Human Capital Lab, in alliance with Capital Analytics, has launched separate research projects with Sun Microsystems, U.S. Bank, and Chrysler.
Common characteristics of these projects are that they involve real operating data at the companies.
October 5, 2007 - Private and public American organizations spent $109 billion for training and education in 2006 according to an ASTD estimate. What is eye-opening about this is that very little measurement and analysis was done to
determine what was actually produced as a result of these expenditures. The "$64,000 question" is: "What did the
organizations, and their employees making these investments, get for their money?" The answer is: "Who knows?"
Human capital investments are made largely on faith, not on analysis.
The three companies listed above have broken out of that mold. Bellevue University's Human Capital Lab, in alliance with Capital Analytics, has launched separate research projects with these companies. The common characteristics of these projects are that they involve real operating data at the companies, they are designed as controlled experiments with test groups compared to control groups, they use powerful statistical methods to separate out the impact of learning interventions from other activities that are going on in the business, and the results will be presented in a dashboard form that management can understand.
By learning interventions we mean specific, well-defined training programs, educational activities, or learning support investments designed to improve business performance. Here is a short summary of what is going on with each client's projects:
At Sun Microsystems three research projects are underway to measure the business impact of three Sun-developed programs.
The last project is with Chrysler. This involves training for the company's entire field sales force and is being done in collaboration with BBDO, which is the current outsourced provider of sales training to the Chrysler Academy. In the September 24, 2007 issue of Business Week, Chrysler is described as the great American experiment to redesign the American auto manufacturer's business model. It is exciting to be a part of that bigger experiment.
Human capital investments are made largely on faith, not on analysis.
The three companies listed above have broken out of that mold. Bellevue University's Human Capital Lab, in alliance with Capital Analytics, has launched separate research projects with these companies. The common characteristics of these projects are that they involve real operating data at the companies, they are designed as controlled experiments with test groups compared to control groups, they use powerful statistical methods to separate out the impact of learning interventions from other activities that are going on in the business, and the results will be presented in a dashboard form that management can understand.
By learning interventions we mean specific, well-defined training programs, educational activities, or learning support investments designed to improve business performance. Here is a short summary of what is going on with each client's projects:
At Sun Microsystems three research projects are underway to measure the business impact of three Sun-developed programs.
- Mentoring: Does the widely deployed Sun mentoring program actually accelerate the development of leaders through transfer of know-how from seasoned veterans to the less experienced managers?
- Organization of technical information: Does the redesigned Sun web information services (the electronic library of their vast repository of technical information such as JAVA) help internal and external customers get to the technical information they need more rapidly and more efficiently?
- Leadership training: Does the Sun Microsystems internal leadership training actually produce better leaders?
The last project is with Chrysler. This involves training for the company's entire field sales force and is being done in collaboration with BBDO, which is the current outsourced provider of sales training to the Chrysler Academy. In the September 24, 2007 issue of Business Week, Chrysler is described as the great American experiment to redesign the American auto manufacturer's business model. It is exciting to be a part of that bigger experiment.