Being an engineer, I have a hard time understanding most anything until I quantify it.  My slogan is: If you cannot measure it, you cannot understand it; and if you do not measure it you cannot control it.  The question is, how do you measure training?  This question is very pertinent, since training costs money and if we cannot measure the effectiveness of the training how will we know if we are getting our money's worth?

A thorough discussion of ROI is way beyond the scope of this newsletter and probably needs to be a white paper on my web site.  However, let me provide a few ideas for you to think about.

1.  Does your company have methods for gathering the cost of producing training materials?
2.  Do you keep track of the hours devoted to training by instructors and students?
3.  Have you established a training budget for new hires and does someone track performance to budget?
4.  Do you have a system for tracking downtime that can relate downtime to an individual?
5.  Do you have a system for tracking waste and seconds that can relate it to an individual?
6.  How often do you compare performance to training received?
7.  Do you have a rule of thumb for the dollar value of an hour of runtime?
8.  Do you have a dollar amount by style for a pound of first quality, seconds, and waste?

Do not expect to get approval for a training program without the ability to prove its value.  MANAGEMENT WILL NEVER SUPPORT A TRAINING PROGRAM IF THEY CANNOT SEE THE BENEFIT TO THE BOTTOM LINE.  Your most difficult task in setting up an effective training program is to get management to see the value and to keep management on board via effective reporting.