Coaching for Performance ROI

A Tool for Measuring the Return on Investment

In business it is often said "If you can't measure something, you can't manage it". Tiffany Gaskell, an investment banker, developed the Coaching for Performance ROI to help our clients estimate ROIs for a wide range of interventions that affect behaviour change or mindset shift, from an individual coaching engagement to an organisational-wide culture change process.

In-House Evaluation Team

Evaluating the impacts of a training programme is a specialised area and for this reason we have created an in-house Evaluation Team to help you tailor-make an evaluation process that will lead to meaningful results for your business.  All tailor-made processes are based on our Coaching for Performance ROI, our tried and tested method that will help you assess the impacts of a training programme on the organisation. 

Our evaluation approach ensures that:

• there is absolute clarity around the goals for the programme both by the sponsor and the participants.  From our experience this means the goals are more easily attained;
• benchmark measurements are in place for comparison that can demonstrate that the goals have been delivered; and
• the impacts of the investment on people, processes and the bottom line are known at the end of a project.
  

Evaluation Methodology

Coaching for Performance ROI builds on widely accepted tools such as Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels, taking these a step further to trace monetary returns from training programmes.  Using the Coaching for Performance ROI, organisations can obtain a Return on Investment (ROI) figure for their training programmes. 

The key components of our evaluation methodology which make it robust are as follows:

• Data is gathered which details specific examples of behaviour change.  These are then linked into monetary impacts, ie impacts on the bottom line.
• All data is corroborated by a third party.
• Final figures are adjusted down to reflect the possibility that a particular impact could be related to another factor other than a particular training.

Evaluation Five-Step Overview

Below is an overview of the steps involved in this process.  Each organisation is different and so the Evaluation Team will work with your organisation to ensure that you have a tailor-made product that is fully aligned with your strategic aims and operational processes.  The extent that an ROI can be established for a particular project will depend on an organisation’s ability to collect the necessary data.  If an organisation is unclear about this, a strong indication of this ability can be assessed at the outset of the project by the Evaluation Team.

Step One – Goals & Timeframe

Step One is to clarify the goals and ascertain timeframes for the project. 

In this step we ensure that:

• Clear goals are set for the programme that align with the organisation’s strategic aims and operational processes.
• Sponsors and participants are clear about the goals set.
• A measurement timeframe is set.

Step Two – Benchmarking

To measure improvements, benchmarking data must be established so that a before and an after intervention picture can be shown.  We will take you through the process of benchmarking both intangible and tangible goals.  An intangible goal is one which is typically difficult to measure and might be a behaviour change or new skill such as a specific communication skill.  A tangible goal is a hard business goal such as reducing staff turnover.  A slightly different approach needs to be taken with both goals.

Step Three – Keeping Records for Data Analysis

Keeping records so that we have the information we need to analyse so that we have enough data to draw from to calculate the ROI.  What is going to help you and your client at the end of the coaching period is a record of what has been happening.

A number of different ways are employed to do this which broadly consist of:

• Regular summaries to the client.
• Debriefs.
• Peer and management feedback on progress.

Step Four – Review

At the end of the review period, all the records that have been kept are reviewed against the benchmark data and a current picture is created so that the monetary impact of the changes in behaviour over the period can be estimated.

Step Five – Calculating the ROI

The final step is to take the tangible information that has been generated from the process to calculate the ROI.  This result is then adjusted to reflect the probability that a particular impact is in fact related to a particular training.

What Our Client's Say

Allan Barton, Director of Arup

“Investing time and money in developing people to their full potential is key to the long-term prosperity of a business.  I have a fundamental belief that business is all about people.  People truly are a business’s most valuable asset, although this is often said and then ignored.  Coaching is a key process in helping people to achieve their full potential and deliver exceptional performance.  Objective quantification of the benefits is more difficult.  Getting an ROI on a coaching programme cannot be precise, but the method that PCI have developed goes as far one can in being able to demonstrate a financial improvement of coaching and in this way it is very clever.

In our company we used timeframe and goal setting with 3-month and 6-month reviews which worked very well.  PCI also provided the rigour to identify goals and evaluate how progress is made against those goals.  As sponsor, it forced me to put thought into whether or not the process was working.  You need this rigorous process to identify the benefits as they occur and thus ensure tangible benefits are being achieved.

Measuring the financial impacts justifies future investment – I am pretty sure that if we didn’t have a way of proving the tangible benefits, the company wouldn’t now be embarking on a company-wide culture programme.  Once you can demonstrate the tangible impacts to a sceptical Finance Director, it’s a different ball-game.”

What We Say

We at Performance Consultants have seen that where clients take the time to evaluate a project, it gives them the confidence to go further faster. For example, one client received the results of their evaluation and immediately embarked on a company-wide transformation program because they could see the excellent results that they were getting that were feeding directly into the bottom line. In short, they could justify their investment. Our conclusion is that through measuring impacts, our clients can proactively manage their companies and create greater value.

For More Information

To request further information on evaluation contact Tiffany Gaskell