As described in this issue of Proven, achieving business alignment is important. Three phases of alignment exists. The first phase is the clarification of stakeholder needs. The second phase requires that powerful objectives be developed beyond the learning objectives to position programs for success. The third phase of alignment occurs during the evaluation process. A critical step in this phase is the step to isolate the effects of the program on improved business measures.
At times, evidence of alignment requires that we take the evaluation phase a step beyond isolation of business impact–the calculation of the Return on Investment (ROI). To accomplish this, measures that have been isolated to the program are converted to money and compared to the program costs. However, other important measures in which we purposely decide not to convert to money are just as important. These are the intangible benefits of a program.
This article describes the process of data conversion and provides a tool to estimate program costs when an ROI is desired. A four-part test is also presented to help readers decide when to report improvement in business impact measures as intangible.
As described in this issue of Proven, achieving business alignment is important. Three phases of alignment exists. The first phase is the clarification of stakeholder needs. The second phase requires that powerful objectives be developed beyond the learning objectives to position programs for success. The third phase of alignment occurs during the evaluation process. A critical step in this phase is the step to isolate the effects of the program on improved business measures.