All good leaders share a common plan – the plan to change and transform their organizations at some level. Change is inevitable. Change is necessary to address problems and to inspire innovation. But it’s how leaders evaluate and initiate change that sets them apart. What good leaders understand that many others do not is that an organization’s biggest asset is its workforce, and workforce improvement cannot be ignored. Creating a more innovative, agile workforce is the key to enabling change.
Effective workforce improvement begins with understanding and measurement – it begins with workforce analytics. A recent article published by Chief Learning Officer titled, “Why Learning Measurement Matters” frames this argument perfectly. Simply stated, you must define the what, the how and the why.
What are the business outcomes you are trying to achieve? How are you measuring these goals? And, why are you investing in specific learning management and talent development programs?
What are you doing?
As the CLO article states, “the what of our work is about what we measure,” which includes implementing metrics around sales, turnover, mobility and performance.
How is this happening?
The biggest hurdle is the how. Take the example of employee turnover. Employee turnover isn’t strictly about a single event that snowballs into a valued-employee’s decision to leave. Often, it’s a series of events that can be avoided. Training, communication, access to resources and lack of direction and support are among the biggest complaints of disgruntled and frustrated employees. High employee turnover rates can directly impact sales and innovation. Collective listening and workforce data analysis across various sources – such as HR databases and surveys – mapped to key business objectives will help you make more informed business decisions and improve your return on investment from learning management and talent development programs.
Why did this all start?
Many people get caught up in trying to follow industry standards and methodologies, but we often forget to hone in on what we are actually trying to achieve. Without comprehensive workforce metrics and the ability to focus on what matters most, there is no insight into issues such as why turnover is high and whether or not your change initiatives are creating positive results.
Establishing and monitoring workforce metrics will enable you to accelerate employee improvement, foster innovation and invest in workforce change initiatives that will positively impact business results.
Contact ZeroedIn today and we can help you establish a solid learning measurement program supported by the latest cloud and mobile workforce analytics tools – specifically designed to give you the insight you need to develop and empower a more innovative workforce.
