KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are key performance indicators that have a lot to say. But you need to listen to them carefully so that they are really useful when managing your company or project.
Indicators are data that can be measured and that demonstrate the results of an activity, indicating whether they were achieved or not. Based on the analysis of KPIs, managers make decisions and define the routes to be followed. Also used to measure the results of corporate training, KPIs should always be defined based on the specific needs of your organization.
One activity that uses these indicators is corporate training plans, which require close monitoring of the evolution of employees’ learning.
If you want to learn how to listen to what the indicators want to tell you, read on.
Not every indicator works
Yes. That's exactly what you read: not all indicators are efficient. This is because the KPI must be in line with your company or project, that is, it must make sense for your business or area. Otherwise, it won't show any useful information, it won't contribute anything. Therefore, before stipulating indicators, define which data is relevant to help measure the evolution of a project and, therefore, provide insights that will guide decision-making.
As our expertise is in corporate learning, here are some KPIs that will certainly be useful for you to manage this matter:
#1 – Adhesion indicator
This indicator aims to evaluate the rate of people who signed up for a given training. With this data, it is possible to know what percentage of employees are interested in that topic.
With the adherence indicator, managers will be able to assess the number of people who were invited and who were actually interested in training, assessing whether the percentage is within expectations, above or below.
This is a key indicator for measuring the engagement of the target audience of a training. If the result is bad, before proceeding, stop and analyze the reasons why adherence was low. Often, it is not a matter of a lack of interest on the part of the participant, but rather a failure to publicize the event and/or a low level of incentive to practice learning in the company as a whole.
The best way to understand the causes of low adherence and solve the problem? Curiosity. Talk to employees, understand their expectations, interests and motivations. Always search.
#2 - Abandonment indicator
People who start and leave a course in between: where do they live? What are they looking for? Why are they unmotivated? Find out why in a practical way by correctly evaluating the abandonment KPI.
As we can predict from the name, this indicator evaluates training withdrawal behavior. At this stage, the employee has already signed up and started the content, but has not completed the course or training.
To make good use of this indicator, the first step is to identify the training abandonment rate and evaluate the results. Once this is done, investigate which part of the training the participants are experiencing difficulties or lack of interest to the point of dropping the content.
By identifying these points, it will be possible to focus on the cause of the problem and work on the stage where the dropout is occurring, making the learning journey more motivating and helping employees reach the final objective: completing the training to evolve with it.
#3 – Reaction indicator
If on the one hand we have the dropouts, on the other we have the “put on your cropped and react!” crowd. Ultimately, people are different and have different opinions. To understand their behavior, we rely on the reaction indicator, which allows us to measure how employees react to training and what they think of the content, listen to their perceptions, praise and criticism, in order to draw up action plans for improvements.
Open your head and heart to listen to everyone, including (and perhaps especially) those who abandoned a course if you want to understand their lack of motivation and the reasons that led them to give up before completing it. You can do this by asking participants for feedback anonymously, giving them complete freedom to express themselves.
An important factor is to carry out the assessments after a few days of training, giving them time to consume the content and be able to talk about it with confidence and without any pressure.
The reaction indicator works like an evaluation or satisfaction survey that measures participants' positive and negative perceptions. Don't underestimate this step, it is key to the process of continuous improvement in your area or company.
#4 – Average learning assessment indicator
We have arrived at the moment of truth! This indicator evaluates the learning rate of employees, identifying the level of knowledge based on the training applied. This KPI aims to show whether employees are applying their learning and whether this is bringing real results to the company.
This step tends to take longer than the others, as it requires information about the behavior of employees and this takes time.
A practical and quick way to obtain concrete results is to apply tests before and directly after completing the training, thus obtaining a real comparison of learning regarding the content covered. With this indicator, you will calculate the average learning rate of the training program in your company.
#5 – Individual achievement indicator
The individual achievement KPI seeks to identify how many participants expanded their knowledge and began to perform new skills and what was the impact of training in this change. Some tips: measure the number of promotions/position changes that occurred among training participants, carry out research to assess whether employees began to apply the knowledge acquired in their routine, investigate how exposure to new learning impacted their professional journey individual. Plus tip: have a person (or a team) focused on carrying out this monitoring on an ongoing basis.
#6 – Financial indicator
Last but not least, we have the financial indicator, which aims to measure the investment your company makes in corporate education and the training cost per employee.
This indicator is strategic, as it measures what results your company is obtaining from training. Through it, it is also possible to relate the rate of increase or reduction in results over time. And, thus, recognize whether the investment (the famous ROI) is paying off.
In practice, what are the advantages of using indicators?
In addition to motivating and qualifying employees, the ultimate intention of training is to bring results to the company. And, to be sure that there is a return on investment, it is necessary to measure it. If you don't measure or monitor your results, you won't manage them at all.
Here are some advantages of using indicators and measuring their results:
- Get to know your organization’s processes better: With indicators, it is possible to map results by activity, process, sector or other aspects, identifying flaws and opportunities for improvement.
- Route changes: KPIs enable managers to monitor their results, whether final or partial, making it possible to change processes or adjust activities without losing timing.
- HR Processes: KPIs are essential for Human Resources, Organizational Development and/or T&D teams as they facilitate decision-making in the sector and propose more objective results based on the results of individual employee assessments. Challenge: does your People area already work with indicators?
- Goal structuring: It is possible to use training to set business goals. Corporate learning is capable of resulting in a high-level team with the ability to generate real results and profits.
For those who already work with indicators, but want to take the next step:
The icing on the cake for those who already understand the importance of KPIs and already work with them is: structure the monitoring of your results indicators through a Business Intelligence (BI) system. Manage and control the direction of your area through comparative bases, cross reports and consistent analyzes that will provide a much more agile and assertive view of your results.
If your company wants to invest in a corporate training program or Business Intelligence solutions, talk to the experts Take 5, the partner company when it comes to generating results through corporate learning.
Visit https://www.take5.com.br/ and learn more.
