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Success Factors for Training

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What are those things in your training business (university, division, unit) that you believe will help you achieve a successful outcome to your business strategy? They may be related to cost reduction, corporate objectives, new technology, process changes, etc. What will help ensure your success? They may be unique to your training business or new products for your customers. The standard things for a successful training business are adequate capital, cash flow, good employees, and customers. These are not the success factors for your business - they are the result of your success factors. Again, you need to establish the key success factors that will complement your business strategy. What gets the customer to choose your product and - call you ; browse your web site; meet and buy from your sales person; or come into your training center?  Call Me! Success Factors fall into several categories : Set realistic business objectives and goals Understand your unique va
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Reporting - Revenue Example

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Presenting your business results.  This chart, created in MS Excel, is a very simple way to report any number of different metrics.  This is an example of revenue verses budget by month.  The chart is updated monthly or quarterly to the appropriate management team and posted to all team members.  It is an easy way to show a Pareto Graph of the root causes of the deviations from budget and the planned actions, when necessary, to correct.  Easy to read, easy to do.  Fig. 1 - Metric - Revenue Report Chart  Let's look at each area of the chart separately.  The first area is the Revenue/Budget Graph (Fig. 2).  Plot your budget (Revenue Forecast ) out by month for the year then add actual revenue results as they are documented by month.  Be sure this is posted for all team members to see.  It is important for everyone to feel ownership for the business results. Fig. 2 - Revenue Report Graph  The next area on the chart is the Pareto Graph (Fig. 3) for the root
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Job Performance - Employees & Training

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Job Performance - R. Hibbard Job performance is based on several factors.  All of the factors must combine to achieve optimal performance from an individual. Training, education, and feedback are critical components to high performance individuals.  Keep in mind that job performance and motivation is just as applicable to the hourly employee as it is to the CEO.  Everyone has a boss, even the CEO - the Board of Directors.  It is the bosses job and the company's job to ensure that employees are challenged and motivated.  Absolutely not in a negative way, but in positive ways that encourage creativity and high performance.  In the 21st Century Company if the job can be done by computers or robots then that is the path that should be taken, since there is absolutely no way that you can keep people motivated and excited in monotonous, repetitive jobs.  There are still jobs that are currently too difficult to automate and special attention must be given to ensure the employees rema
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ROI [3] - Cost Benefit Analysis - BENEFITS

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When doing a Cost Benefit Analysis for training and education programs there are many factors that result in benefits and economic returns.  Some of them are: Labor Process efficiency Sales Management Time-to-fix Vendor costs Up-time Marketing costs Delivery efficiency Headcount Competitive advantage Market share OSHA  (USA or local equivalent) - work safety agency EPA (USA or local equivalent) - environmental protection agency Where are the benefits in each of these? LABOR - Typically there are efficiency improvements.  Do job better,quicker, less headcount. PROCESS EFFICIENCY - Same here; more product, less waste, quicker change-over, quicker start-ups, etc. SALES - more, higher margin, new market, customer satisfaction MANAGEMENT - fewer, can do more, better direction VENDOR COSTS - reduced through close project management, purchasing supply management better prepared DELIVERY EFFICIENCY - could be in terms of delivery type chosen (e-learning tends to be mor
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ROI - The Process

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Back in 1999 The Jack Philips Center for Research coined the term "The ROI Process" (TM) .  It was, and still is, a comprehensive methodology for capturing ROI as well as the measurement of all aspects of the benefits of training (learning or performance) interventions.  See The Four Evaluation Levels for Training Programs for additional insight. In The ROI Process there are five levels presented.  ROI being a separate level from the traditional levels presented by Dr. Donald L. Kirkpatrick.  Dr. Kirkpatrick included ROI in level four known as Results , because ROI is one of the measures of the final business results such as increased sales, reduced costs, etc.  In my opinion, ROI is really a nice 'business' way to summarize your investment in the training intervention. However, common sense must be enlisted when, and if, you decide to establish the ROI of a learning event.  The cost of determination can exceed the benefit! The organization that requests the learni
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ROI [2] - Cost Benefit Analysis - COSTS

Cost benefit analysis is very important in The Business of Training . Always think of yourself as a business person and then a training and development person. Whenever you are asked to do a training program (training intervention) that is expected to add value to the organization it is a good idea to do a cost-to-benefit analysis. If you would like a 'fill-in-the-blanks', multi-currency, Microsoft Excel workbook with all of the cost and benefit calculations, including ROI, please send me an email request and I will forward one on to you. Put 'ROI Calculator' in email subject. Cost Benefit Analysis is an important exercise for several reasons: You can compare different ways of carrying out the program It will help justify spending the money for the program The expected benefits can be developed and incorporated into the evaluation Major areas to keep in mind for cost factors are: Labor Material Travel Lost Opportunity Vendors Marketing Delivery Wh
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