To be very frank, I am not very good with words and wordplay. But if you really want to know my opinion about the biggest hurdle to quantifying the business impact of training and development then let me share my views with you.
As I have written earlier that Return On Knowledge (ROK) is different for every sector and for every employee in the organization. I mean to say if we talk about the manufacturing industry, the return on knowledge is important because every employee will have to be productive so that they (the employee) can increase their efficiency. However, they may or may not be effective in their respective duties. If we talk about consulting or research firms, then it would be nearly impossible to quantify the return as this knowledge might play a role in winning a particular contract or carrying out a lucrative engagement.
If we talk about hurdles to quantify training and development than as per my views are:
- The dilemma that training impact evaluations are expensive.
- Lack of coordination among trainers and evaluators about training methodology and training design
- The dilemma for employees who undergo training, as to whether they would be able to enhance their performance or not.
I think these are the things that can create hurdles in measuring the training and development effectiveness in an organization. I am still in a learning mode and want to be in that phase for the rest of my life.
