How does your L&D measure up?
HR leaders from the hospitality, supply chain and information technology industries tell Lee Xieli and Lisa Cheong their biggest challenges in measuring the ROI of development programmes they have put in place.
■ Nica Foo
Head of HR and talent management
ThaiExpress Concepts
We are a WDA accredited in-house training organisation. The main challenges in getting our own staff to go for training are largely due to the demand on operating hours, diversity of staff profile (in terms of age and nationality) and the volatility of staff turnover in the food and beverage industry. So we got the support of the management, working with the different brands to craft out training dates way in advance, as well as hiring more part-timers to fill the gap to allow resources to be freed up for the full-time staff’s training. We also get trainers who are able to provide training bilingually for staff who are not so fluent in English.
A successful training is measured in different stages. The first stage will be the assessment and successful attainment of certification. We link the outcome of training as another set of KPIs for staff performance, as well as, rewarding staff with an educational opportunity to attain a certificate in F&B services fully sponsored by the company.
The employee also needs to ensure punctuality and active participation of the training conducted as this will be tied to their work discipline as well. Their interaction with staff from other brands and outlets during the training will display their people personality and in our line, we need people person.
This will be followed by measuring the ability to apply what they have learnt in class into practice at the outlet and eventually, allow us to measure the depth of positive influence they have from these implementations at the outlets.
■ Joydeep Bose
President and global head of human resources
Olam International
Our leadership development programmes are measured against the [leadership] competencies we have defined for ourselves. There are two ways of measurement. One is based on actual final business results achieved and another is the manner in which results have been achieved. Are they sustainable? Which are the values of the organisation been met? Are the results one-off or is it sustainable and were leadership competencies demonstrated? We have a competency assessment, measured through the 360-degree survey that we have [in-house].
We typically measure ROI for a few interventions – the ones which are resource-intensive, which you believe have the highest impact. Here, we measure ROI in terms of whether the behavioural changes or process changes that we expected are met. We also look at feedback received from the participants, their peers and supervisors.
■ Johan G. van Vuuren
Director, Human Resources
Datacraft Asia
I think L&D metrics, like with other people and culture metrics, all face several challenges. First, deciding which metrics to measure is critical. Because it is possible to measure many things, but where would you get the most leverage? That is where the People and Culture component of our Balanced Scorecard, which underpins our strategy map, is critical because it shows us the relationship between different metrics and certain outcomes.
The second challenge is the data has to be collected manually. So what Datacraft has been trying to do is develop digital or electronic support for as many of our People and Culture processes as possible. And we now have a significant quantity of L&D electronic data which allows us to more easily aggregate, analyse and report the numbers.
When we have enough data, I think focusing only on those areas that need urgent attention is critical. And this is where our Balanced Scorecard helps again, because it indicates the areas where we should be focusing on.
