While there are many stakeholders, there are two primary groups: consumers and clients. Consumers are the individuals who participate in the program; clients are those who fund, support, request, or approve programs. Both groups have a vested interest in the scorecard and a recent survey shows that 22 percent of CEOs say they have a learning scorecard (Phillips and Phillips, 2010).
To ensure that programs are effective, the talent management staff must have feedback in the form of data from the consumers of the programs. Not only do they need to know to what extent the participants believed in the program, but they must also know that the participants learned new information and applied that new knowledge to their work situation. Ideally, the talent management staff must also understand which programs are making an impact to the business and to what degree. Finally, talent management staff should gain insight on the return on investment (ROI) of the programs. All of this data combined gives the talent management team important information they can use to develop, refine, and improve their approach.
The client group is interested in knowing how participants changed their behavior, the business impact of those behaviors, and the resulting ROI of the program for the organization. They are also interested in knowing that there is a clear linkage between what the business needs and the program outcomes. More often, senior executives are looking to see actual return on investment to ensure the programs have an important payoff for the organization.
The needs of both the consumer group as well as the client group can be met through a scorecard. Collectively, the needs from these different target groups create a demand for a measurement system that will collect, distribute, and interpret the necessary data on a routine basis.
Comments