Professional Documents
Culture Documents
M. Srimannarayana
Introduction
This study presents the measures
of training and development that Training and development continues
are considered extremely valuable to be a valued component in the modem
and those that are routinely used management of human resources.
by HR/training professionals Emerging research shows that invest-
Based on information collected ments in human capital, including train-
from 105 HR/training profession- ing, are positively related to organisational
als from different Indian organi- performance (Kraiger, McLinden &
zations it was found that the tra- Casper 2004). The scope of training and
ditional measures such as feed- development activities vary from one
back of the training programmes, organisation to another. The activities
number of employees trainee! in include employee, associate, technical,
various training programmes, operator, supervisor and management
training costs, and number of training and development programms.
training days are the more popu- Training and development professionals
lar measures when compared to manning the training departments carry
impact measures such as learning out the entire process of training and
during training, transfer of train- development that includes preparation of
ing, performance improvements budgets, needs assessment and analysis,
because of training, and cost and programme design, delivery, and evalua-
beneflt analysis of training and tion of training programmes.
development programmes. Having
made significant progress with Training Evaluation
respect to traditional measures of
training and development, it is the As the companies spend huge
time for focusing ori impact'mea- amounts on ti^aining and development,
sures. they expect results from the programmes.
The results can be measured through
evaluation of training programmes.
Kirkpatrick's (1994) four level hierarchy
M. Srimannarayana is Professor, XLRI, Jamshedpur is a classical model of evaluation for guid-
8310 001, Email: sriman@xlri.ac.in
ing evaluation practices. The first level
The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations. Vol. 47. No. 1. July 2011 117
M. Srimannarayana
118 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 2011
Measuring Training & Development
sures such as improvements in time The study has concluded that the current
brought by some training programmes and state of measurement is almost inverse
process measures that cover the time to the perceptions of value.
needed for training. Finally soft data in-
cludes participants' feedback, their learn- The Present Study
ing, measures that include skill application.
Organisations in India are committing
more resources, in the forms of both time
Most organisations focus on mea-
and money, towards training and devel-
suring standard course operations:
opment of employees aiming at improv-
enrolment, and completion of the
ing their competencies. Training and de-
course.
velopment has evolved and matured to a
substantial degree in India (Rao, Rao &
Bersin (2006) has conducted a study Yadav 2001). Organisations are increas-
among senior professionals associated ing training budgets year after year
with training and development in North (Srimannarayana 2006). But to what ex-
America. It is focused on finding the tent measurement of training and devel-
measures of training and development opment has evolved and matured in In-
that are extremely valuable as perceived dia? Prompted by the study undertaken
by the training professionals and the mea- by Bersin, the present study is carried
sures that are really used routinely in the out to find out value of measures of train-
respective organisations. Based on his ing and development as perceived by the
research study, Bersin has identified the HR/ training professionals in India and
following training measures: 1) enrolment the extent of using them routinely in their
to the programmes, 2) compliance, 3) respective organisations to assess train-
course completion, 4) student hours, 5) ing and development function.
students' satisfaction, 6) managers' sat-
isfaction, 7) leaming scores, 8) cost to A questionnaire has been developed
develop, 9) cost to deliver, 10) cost per incorporating the following measures of
student, 11) total cost, 12) job impact, 13) training and development after consider-
business impact, 14) actual business im- ing various possible measures of training
pact, and 15) retum on investment. The and development function that have been
study has indicated that most identified in literature and earlier research
organisations focus on measuring stan- survey to assess this function:
dard course operations: enrolment, and
completion of the course. Reaction level 1) Number of employees trained in
evaluation surveys are very widely used. training programmes
A very small number of organisations
routinely measure retum on investment, 2) Number of training days
business impact or job impact. Another
3) Training costs
interesting finding of the study is that only
one-third organisations measure cost. 4) Percent of amount spent on training
in payroll
The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 2011 119
M Srimannarayana
120 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 2011
Measuring Training & Development
52%) has considered line managers' sat- able. Interestingly, only 42. 86 % of the
isfaction as extremely valuable a mea- respondents have considered feedback of
sure. Leaming of participants during the participants as an extremely valuable
training and number of training days are measure and only 40% of them have
extremely valuable to 47. 62% of the re- viewed number of employees trained in
spondents. 45.7% of the respondents training programmes as an extremely
have considered percent of amount spent valuable measure.
on training in payroll is extremely valu-
Fig. 1 : What Training & Development Measures are Considered Extremely Valuable
The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 2011 121
M. Srimannarayana
TisiiJition.il Measiirs
122 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1. July 2011
Meastiring Training & Development
The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 2011 123
M. Srimannarayana
what are the valuable measures of train- sequent to all these factors, training and
ing. Even then they do not use the valu- development measurement now in India
able measures to assess training impact is confined to traditional measures such
because of a different combination of as feedback, number of employees
factors. One cannot say that they do not trained, training costs, and training days
believe in impact measures as a majority that are simple and easy to measure. HR/
of the respondent HR/ training profes- training professionals have most control
sionals could identify the impact mea- over the information required for using
sures as valuable for the organisations in these measures to assess training func-
this study. Therefore, there might be dif- tion.
ferent factors associated with this situa-
tion. One would be HR/training profes- Conclusions & Recommendations
sionals might lack the knowledge, skills,
and abilities, and the orientation required
for assessing training and development Adequate needs assessment,
using impact measures though various I proper nominations, appropriate
models and methods are available on training design, and deiivery are
training measurement for impact. Sec- prerequisites for measuring im- I
ond would be that the HR/training pro- pact of training and development.
fessionals might be more concemed with
the negative consequences of the results The study concludes that measuring
of their training measurement.Third training and development has not matured
would be the belief that the measuring to a substantial level in India. It confines
impact of training is time consuming and to traditional measures such as collect-
expensive. Fourth would be the limita- ing feedback from the participants, mea-
tions and difficulties in the available mea- suring number of employees trained per
surement models. They might be looking year, training costs, training days, and
for the models that are simple and easy percent of amount spent on training, but
to measure. Finally, would be the coop- not impact measures. HR/ training pro-
eration requiredfromparticipants and line fessionals are aware of the impact mea-
managers. HR/training professionals sures. They consider them as valuable
have to get inputs required for measur- measures of training, but do not venture
ing training and development using im- to use these measures in training evalu-
pact measuresfromparticipants and their ation. There are multiple factors respon-
managers. HR/ training professionals do sible for this situation. Having achieved
not have control over data that is required satisfactory progress with respect to tra-
for measuring training and development ditional measures, it is now imperative on
using impact measures. If the HR/train- the part of HR/training professional to
ing professionals believe that they do not focus on what actually they wanted to
get enough cooperation from the line focus in measuring training and develop-
nianagers, they might not go for assess- ment. That is, impact measures. Ad-
ing training using impact measures. Sub- equate needs assessment, proper nomi-
124 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 2011
Measuring Training & Development
nations, appropriate training design, and Kraiger, K., McLinden, D & Casper, W. J. (2004),
"Collaborative Planning for Training Im-
delivery are prerequisites for measuring pact", Human Resource Management,
impact of training and development. This 43(4): 337-51.
should be supplemented with adequate
knowledge, skills, and orientation of HR/ Phillips, J. J. (1997;, Handbook of Training
Evaluation and Measurement Methods.
training professionals on measuring train- Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing.
ing and development using impact mea-
sures: If training is expected to show its Phillips J J (1999), Accountability in Human
Resource Management, Houston, TX:
impact, HR/ training professionals have Butterworth-Heinemann
to master the training measurement
methodologies using impact measures. Rao,TV, Rao, Raju & Yadav, Taru (2001), "A
Study of HRD Concepts, Structure of HRD
Departments, and HRD practices in India",
References Vikalpa, 26(1): 49-60
The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 2011 125