Defining standard business outcomes

Best Practice Guide: Standard Business Outcome KPIs

Overview

The business outcome KPIs on your organization’s learning evaluations are a valuable leading indicator of the impact training will have on the business. These tips will guide you toward establishing a consistent set of business outcome KPIs for your organization that will support your ability to articulate the value training is contributing.

What are Business Outcome KPIs, and how are they used?

Business Outcome KPIs are the answer options displayed for the question “I expect this learning experience will positively impact: (check all that apply)”. The percentage of learners who select each of the business outcomes provide an indication of the business outcomes that should ultimately be impacted as a result of applying the training. For example, if 95% of learners who attend a sales training program select the business outcome “Sales/Revenue”, it is a positive indicator that the program will have an impact on increasing sales. On the other hand, if only 30% of respondents select the business outcome “Sales/Revenue” when evaluating a sales program, it should be an immediate warning sign that the training will not significantly contribute to its objective of increasing sales. These lists of business outcomes were developed based on their frequency of use in our many years of experience developing logic models to assist organizations with measuring training programs.

What are the “Standard” Business Outcome KPIs and their definitions?

Can I remove Business Outcomes from the list, or add my own?

You may remove business outcomes from the core list by hiding them, and you may add your own outcomes. This list is finalized during an organization’s MTM implementation.Please consider the following when developing your final list:

1. The business outcomes you choose to display on a survey will appear for all classes which use that particular survey. For this reason, it’s important to agree on a single list of business outcomes which will display for ALL courses. The list should be no longer than 10-15 outcomes, for two reasons:
   1. The list becomes overwhelming for learners, making it difficult to differentiate which items will be impacted the most
   2. The list becomes too granular to support meaningful roll-up and comparison reporting.
2. There are a few types of programs for which an exception may be made (see the next section for details), however it is not a best practice to develop custom business outcomes lists for each course, for the following reason:
   1. The list becomes too granular to support meaningful roll-up reporting to an executive audience, which is the primary audience for summary business outcome data.

Are there recommended Business Outcome KPIs established for Sales and Leadership training?

Yes. Due to the more specialized nature of the outcomes expected as a result of sales and leadership training, we have developed a recommended set of Business Outcomes which are more tailored. Separate survey forms should be used in conjunction with these questions.

Recommended Outcome KPIs for Sales Training:

Recommended Outcome KPIs for Leadership Training: