would like to be externally audited so that you can join many of the top organisations worldwide who have met the standard, we can certainly arrange a quotation for you in this regard.

AQTF 2007

I attended a presentation by VETAB on what the new changes are for RTO's in terms of their quality assurance. There are in fact substantial changes and the focus is going to be more strongly on learning and assessment. If a person is awarded a qualification, the person needs to be genuinely competent and at a level of competence acceptable to industry.
Because skills shortages have moved higher up on the national agenda, the vocational training area is under scrutiny to ensure that more people are qualified with high level skills.
COAG in Feb 2006 set a national commitment to reviewing and amending the AQTF standards and ensuring that it moved to an outcomes-based model to improve confidence in the national training system.
The changes to how RTO's will be audited are substantial and cover 3 standards. The other criteria are now covered in conditions of registration.
RTO's and auditors will need to get used to the new standards and the intention is to phase them in from July 2007.
As RTO's we will need to keep documentation of what impact our training is having on the learners and on the organisation. We will also need to keep records of what our students have achieved and changed in their skills levels and behaviour.
In addition to the new criteria, RTO's will also have the oppportunity to demonstrate excellence and to be either 'quality committed' or 'outstanding'. These new quality standards will be used for both internal and external assessment and will cover areas such as leadership in the RTO, people development, management systems and so on.
A final version of the new RTO standards will be on www.training.com.au in the next few weeks.

Trainer development

I ran a session yesterday for a group of assessors in one of the public sector organisations.
A wonderful and dedicated group who participated fully in the day and had a refresher on some of their assessment skills, discussed challenges that are coming up for them in terms of the assessment they do and also spent some time validating their practices.
Some key learnings that came out of the session were:
1. The extent of a robust assessment system. If you take the time to draw who is involved in your assessment system and how many stakeholders there are, I think it is surprising how wide the net goes.
2. In validation, look at all aspects of an assessment system including all pillars in the temple of quality - policies around assessment; systems and processes; human and physical resources.
3. Communication issues came out as being a major hurdle to effective roll-out of assessment - involve the supervisor; give them a briefing on why assessment is so important and also de-brief them on the assessment result. Keep a constant stream of communication going as this adds to building a robust assessment system.
4. Remind ourselves of what it is like to be a candidate and have empathy for candidates - develop a strong code of conduct for assessors that includes confidentiality as well as providing support and being patient as candidates might not have English as a first language.
My hat off to this group of assessors - a true example of what assessors can achieve if they work as a team and support each other in the process.

Performance Appraisal

I listened in on a performance appraisal training session at a major insurance company.
Some notions that came to mind:

As an HR manager one should clarify what intention of the session is. It is essential to have a very clearly understanding of what is the outcome to be achieved. Is the intention to have managers and team members understand the appraisal document and process OR to ensure that people have the skills to deal with the appraisal session OR all of the above.

Performance appraisals are such a touchy topic – they touch on $’s. Get the organisation to state very clearly where remuneration fits in appraisal.
Try to ensure that there is someone internal to the organisation who is capturing the developing ideas and feedback from the session. So many suggestions that came out during the session were not heard and were not recorded therby lost to the organisation.
Be prepared for the questions. Spend time pre-empting all the types of possible and probable questions that could arise during the session. Receive input from a range of people in the organisation as to the types of questions that could arise. List these questions. Rehearse, replay and rehearse again answers to these questions. Get your wording right.
During the session get the questions out on the table. Rather raise the concerns in the room - this is far better than people leaving the room and setting off a range of grapevining amongst themselves. The more transparent the session, the less noise there will be afterwards.
Ask: "Your views please" and "What are the questions?” Not: “Are there any questions?”
Get team members to work in groups to come up with questions; list them on a flip chart. Call for people to comment and do not shy away from the questions – this creates the feeling that the organisation has a hidden agenda.
Make everything as visible as possible. Don’t just talk - use hand-outs, diagrams, posters, powerpoint slides. Say your key messages again and again. People hear what they want to hear. Offering the same message in different ways allows a better opportunity for the group to absorb the message.

I went to a luncheon with guest speaker, the Minister of Health, Tony Abbott. After telling him that he is the best looking Cabinet minister, I easily managed to have a photo taken with him. He certainly leads by example – when he talks about health and well-being he embodies his principles. He keeps his own fitness levels high and works with charities that support well-being.

Contact Centre Training

Yesterday we were at a planning session for the introduction of a Certificate 4 in Customer Contact into a call centre for a major logistics organisation.We developed an interesting way of implementing the qualification that will allow employees who are eligible for government funding as well as those who are not eligible, to participate in the program and to derive full benefits.The process for the roll-out of the program will include:An induction session - this will include information about the program and the what's in it for me factor.The Apprenticeship Centre will sign up those candidates who are eligible for state and/or federal funding.MCI will run a series of focus groups - the aim of these sessions is to uncover what the main pain points are; where the training should be directed and what key areas need addressing. We will also be gathering information about case studies and incidents that have occurred and that could have been dealt with more effectively.A training schedule is being established and here is where the difference lies. MCI charges the organisation per day of training and not per employee. This allows the non-eligible trainees to participate as the overall funding will cover the daily training rate and will be sufficient to incorporate all the needs of the business.Training and one on one assessment will get underway and we will keep you informed on progress.
Posted by Denise Meyerson at 12:54 AM
Labels: Traineeship funding