The challenge for training in these troubled economic times is for learning and development to be seen as an investment, not a cost, says John Frost. He gives some advice on how to influence the perception of training from financial drain to essential must have.

In uncertain times companies quite rightly look at all their costs and an early victim can often be the investment made in people. This is one of the first challenges for the learning and development professional - ensuring that training is seen in the company as an investment rather than a cost. Like all investments, the returns are not necessarily immediate. However, unlike the warnings that are given to you by your financial advisor - that the value of your investment could go up or down - if you get the support structure right around training as well as being very sure how you will measure your return on investment, then your investment will provide your company with an on-going and significant return year after year. If you could guarantee your returns on an investment, more than likely you would not hesitate, even in economic hard times. So what are some of the strategies and processes that you can adopt to secure your return on investment in training?

"If you could guarantee your returns on an investment, more than likely you would not hesitate, even in economic hard times. So what are some of the strategies and processes that you can adopt to secure your ROI in training?"

The first is to get a key sponsor at the most senior level of the company and preferably at board level. Do you have one currently? If not, who is the key player that you need to engage? Who will champion learning and development as an investment? If you are already on the board, have you identified an effective way of measuring ROI that has the support of your colleagues?

Being sure of why you are making the investment is also critical. How does the training support the business strategy and help to deliver the critical few key performance indicators? How will it move you towards the culture that will underpin your business success? What are the 'musts' from the investment? For example, for those that need to develop their high potential talent pool, leadership is a critical element of their growth and cultural change strategy.

Identifying what you want to measure in cultural, behavioural and financial terms is important. When you have done this, keep it simple! The four criteria identified in the Kirkpatrick model measure the ROI on training and development programmes as effectively as any model:

Reaction: what the reaction is to the training and what the participants think and feel after completing the training? What impact is immediately obvious to others back in the workplace?

Learning: what have they learned as a result of taking part in the training and how will they use that learning to be more effective in their role?

Behavioural change: what behaviours have they changed as a result of their learning and what feedback have they had on that behavioural change from their colleagues? This can be measured by using a 360 feedback tool that offers comparative data both before and after a training programme.

Results: what results are they getting both financial and people based that can be directly attributed to the training programme?

There is no need to accept that certain training (like leadership training) is too intangible to find a financial ROI. Often we find it is only because those attending the training have not been asked the question.

The final factor, which significantly increases the chance of getting a good return on your investment, is having a structure in place that supports the attendees both before and after the training programme. An excellent pre-brief prior to and a post de-briefing after any programme, with their line manager, is a must. By establishing personal and company objectives for the programme up front and by sharing their learning and goals following the programme, the line manager can support the attendees’ on-going development with coaching and mentoring.

A key questions to ask here therefore is how well do your line managers coach and mentor? Do they have the skills to enable great performance improvement and on-going development so that the training programme is the start of the journey and not, as in cases where internal support is poor, the end? Developing a leadership culture based on coaching is critical. If leaders don’t value it as an activity, they won’t do it.

Learning and development professionals may well have a hard time for the next 12 months but they will have a better chance of retaining or even increasing budget if they have structures and processes in place which clearly demonstrate ROI. But here’s the thing, and this really is an intangible benefit, if you continue to invest in your people, even in difficult economic times, you are sending out a very powerful message that people really are your most important asset. Actions speak louder than words!

John Frost is the operations director at Values Based Leadership. For more information see the website: www.valuesbasedleadership.co.uk

To read his previous feature 'What makes a team really perform' click here.