How to strategically evaluate L&D programs

With businesses wanting clearer evidence capability investment is creating value, leaders must ensure the ROI of learning solutions is being properly evaluated.

Organisations are leaning on learning and development to support strategy, improve performance, enable transformation and prepare people for rapidly a changing workplace.

At the same time, leaders are wanting to better understand how much value is being extracted from these endeavours.

With organisations investing more in learning solutions, there is a greater expectation they can show the value of this financial expenditure explained Magnus Gittins, Chief Executive Education Officer, Melbourne Business School.

“However, often these evaluations are focused on the outcomes once the solution has been executed,” he said.

“They’re not asking whether the learning solution was even the right lever to pull in the first place.”

A new report by Melbourne Business School and its Future of Learning Advisory Group explores this simple proposition: better evidence of the value of learning begins before a solution is designed.

“The paper asks the question about whether the conversation about ROI has been focused on the right part of the processes,” Gittins said.

How defining the right problem strengthens learning investment and impact

A practice-led insights paper from Melbourne Business School Executive Education and the Future of Learning Advisory Group.

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As well as providing a more accurate evaluation of investment return, the paper explores how defining the problem correctly also strengthens investment impact.

“If organisations are not clear about the problem they are trying to solve, the outcomes they hope to achieve and the role learning is expected to play, demonstrating impact becomes unnecessarily difficult,” Simon Hann, Chair of the School’s Future of Learning Advisory Group and Group Executive, Education & Marketing, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand said.

"Greater clarity at the outset creates a stronger foundation for both learning success and meaningful evaluation."

-Simon Hann, Chair Future of Learning Advisory Group

“Greater clarity at the outset creates a stronger foundation for both learning success and meaningful evaluation.”

The paper draws on three practice-based experiments designed by the School’s Future of Learning Advisory Group covering leadership enablement, strategic dashboard reporting and business-led evaluation.

Across the three experiments, several practical insights emerged, including:

1. Learning and Development was perceived as more strategically relevant when it connected learning investment to priority business problems.
2. Identifying measures specific to the business problem was vital.
3. Stakeholder co-design moved the value conversation from retrospective proof to upfront agreement.
4. Learning became one possible lever-not the default response to every performance problem.
5. Strategic learning investments warranted deeper evaluation; routine learning did not.

Gittins said the practical implication for organisations was clear.

“If you are looking at significant capability investments, do not begin with a course brief or wait until delivery ends to ask whether the investment worked," he said.

“Begin by defining the problem and determining what is actually the correct lever to pull.”

Read the full report How defining the right problem strengthens learning investment and impact. 

To discover how we help define organisational needs and deliver measurable learning outcomes, visit our For Organisations page.