How to Measure the Impact of Your Training and Development
How do we know when we are successful? And how can we actually measure that? I know this can be frustrating, but it can be done. And who better to guide us than today’s guest, L&D Detective Kevin M. Yates.
I am so excited to have Kevin as a guest, not only is he the L&D detective and an expert on measurement, but he also has his own nonprofit and we're going to hear about both of those things today. I know you're going to love it and get so much value from what Kevin has to share.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
03:49 Kevin’s career journey in training, learning, and talent development and starting his own nonprofit, Meals in the Meantime
07:38 If your nonprofit isn’t measuring impact, this is where you should start
16:02 Measuring nonprofit impact through KPIs and metrics that already exist in your nonprofit
22:13 Measuring the impact of training in your nonprofit
27:33 Actions that nonprofit Learning and Development leaders can take now to measure training more effectively in the future
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How to Measure the Impact of Your Training and Development
How will we know when we are successful?
That's one of the questions I ask when working with clients. This one simple question helps us paint a picture of success.
We can imagine what it looks like in action.
What it feels like,
What it sounds like.
What it isn't.
And that can help us know what to create for our learners. But it can also help us know what to measure. Yet even with that clarity, we sometimes still get stuck as nonprofits. How can we actually measure success?
What does success look like?
What can we measure related to that?
And how can we measure that?
This is difficult in any organization, but add the complexities that many nonprofits have, and it's even more of a challenge.
I've worked in a federated nonprofit. I know what it feels like to want to measure something but to be faced with roadblock after roadblock when trying to figure out how to measure it. But it can be done.
That’s what we’re talking about on episode 59 of the podcast, and who better to guide us than the L&D Detective Kevin M. Yates. Not only is he the L&D detective and an expert on measurement, but he also has his own nonprofit, Meals in the Meantime, which provides pop-up food pantries in Chicagoland's south suburbs.
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
1) Measuring Impact in Learning and Development
Let's start with the basics. I asked Kevin where he recommends a nonprofit start if they are not doing anything related to measurement.
His reply? Measure what matters.
He goes on to explain that whatever has been identified as the key goals for your organization is where you should start.
“Identify your goals as a nonprofit, assign KPIs, metrics, or measures to that, and then measure accordingly. I think that that's where you start.” - Kevin M. Yates
I love that that Kevin jumped straight to impact.
So often organizations get stuck at satisfaction or net promoter but Kevin went straight to impact.
What is the goal of the organization that you're trying to impact through training? Start there so that it's meaningful.
“Traditionally, in terms of training, learning, and talent development as a discipline, there are measures and metrics that we don't have to figure out anymore because we know how to do it. And quite candidly, those are the ones that are easy to get. And those are the ones that are, more often than not, the metrics and measures that we get from our learning management systems, or via our learning surveys. So I don’t want to start there because that's easy. We know how to do it, we've been doing it for years. Where we've not done such a good job, just to be quite honest with you, is measuring the impact of our training and our learning solutions.” - Kevin M. Yates
2) The Importance of Measuring Impact Early in Your Nonprofit
I asked Kevin what they measure or are planning to measure in his own nonprofit, Meals in the Meantime.
Kevin shared that as they are still a relatively new nonprofit, they haven't had any training or learning initiatives per se, but they still measure the impact that they are having on communities. This includes the number of people they serve, the amount of food they have given away, and the number of pantries they have. These are some examples of how they are measuring impact.
When they get to a point where they might need to train volunteers as they grow, they already have a data set that they’re working with. And then they will be able to compare data depending on what training and development strategies they apply.
3) Examples of Measuring Training and Development Impact
If a nonprofit is currently only measuring something like satisfaction or net promoter score, they can still use that information to measure impact.
“When we think about, in a nonprofit, those metrics and measures that they're using to get signal for operational efficiency or human performance efficiency, those are the metrics or measures that give signal for the impact of training and learning. That's what you anchor your training and learning initiatives on to for the purpose of targeting what you want to impact.” - Kevin M. Yates
A. Measuring the extent to which volunteers are engaging with pantry visitors
Kevin gives us an example of this from Meals in the Meantime. One of the things they are measuring is the extent to which volunteers on site are engaging with pantry visitors.
“We want our pantry volunteers to treat our pantry visitors like humans. We want to treat them with dignity and respect because even though they are experiencing food insecurity, they still deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. One of the things that we say is, we want to honor the humanity of who we serve, and honoring the humanity of who we serve, comes through with how our volunteers engage with pantry visitors.” - Kevin M. Yates
If they are measuring how the visitors felt during their experience at the food pantry, they now have a data point that says things are going well, or things could be improved. And then that could be a place where training might be needed and could be impactful to the organization.
So if the visitors leave and their experience was not as good as Kevin hoped it would be, that might signal a need for training and development on a certain skill set or a certain behavior with the volunteers at the food pantry. After training and development, you measure the same metric. You can then compare the two metrics and see if your training and development has had the desired impact.
B. Measuring the efficiency of advertising
“One of the things that we ask pantry visitors as they either walk on-site or roll through in their vehicle to get a bag of food, we ask them, how did you hear about today's pantry? Because again, we want to see which channel of marketing and promotion is making the most impact.” - Kevin M. Yates
They want to know whether they heard about Meals in the Meantime through a flyer, on the television, or the radio, for example.
“Where we see the most impact in terms of the channel through which we are creating awareness about our food pantry, is where we want to spend the most time. Through that data, we're able to spend more time on the channels of marketing promotion that are getting the highest visibility and the highest impact and less time on those that are not.” - Kevin M. Yates
4) Using Current Metrics to Measure the Impact of Training and Development
It's generally agreed that we need to measure higher-level training outcomes. We don't stop at “Was the training environment comfortable?”, we need to go deeper.
But many organizations are stuck and not sure where to start, especially when you add in the complexities of the nonprofit environment. I asked Kevin if there are specific things that nonprofits should measure related to impact.
Kevin explained, that on a lot of levels, the metrics and the measures are going to vary from nonprofit to nonprofit. He provides us with an example.
“Let's say that a nonprofit has made the observation that there is an opportunity for leaders of people and teams to do a better job at supporting their employees on their career journey. So then we can say that there are metrics and measures that give signal for the job that managers are doing with helping employees through career journeys.” - Kevin M. Yates
Some of the metric examples Kevin provides are the employee engagement metrics or the results of 360 assessments that organizations use to gain insight into people manager effectiveness.
If you are not familiar with assessments, I have some podcast episodes that you can check out:
Episode 13: Breaking Down the Good, Bad, and Ugly of Diversity Assessments with Dr. Hedy Lemar Walls
Episode 12: The Secret to Making Leadership Assessments Work
Episode 11: Three Types of Assessments that Pay Off for Your Hybrid Workforce
Let’s get back to the example.
“So let's say that the employee engagement scores are low for career development, and the employee engagement scores are low on the 360, which captures the view that employees have of their managers helping them on the career journey. So what there is an opportunity to do, as part of the solution for addressing that issue, is training, learning, and talent development for people leaders.” - Kevin M. Yates
Kevin explains that you already have a couple of metrics that will give a strong signal for what happens when you provide leadership development training for managers.
“So what we want to do is target the employee engagement score and some of the scores that we get from the manager 360. And we want to be able to use that as signal for the extent to which training and learning has influenced those engagement scores, and the extent to which training and learning has influenced those 360 scores.” - Kevin M. Yates
To sum this example up, Kevin explains that if people managers aren't doing a great job, you can create training and learning as part of the solution set to address that issue. You can then compare and contrast differences between pre-training and post-training assessments. That then gives us a signal for the efficiency and effectiveness of the training.
I love that in this example Kevin is showing that you’re proving the impact of the training related to the impact that you want it to have in the organization. It's a great example of how we can measure true impact in training.
5) What Learning and Development Leaders Can Do Now to Measure Training More Effectively in the Future
When I asked Kevin what Learning and Development leaders can do now to measure training more effectively in the future, he replied, to focus on the performance of people and the performance of the organization.
He goes on to say that often we lead with the question, “What kind of training do you need?”
Kevin explains that this might include the following questions:
When do you need the training?
Do you want the training to be instructor-led?
Do you want it to be virtual?
What type of snacks do you want during the training?
How many breaks do you want to have?
How long should the training be?
“My recommendation to nonprofit training and learning teams is to lead the conversation NOT with all the tactical stuff, but rather lead the conversation with what is the need in terms of performance. What is the need in terms of performance for people and performance for the nonprofit itself? Have that conversation first.” - Kevin M. Yates
Kevin explains that that conversation has nothing to do with training, but if you lead with the needs of the organization and people, you will ultimately be able to determine what types of solutions your organization needs to help you achieve those goals for organization performance.
“For me, top of mind, just changing a conversation from one that is based in tactics to one that is based on performance and organization needs. If we can do that, we're headed down the right path for success. Because more often than not, we're starting a conversation from an order-taking perspective versus an impact-making perspective.” - Kevin M. Yates
I talk a lot about being strategic and compassionately human-centered. That's my approach to my work. And so I have some episodes about employee and organization performance that help change that conversation a little bit:
Episode 44: How to Establish a Common Language for Performance
Episode 27: 4 Easy Habits to Improve Employee Performance and Culture with Veronica LaFemina
Episode 23: Improving Employee Performance: How I Tailor Staff Development Solutions to Your Organization
Episode 22: How People Managers Can Improve Employee Performance and Job Satisfaction
To hear the full conversation I had with Kevin M. Yates on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 59.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
Do you wish you could connect with other nonprofit learning and development leaders?
I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. Imagine if you could have a simple way to meet people in the field, ask questions, and share information.
That's why I created the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – so nonprofit L&D, talent management, and DEI leaders can connect with each other quickly and easily in a virtual space.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
