Why do organizations struggle with measuring the impact of their soft skills training? We know that improved communications skills make our colleagues better sales professionals, HR professionals, customer service professionals, etc. But getting to actual proof of this “knowledge” isn’t always easy. In this session, we will explore a range of soft skills training and development challenges, and we will provide a framework for building a measurement and metrics methodology to capture the business benefits and impact of improved performance in soft skills. www.bizlibrary.com

2. ?
How do you currently
measure your training
program and efforts?

3. What we hope you take-away:
How to identify key performance indicators for important soft skills in
your organization.
How to build a process for capturing the business benefits of soft skills
improvement.
How to create measurement plan for your program.

4. Executives Want to See More Impact and Value
RANKED
IMPORTANCE TO
EXEC’S
MEASURE
LEARNING
EVALUATION LEVEL
EXAMPLE
CURRENTLY
MEASURED
1 Impact 4 “The Accel project contributed 20% to our reduction in
error rates this fiscal.”
8%
2 Value 5 “Within one year, the East program will achieve a 2:1 benefit-
cost ratio.”
4%
3 Awards 0 “Our learning program won an award from Chief Learning
Officer magazine.”
40%
4 Application 3 “78% are applying their new skills to their jobs” 11%
5 Learning 2 “92% of participants increased their skills” 32%
6 Activity 0 “Last year 7,800 employees participated in our learning
programs”
94%
7 Efficiency 0 “Formal learning costs $2.15 per hour” 78%
8 Reaction 1 “Employees rated our training very high with an average of 4.5
on a 5 point scale”
53%
SOURCE: How Executives View Learning Metrics by Patti and Jack Phillips, CLO Magazine, Dec
2010

5. What are soft skills?
Sometimes, easier to say what they are not . . . .

6. Methods, processes
or disciplines
Occupational skills
Knowledge

7. What are soft skills?
Work Ethic
Attitude
Communication Skills
Emotional Intelligence
Collaboration
…

8. Soft skills aren’t optional.
75%
of long-term job success
depends on soft skills
SOURCE: Stanford Research Institute International and the Carnegie
Melon Foundation

9. LEVEL 1
Reaction
LEVEL 2
Learning
LEVEL 3
Behavior
LEVEL 4
Results
Participant
satisfaction
Knowledge, skills
and attitudes
Application and on-
the-job learning
Business impact
LEVEL 5
Return on
investment
Kirkpatrick – Phillips Model

10. It's not the 95% that's right that makes
something work; it's the 5% that's wrong that
messes everything up.
Source: Measuring, Managing and
Maximizing Performance, Will Kaydos

11. SYSTEM/PROCEDURE
CHANGES
INCENTIVE/MOTIVATION
MANAGER
SUPPORT/ATTENTION
EXTERNAL FACTORS
EFFECT OF
LEARNING ON
IMPROVEMENT
TOTAL
IMPROVEMENT
AFTER
PROGRAM
Isolation Techniques

12. Trend Line Analysis

13. Recruiters and Hiring
Managers Group 1
Recruiters and Hiring
Managers Group 2
Control Group

14. PARTICPANT AND MANAGER
ESTIMATION
only as good as the employees
ability to provide information
SENIOR MANAGEMENT
ESTIMATION
bias and simple human error
SUCCESS CASE METHOD
What did this person learn that was new? How did
this person use the learning on the job? Did the
usage help produce a worthwhile outcome?
Other Methods

15. What, if anything, did
this person learn that
was new?
How, if at all, did this
person use the new
learning in some sort of
job-specific behavior?
Did the usage of the learning help to produce
any sort of worthwhile outcome?
1 2
3
SOURCE: Telling Training’s Story by Robert O. Brinkerhoff
Success Case Method

16. 1
2
4
3
Focus on what you’re
evaluating
Create an impact
model that defines
potential results and
benefits.
Survey and select
success versus
non-success rates.
Formulate
conclusions and
recommendations,
value, and return-
on-investment.
4 STEPS TO CREATE A MEASUREMENT PLAN

17. Identify
Performance
Areas
Engage Key
Stakeholders
Clarify and Define
Training
Establish Key
Performance
Indicators and Metrics
1. Focus and Plan the Evaluation

18. SKILL/
CAPABILITY
DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS MY DEVELOPMENT
ACTION
TIMING
Leading meetings Video: Leading Meetings -
Create meeting behavior
expectations with your team
Gather with team to
discuss meeting
management and to
create meeting
expectations that
should be applied to
all team and project
meetings.
Review
monthly
Action Plan or Skills Development Plan

19. Organizational
Goals
Business Unit
Goals
Employee Behaviors or
Actions
Employee Skills or
Knowledge
2. Create a Model for Success

20. WHICH STATEMENT BELOW BEST DESCRIBES YOUR EXPERIENCE SINCE PARTICIPATING
IN THE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING?
a. I learned something new, I have used it, and it has led to some very worthwhile results.
b. I learned and tried some new things but can’t point to any very worthwhile results yet.
c. While I may have learned something new, I have not been able to use it yet.
d. I already knew about and was doing the things this training taught.
e. I don’t think I can really use what I learned in the training.
3. Success vs. Non-success Rates
SOURCE: Telling Training’s Story by Robert O. Brinkerhoff

21. Unsuccessful Successful
Positive influences:
On-demand access to resources
Opportunity to apply learning
Peer support
Senior leader involvement
Manager support

22. Areas of increased
performance
The value of
this increase
The costs to
deliver value
Recommended
improvements
to increase
value
4. Recommendations, Value and ROI

23. Measuring soft skills
Examples and use cases…

24. Collaboration Skills
TRAINING COSTS IMPACT
Human Resources: $180,000
Stakeholders: $480,000
Total = $660,000
• Release cycle of new products is at
180 days & we need it to be 90 days.
• For every 30 days behind, we lose 8
new sales - $50,000 each.
• 6-Team members lose 30 days each
with monthly salary of $8,000 each
($48,000 per team).

25. Collaboration Skills
VALUE ADDED TOTAL VALUE GAINED
• $1,200,000 in new sales with 90-day product
release target
• Payroll gains and cost savings of $144,000.
• Initial gain is $1,344,000 less the costs of
$660,000 for a net gain of $684,000 in the
first 90-days after the program finishes.
$1,344,000 on a
$660,000 program

26. Delegation Skills
TRAINING COSTS IMPACT
Human Resources: $1,000
Stakeholders: $720
Total = $1,720
• Newly promoted managers take an average of 16
weeks to gain full productivity
• Goal is to reach 100% productivity in 8 weeks at a
value of $72,000 for 12 managers.
• Teams are less productive per employee as
managers gain skills, and secondary goal is to
increase productivity per employee.

27. Delegation Skills
VALUE ADDED
TOTAL VALUE
GAINED
• Costs per manager are $60.00 each by using online delivery of
content.
• Managers reached full productivity by learning to effectively
delegate tasks and assume manager’s role in 8 weeks.
• Gain in value of salary was $72,000.
• Additionally, each team saw a .25% gain in per employee
production of $18,000 total across the six impacted teams.
$100,000 on
a $1,720
program

28. Problem Solving Skills
TRAINING COSTS IMPACT
Human Resources: $90,000
Managers & Reps: $250,000
Total = $340,000
• Customer service satisfaction ratings
of 3 or below during trials result in
zero sales
• Ratings of 4.5 or better result in won
business 85% of the time
• Goal is to reach 4.5 ratings or better
in 85% of the surveys returned.

29. Problem Solving Skills
VALUE ADDED TOTAL VALUE GAINED
• Complex training program lasted a full year.
• In the 12 months after the training program
really began to show modifications in
behaviors as proven by reaching 4.5
customer satisfaction scores 85% of the time
• 24 additional deals were won on the same
number of total trials.
$1,200,000 on a
$340,000 program

30. 6.8%
of total economy per
year in gross value
added
Soft Skills
Soft Skills are important in
every sector.
especially…
Business services
Retail
Public services
23%
2020
44%
2025
Contribution to
the economy is
expected to
grow…
SOURCE: January
2015 McDonald’s
report on the
economic value of
soft skills

31. According to CareerBuilder Soft Skills
remain the most sought after skills in
new hires:
Problem solving
Collaboration and team work
Communications skills
Adaptability
Dependability
Initiative
Innovative and creative

32. KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Soft Skills form the foundation of most professional and
business success.
Measuring the impact of soft skills training requires a
focus on the behaviors we are trying to modify and the
KPI the behaviors support.
The Success Case Method is an effective 4-step
methodology that can provide clarity to help us see the
impact of our soft skills training efforts.

33. Training Payback vs. ROI
NEW Train the
Trainer Series
• Training Management
• Research
• Content Development
• Training Delivery

34. Getting Good at Surveys and Analysis

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36. Jessica Petry
Sr. Marketing Specialist
jpetry@bizlibrary.com
@JessLPetry
@BizLibrary
Chris Osborn
Vice President of Marketing
cosborn@bizlibrary.com
@chrisosbornstl
#BIZWEBINAR

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