1. Borderless Learning
Innovating the ROI
Damien O’Donoghue
General Manager
GAC Corporate Academy
www.gacacademy.com

2. What happens if we spend money on training
our people and they leave?
What happens if we don’t and they stay?
2

3. Overview
1. 2. 3.
Corporate e-Learning Return on
Learning and learning investment
Organisations without (ROI)
boundaries
(CLO) is the key to
can deliver success
establish the
effective
culture of learning
learning outcome
3

4. PART 1 –
Corporate Learning
Organisations

5. The Learning Organisation
• Learning is seen as a strategic enabler to growth
• Competition is based on being able to learn and adapt
quicker than rivals
• People challenged to continuously expand and create
• Collaboration and innovation nurtured for competitive
advantage
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6. Training ---> Learning
TRAINING LEARNING
Skills development Behaviour change and skill development
Externally applied Internally accepted
Short term skill uplift Long term change
Equips for known challenges Equips for ambiguous future
Primarily structured Primarily organic
‘Doing’ ‘Understanding’
A “lead” measure A “lag” measure
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7. Evolution of Corporate Learning
2008+…
Collaborative, Talent-Driven Learning
Formalize informal learning
Collaboration and Talent Management by design
1995-today
Blended and informal Learning
Mixing all forms of media with informal learning
Learning On-Demand and Integrated Programs
1998-2004
The e-Learning Era
Put materials online, information vs. instruction
Web-Based courseware, virtual classroom, and Learner-Facing LMS
1980s-1990s
Traditional and Computer-Assisted Training
Instructor and Computer-Based (CBT)
Automated Training Management Systems
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8. The early adopters lead the way:
McDonalds Motorola
Hamburger University University
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9. Why Corporate Learning Organisations?
Strategic alignment (L&D + corporate strategy)
Central transmission station for corporate culture
Drive culture of measurement in all L&D activities
Increase employee involvement and collaboration
Develops appropriate pedagogy
Employer branding and alignment with HR
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10. NOW
Growth of Corporate Learning Organisations
is estimated to be 200% faster than the
vocational and academic sectors.
Source: Corporate University Exchange
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11. PART 2 –
Emergence of e-Learning and
Learning without Boundaries

12. A Quick Survey:
e-Learning –vs- classroom education
e-Learning is:
1. less-effective than classroom education.
2. an effective substitute for classroom education.
3. superior to classroom education.
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13. “Today’s students are no longer the people our
educational system was designed to teach”
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Mark Prensky 2001, “Digital Natives, Digitial Immigrants”.

14. Cost effectiveness of e-Learning –vs- face to face
corporate learning
• Travel costs eliminated
• Eliminates facilities and equipment
• Does not take participants out of work environment
• Enables out of hours learning
• Reduced instructor salaries
• Eliminates printing costs
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15. Social constructivism
• Puts learners at the centre of
learning
• Views learning as a social process
• Says knowledge is socially
constructed
• Believes in the importance of
learning by doing
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16. SMART pedagogy in course design
Specific
Measurable
Action-based
Relevant
Time-specific
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17. Limitations of “off-the-shelf” e-Learning
• Poor pedagogy and user-engagement
• Competes with abundant internet information
• Unduly prescriptive
• Expensive
• Lack context
• No social engagement
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18. Generation Y
“Never memorise something that you can look up”
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Albert Einstein

19. Blending technology and social constructivism
• Teaching –vs- Facilitation, Student –vs- Participant
• Social engagement and learning from each other
• Building connections, establishing communities
• Moodle – an open source learning management
system.
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20. PART 3 –
Innovating Return on Investment

22. Possible benefits of corporate learning and
development
• Improves employee performance
• Enhances company profits
• Saves money
• Improves a company's competitive edge.
• Increases worker productivity.
• Saves supervisory and administrative time and costs
• Improves customer satisfaction
• Improves employee satisfaction and retention
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23. So what should
we measure to
find out how we
are doing?
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24. How we measure ROI
depends on how the company
VALUES the learning
programme
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25. The Value Continuum in Corporate Learning
In general there are three points on the
value continuum:
Corporate learning as a publicity exercise
Corporate learning brokering training
Corporate learning as a strategic enabler
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26. Costs of Corporate Learning
Potential cost models:
1. Corporate overhead
2. Cost distribution
3. 100% Cost recovery
4. Profit centre
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27. GCA’s ROI measurements
GAC Strategic Objectives for GCA:
• Learning organisation
• Skillful and motivated people
Measurement through:
• CSF5: We must have motivated and trained personnel.
• KPI: Number of training hours (target vs actual)
• Employee Engagement Survey measuring perception of
GAC people about progress towards these objectives
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28. GAC Annual Employee Engagement Survey
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29. GCA ROI Calculation
• If the following conditions are met:
– Full cost recovery, and
– EES measures >= target, and
– Training Hours >= target, then:
• ROI is +ve
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30. CONCLUSION

31. Corporate Learning Organisations
e-Learning and learning without
boundaries
Return on Investment
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33. Moving from awareness, to knowledge, to skill
View from the Wading in shallow Swimming with
shore aka water aka the fish aka “Deep
“Shoreline” “Shallow Dive” Dive”
I’m kept informed I have basic knowledge; I’m teaching others and/or
enough to answer to high- applying knowledge in
level questions or refer customer situation
people to others
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Moving from awareness, to knowledge, to skill

34. How a corporation values its
learning and development
programs directly influences
how it is run.
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35. Kirkpatrick’s Learning and Training Evaluation Theory
Level 1: To what degree participants react favourably to the
Reaction learning event
Level 2: To what degree participants acquire the intended
Learning knowledge, skills, and attitudes based on their
participation in the learning event.
Level 3: To what degree participants apply what they learned
Behaviour during training when they are back on the job.
Level 4: To what degree targeted outcomes occur as a result of
Results the learning event and subsequent reinforcement
Source: Training on Trial: How Workplace Learning Must Reinvent Itself to Remain Relevant
– James D. Kirkpatrick
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36. Traditional ROI Measurements
Public Relations/ Brokering
Value of CLO
Training
Usually tangible objectives like:
• Create an awareness of the company as
Objectives committed to learning and development
• Meeting the specific learning needs of
various departments
Transactional measurement of ROI like:
• Number of participants
Measuring Results/ ROI • Number of training hours
• Awareness surveys
• Improvement in specific measures like
reduced HSSE incidents
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37. Evolving ROI Measurements
Value of CLO Strategic Enabler
Both tangible and intangible objectives like:
• Build a learning organisation culture
• Establishing communities of common
practice
Objectives • Promoting transference of knowledge
• Involvement in developing corporate
strategy
• Facilitating the implementation of
corporate strategy
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38. Evolving ROI Measurements (cont.)
Transactional measures:
As discussed previously
Measuring Results/ ROI PLUS
Strategic measures such as:
• How effectively knowledge is being
transferred throughout the organisation
• How are learning pathways being developed
• How are customer relations being improved
• How is the learning organisation playing a role
in the future development of the strategic
plan
• How all this is translating into a more
profitable and productive organisation
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