How do you measure and improve the impact of talent development initiatives?

There are two important questions that will help you gain clear objectives and a vision for the end results. 1. "What are we solving?": Is it a behavior change? Knowledge of something new? Increase in sales? What exactly are you looking to change through this talent development initiative? 2. "How will we know it succeeded?: This will be frame work for evaluating the program's success later. If you go into developing a program without knowing what success looks like, then evaluation will be a struggle. Everything should be designed with the end result in mind. The objectives that you're solving for should not only be the compass that guides the project, but also the foundation for evaluating the program's success later.

Understanding the context of which employees and managers currently work within is vital. Knowing these elements allow leaders to clearly identify what will be built upon and what will be measured. Without preparing the organization through communicating the desired results of initiatives, organizations can unnecessarily create skepticism, distrust, and ultimately a lack of embrace of strategy. Perpetual progress reports, communicated clearly and honestly, also reinforce the purpose of the strategy. While the development of employees should be seen as a huge investment in the careers of employees, miscommunicating of these initiatives can be viewed as superfluous organizational change, negatively impacting re-organization, or worse.

I agree and propose us taking this even further. Many organizations need to transition to accountability outcomes of these initiatives. Once you give every manager the tools and training, expect results. For example, every manager should have at least one KPI dedicated to transformative leadership. Their ability to implement talent development initiatives on their team and overall impact. What good are plans or intent if you still need manager buy-in or support? If we don't expect more from managers, these goals will get buried by other ones. Then when managers accomplish these KPIs, they should be rewarded and incentivized.

Metrics is the key to measure whether your talent initiatives are working well. Progress reports done at least weekly in collaboration with cross-functional teams will do the works. This will allow you to see a bigger picture on what needs to be improved based on your key metrics and how it will impact other teams. Working together is still the best move as it also fosters collaboration overall.

Evaluating is a long game, with some data checkpoints that can help along the way. - Immediate evaluation can be as simple as positive feedback from your employees. - 30-90 days after an initiative, you can check in with employees via fun pop quizzes or challenges to see if knowledge sticks. - Months down the road, you can start looking at the overall impact to the business. Make sure that enough time has passed to make a clear correlation between talent initiatives and improved business results. Use this information as a living, breathing assessment of whether or not your programs need improvement and innovation. Don't be afraid to try new things -- doing things "the way it's always been done" will likely not yield ideal results.