SMR USA E-News - December 2008

Greetings from SMR USA - by Jim Kirkpatrick

The Missing Link – Kirkpatrick’s Level 3

I opened last month’s newsletter article with the words, “I have such mixed feelings about evaluating Kirkpatrick’s Level 2”. Well, I have no such mixed feelings about Level 3 – the degree to which participants have applied what they have learned to on-the-job behaviors. It is always a pleasure for me to write about what I call, “The Missing Link” – the critical bridge between learning and results.

Learning professionals the world over are terrific at designing, developing, and delivering training programs. Likewise, HRD professionals are great at developing and rolling out policies, procedures, and processes to their employees. Neither, however, are very good at ensuring that training participants actually apply what they learn, or that employees actually follow policies, procedures, and processes.

And why is this important? Because if training participants don’t do what they are supposed to on the job, and employees don’t follow procedures – all of which are designed to help execute an organization’s strategy – then simply put, that strategy will not be achieved. It is all in the execution of the plans, learnings, policies, processes, and procedures that actual work gets done, yet that critical element of every successful organizational venture largely remains what I call “no man’s (male and female) land.”

Training and other HRD professionals seem to think that their ‘job’ ends when participants leave a training room, or when new policies have been emailed to employees. “Execution”, they say, “is the job of the business.” Contrarily, the business leaders typically believe that it is the job of training and other HRD professionals to ensure application and compliance, which, of course, will naturally occur as a result of training events and emailing new policies. Managers and supervisors don’t have time to ‘babysit’ their employees to make sure they comply with new behaviors. After all, they are adults!

Unfortunately, human nature is such that, in talking about the masses, this doesn’t happen. Along with this, HRD professionals are often concerned that their business partners do not respect or value the contribution they make. The good news is that we can provide an answer to the missing link, while at the same time increasing our contribution to the bottom line. If that isn’t enough (and it isn’t), we can also use Level 3 to help create a chain of evidence clearly showing that our training and other HR efforts indeed do make a significant impact to the business.

Here are some suggestions as to how to go about leveraging Level 3 to make that all happen.

1.	Decide first of all that Level 3 is not as hard as some people make it. Decide that you are going to select a few key programs or processes to begin showing it’s power.
2.	Research the different Level 3 methods and tools and determine which will a) fit your program and process needs, and b) which will be best suited to your culture. Some of the best methods are surveying, conducting focus groups, observation/feedback/coaching, work review, action plan monitoring, and action learning.
3.	Research the best way to build and administer your surveys or other methods. There are a lot of resources available, including books by my father and myself on four level evaluation.
4.	Pre-position Level 3. By this I mean that you must prepare managers for their role in observing and supporting Level 3 methods, and you must prepare the learner as well. This can be done prior to training or policy roll-out, and during (e.g., letting participants know that there will be follow-up for them after training, the purpose of which is to help them apply what they learn to a) better themselves, and b) make a contribution to the organization.)
5.	Make sure as you develop your tools that you ask only what information that you will find useful. This typically consists of: To what degree are you applying what you learned? If you aren’t, why not (provide drop down options or similar assistance) If you are, share your success so we can pass it along What kind of impact are you seeing from your new efforts (sneaking in a bit of Level 4)
6.	Consider using Level 3 immediately after key leaning events or critical policies, as it will act as a reinforcer of the new behaviors. There is nothing worse than telling people that “this training” or “this new policy” is important, and then providing little or no reinforcement.
7.	For mission-critical programs, more than one method of assessing Level 3 is advised. With all due respect, it is generally not credible just to ask the participant/employee if he or she is applying their new learnings.

Best of luck with this.

By the way, Ken Blanchard and I will be addressing the entire learning and development industry in an AMA-hosted webinar on January 7th. Times have been challenging for all of us, and we hope to provide a few insights into what to expect in the near future, and what we can do to THRIVE. Details to follow.