ten steps to optimise learning

Managed Learning Service

Ten Steps to Optimise Your LearningA business white paper by Kevin Lovell, Learning Strategy Director, KnowledgePool

Improving the Performance of Learning


www.knowledgepool.com 2

IntroductionOver the last decade, L&D teams have been trying to improve the way they manage, procure and administer their learning. In this white paper, we’ll examine ten steps that can help you to drive up your return on investment from learning - by reducing the total cost of learning and by improving the effectiveness of learning in the workplace.

There is a widely held view (though it is not often expressed) that a great deal of the investment that organisations make in learning is wasted – in the sense that it fails to convert into business benefit. By ‘optimising’ your learning, you’ll be able to makes the greatest possible contribution to your Talent Management processes.

KnowledgePool believes passionately in learning and development and the force for good that it can be. In our view, learning and development is central to creating a high performance culture and to building an organisation that is great to work for. Well managed learning gives people better skills to do their jobs more effectively. It makes people more flexible to adapt to new conditions - and new responsibilities - and it also makes them more engaged and passionate about their customers, their business and their careers.

However, achieving ‘well managed learning’ consistently in practice is extremely difficult, particularly in large organisations, and as a result there is considerable wastage and inefficiency. The underlying causes typically include a lack of facts and figures about learning activity; a lack of awareness of what is available in the market; a lack of time and expert resources; a lack of control and mandate; a lack of technology and tools; a lack of transparency and joined up management; a lack of the ability to demonstrate success and even a lack of cooperation between colleagues in different teams.

To overcome this, organisations need to place a greater focus on the efficiency of people, processes and technology. They also need to measure learning activity, along with costs and the impact on performance. The real aim is to drive cost efficiency and learning effectiveness, through a constant cycle of measurement, analysis and action.

Optimising LearningWe consider there are ten steps to optimising learning: these are shown in schematic form in Figure 1. The rest of this document gives a brief description of each step and how it contributes to the overall optimisation of the learning function.

Kevin Lovell outlines ten steps that will help organisations to reduce their total cost of learning and maximise the impact that learning has on performance improvement and the bottom line.

By optimising your learning in this way, you can progressively improve both efficiency and effectiveness, to the extent that you could increase your return on investment from learning by up to 238%.

Organisations need to place a greater focus on the efficiency of people, processes and technology. They also need to measure learning activity, along with costs and the impact on performance.


© KnowledgePool Group Ltd3

Business GoalsBefore we look at optimisation, a comment on business goals. Learning optimisation can operate without business goals, but it risks being directionless. Business goals, however expressed and however detailed, give the optimisation process clarity about what is required, where the performance shortfalls lie and what the business outcomes of learning need to be.

Step 1: Plan, Align and PrioritiseCentral to good optimisation is an organisation-wide plan for learning. This is usually compiled annually and updated quarterly. It draws together a view of all the learning anticipated for the year ahead, in the context of a workforce development strategy which includes recruitment as well as learning plans, to deliver the required capability in order to achieve the business goals for the year.

A learning Demand Plan is a key governance tool, which allows L&D to form an optimal plan for the most cost-effective learning delivery which:

• ensures all learning aligns to stated business goals,

• achieves economies of scale by amalgamating pockets of demand for the same learning,

• allocates the learning design and development budget to where it will make the greatest impact on business goals or cost efficiencies in delivery,

• streamlines supplier use to gain efficiency of spend and consistency of curriculum, and

• supports prioritisation of learning against business goals, so that

à a larger budget can be justified, or

à the budget can be more fairly allocated across business units, or

à to ensure that budget is allocated to learning which contributes to the most important business goals.

Step 2: Performance ConsultingFeeding into the planning step is the assessment of learning needs. Organisations need to engage in Performance Consulting. This is a holistic approach to improving business performance, which recognises that learning is just one of the many options that are available.

Traditional Training Needs Analysis (TNA) risks making the assumption that the solution is training, when a much better answer might be process redesign, job role changes, organisational restructure, or a change to remuneration/incentives. Performance Consulting requires a broader skill set, but it helps optimise learning in two ways:

1. It helps articulate the expected business benefit of learning, which ensures better prioritisation of learning activity against business goals in the planning step.

2. It helps to ensure that training is only prescribed when there is a reasonable expectation that it will impact on business goals.



Figure 1: Ten Steps to Optimising Learning

8. Embed the Learning

3. Design for Efficiency and Effectiveness

4. Streamline the Processes

7. Rigorously Manage Suppliers

6. Automate & Integrate

5. Optimise the Delivery

9. Measure What Matters

10. Learning Analytics

Business Goals

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Step 3: Design for Efficiency & EffectivenessWhenever new learning content is designed and developed, it is important to consider the efficiency and effectiveness of the eventual delivery: how can learning be delivered to address the business need with the most impact and in the most cost-effective manner? The answer is to:

1. Design solutions which embody best practice in that subject area.

2. Select the most appropriate method (or methods) of delivering the learning. This includes formal and informal, directed and self-directed learning, making full use of technology (e-learning, remote communications tools and social media) and opportunities for learning on-the-job.

The challenge is to balance the experience of tried and tested methods with evidence of the latest ideas and practices, to make informed choices about curriculum design. This demands comprehensive intelligence on the supplier marketplace, on best practice, on latest trends and on exciting innovations.

Step 4: Streamline the ProcessesNational statistics for England show that for every £100 spent on off-the-job training courses, £54 is spent on training management1. KnowledgePool’s research shows that efficient training processes can reduce the training management cost by 42%2, so the potential for savings is considerable. Key areas for optimisation:

• Training administration processes. There is an optimum way of

managing training requests and bookings; authorising training requests; communicating with delegates, line managers and training providers as bookings progress, and handling the invoicing process.

• Staff deployment (to manage the learning). Which tasks can be most efficiently delivered using a flexible workforce (in true shared service centre style) and which are best delivered by a dedicated team?

• The use of technology to automate manual processes and save re-keying of data (see step 6).

Step 5: Optimise the DeliveryHaving defined best practice training processes, your next optimisation step is to deliver the benefits you expect. This involves:

• Steering enquiries towards the most impactful and cost-effective learning that will meet the learning need. In particular, maximising the use of informal learning opportunities and e-learning. Also ensuring that where face-to-face training is appropriate, the use of in-house events is maximised and the use of more expensive public scheduled events is minimised.

• Managing the efficiency of in-house events: matching the schedule to demand; working to maximise occupancy; cancelling low-fill events before cancellation costs apply.

• Deploying cancellation policies which discourage no-shows and late cancellations.

• Seamless engagement with the necessary suppliers.

The challenge is to balance the experience of tried and tested methods with evidence of the latest ideas and practices, to make informed choices about curriculum design.



• Coordination between the different teams involved: L&D; procurement; finance; learners and their managers.

Step 6: Automate and IntegrateTechnology plays a key role in the streamlining of processes: automating manual processes and avoiding the re-keying of data. But there is a wider role.

A perennial problem for employees in large organisations is confusion resulting from a proliferation of intranet sites for different learning tasks. There may be one site for e-learning; another for core programmes; another for sourcing regulated training; dedicated areas for each job community; and learning history may be accessed from the central HR system.

Organisations need a simplified, coherent view of learning for end-users.

A coherent IT configuration delivers process efficiencies of itself, however these intrinsic benefits are outweighed by the wider implications. This approach centralises the storage of data: learning activity; costs; supplier information; and evaluation feedback are all in one place. Analysis becomes fast and insightful, which in turn supports high quality decision-making – we will return to this in step 10 (Learning Analytics).

Step 7: Rigorously Manage SuppliersWhen organisations select a new training supplier, the cost and quality of the competing offerings need to be carefully assessed. Once appointed, ongoing assessment of the successful supplier often becomes infrequent and less rigorous. Experience tells us that supplier cost and quality varies

over time: it may go up as well as down. Furthermore, such judgements can only be meaningful in the context of the wider supplier market.

The optimisation of suppliers should take place through tendering, then constant monitoring, benchmarking and renegotiation when appropriate.

With a better understanding of the market, you can recommend alternative suppliers with confidence: reduce costs without suffering loss of quality; improve quality without paying more; or just have confidence that the current supplier is still at the top of their game. Rigorous supplier management optimises your ‘preferred supplier list’, ensuring that everyone on it is there for a good reason.

Step 8: Embed the LearningOptimising learning means not just making sure the learning is tightly aligned to the business need – it’s also about making sure each learner makes maximum use of what they learn. Our own data shows that the more learning is transferred to the workplace, the greater the performance improvement (see Figure 23). The simple corollary is that to obtain the maximum performance benefit from learning, you must ensure people use what they learn as much as possible (i.e. ‘embed’ it). The best way to encourage embedding is to make it measurable.

To support the embedding of learning:

• Ensure that before the learning event starts, there is a discussion between learner and line manager that clarifies the personal learning objectives, how the learning is expected to be applied afterwards and that the outcome is recorded.

Analysis becomes fast and insightful, which in turn supports high quality decision-making



• After the learning, ask the learner to review progress against their personal learning objectives recorded earlier.

• After the learning, issue supporting/reinforcing materials at set intervals to each of the delegates.

• Improve line manager accountability for the embedding of learning. Line managers should monitor the achievement of learning objectives and ensure the learner has the chance to fully use what they learned.

• Encourage collaborative learning and the exchange of experiences across communities of learners. After a training event, offer learners more opportunities for knowledge-sharing, to make it easier for them to record how and where they used the learning, and to record the resultant business benefit.

Step 9: Measure What MattersOnly measure something if you know you can gain something valuable from the result. We would recommend measuring (evaluating) all training at two points via carefully constructed online surveys:

• ‘Reaction’ survey (Kirkpatrick Level 1) immediately after training is completed. Capture information about the quality of the training delivery: content; effectiveness; quality of instruction received.

• ‘Learning outcomes’ survey (Kirkpatrick Level 3-4) three months after training is completed. Capture information about the application of the learning, line manager support to apply the learning, and impact on performance improvement.

For the optimisation of learning, this information should be used retrospectively to influence future

Figure 2: Relationship between Transfer of Learning to the Workplace and Performance Improvement

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Transfer of Learning to the Workplace

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learning provision. To skilled interpreters, the information is very powerful:

• Supplier Management teams can use the results to monitor supplier performance: event by event; and to spot trends over longer time periods; and against benchmarks for the wider supplier community.

• Consultants can use the results to analyse the impact of learning on performance improvement: which courses show the greatest or least impact on performance (often the feedback tells you why), and in what areas.

This analysis informs decisions about what training to do more of, what to do less of, which suppliers to use (or not) in the future. Analyse everything, taking into the account the good, the bad and the indifferent. Base decisions on all the evidence – hard facts not anecdotal one-off comments – to reduce the chance of bad decisions being made.

Step 10: Learning AnalyticsFinally, draw together the wealth of data you have gathered about the learning delivered, the supplier performance, the evaluation statistics and any benchmarks from your wider research.

Assimilate the data into a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This will enable you to benchmark your service against learning provision more generally. Low-scoring KPIs can be the subject of specific actions to improve the performance in particular areas.

SummaryTo emphasise, the optimisation of learning provision is not a one-off event. The complex mix of people, processes and technology from different organisations serves to ensure that circumstances will be constantly changing and that any improvements will take time to implement. Therefore optimisation of learning is a constant round of measurement followed by analysis and then decision to act.

Scenario 1: ROI = 150%Annual spend on training is £1.0m. Potential annual return (business benefit) on that training is £2.0m, but because 25% of training is ineffective, the actual return is only 75% of £2.0m = £1.5m.

ROI of training: £1.5m ÷ £1.0m = 150%

Net value generated: £0.5m

Scenario 2: cost savings, ROI = 188%Optimisation delivers the same training but for 20% less, i.e. £0.8m. Annual return is the same, £1.5m.

ROI of training with cost savings: £1.5m ÷ £0.8m = 188%


Scenario 3: cost savings and efficiency improvements, ROI = 238%Optimisation also improves the effectiveness of training such that only 5% is ineffective, making the annual return 95% of £2.0m = £1.9m.

ROI of training with cost and efficiency improvements: £1.9m ÷ £0.8m = 238%


Figure 3: Illustration of the impact optimisation on the ROI of learning

Analyse everything, taking into the account the good, the bad and the indifferent.



Analysis is vital, for this is how you discern what are the most pressing issues, what effort would be required to achieve what level of improvement and therefore which issues you should tackle. It will not be possible to deal with all the issues at once and they will change over time (another reason why optimisation is an ongoing process). However without constant improvement actions, the learning provision in large organisations undoubtedly becomes less efficient and effective over time.

Overall impact of optimisationThe potential for optimising learning in large organisations is considerable. Our research and experience in providing managed learning services shows that optimisation could reduce the total cost of learning by almost a third4. The potential to improve the effectiveness of learning is much harder to quantify, but our own figures indicate 25% of learning fails to deliver significant performance improvement5, and anecdotally we have been cited figures up to 60%.

Figure 3 shows an illustration of how cost savings and effectiveness improvements impact the return on investment (ROI) of learning. It shows that, with reasonable estimates of the impact of optimisation6, the ROI of learning can be raised significantly from 150% to 238% by optimising the learning.

Kevin Lovell is Learning Strategy Director at KnowledgePool Group Ltd. He can be reached at [email protected]

You can also visit www.knowledgepool.com

1 National Employer Skills Survey for England 2009: Key Findings Report, page 46, UK Commission for Employment and Sills, March 2010. Page 46: Total cost of course-related training (excluding trainee labour costs) is £11.638bn, of which Training management costs are £6.245bn.

2 Are you cutting it? KnowledgePool white paper, September 2008 (comparable ‘training management’ figure obtained by combining the figures for ‘L&D management’ and ‘administration’)

3 They Think It’s All Over: Why what happens after the training is as important as the training itself, KnowledgePool white paper, January 2010.

4 Are You Cutting? How to reduce your cost of learning by 30% KnowledgePool white paper, September 2008

5 They Think It’s All Over: Why what happens after the training is as important as the training itself, KnowledgePool white paper, January 2010

6 The following web page cites a number of studies which indicate the relationships between training investment, workforce performance and business benefit: http://coned.howardcc.edu/business_and_workforce_development/customized_training/ROI_for_ customized_training.html

Improving the Performance of Learning

Venture House, Arlington SquareDownshire Way, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1WAUnited Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0)844 630 9000Fax: +44 (0)844 630 9090Email: [email protected]

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