Tag Archives: Return on Investment

Five Steps to Designing a Training Environment That Gets Results

Posted by on September 13, 2011 Comments Off
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Tara Powersby Tara Powers

How many times have you spent time and money on a training program that under-delivered? Maybe you’ve heard yourself say “everyone loved the facilitator but we haven’t seen any measurable results.” The problem usually isn’t the facilitator, the learners, the topic, or the material. The problem is usually due to the learning environment prior to, during, and following the training event.

Over the past 10 years I’ve had the pleasure of training over thousands of people in various organizations across the country. I know what makes training stick and I know what doesn’t. I can recognize when there is a high probability for change and impact and when a training initiative will fail. What it boils down to is a very simple equation:

Training + Environment = Results Read more »

Employee Development: Expense or Investment?

Posted by on May 16, 2011 Comments Off
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text with the word ROI highlightedby Zoe Training staff

Zoe Training was recently featured in a Denver Business Journal article exploring whether employee training and development should be viewed an expense or an investment.

Although it’s easy in theory to say that employee development is an investment, as the report noted, “Despite some obvious advantages of training, some in the field say that in a tepid economy, employee development has been an easy line item to cross off.” According to Manpower’s 2010 Workforce Strategy Survey Global Key Findings (PDF), “Business leaders say they are focused on the professional development of their workforce yet this remains a weak spot for many organizations.  More than a third of employees say their organizations have not made training and development a priority.  A fifth say that training and development opportunity are inadequate for achieving the company’s business strategy–or are not provided at all.” Read more »

What’s Your “Training Groundhog”?

Posted by on February 7, 2011 Comments Off
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groundhogby Ashley Andrus

In 2011, Punxsutawney Phil celebrated the 125th Anniversary of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA.  On February 2nd, he emerged from his burrow and (according to folklore) predicted the arrival of spring.  According to the official rules of Groundhog’s Day, if he sees his shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter.  If, however, he does not see his shadow, we are in for an early spring.

Giving Phil the benefit of the doubt and assuming his prediction is correct, one must admire the precision of outcome metrics: Shadow = 6 weeks. No shadow = Less than 6 weeks. Clear, straightforward, easy to use.

Phil’s system got me thinking about the metrics (and lack thereof) often associated with training initiatives. Too often, organizations implement a training program with no clear plan for identifying actual outcomes and ensuring the ROI of the investment. Read more »

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