Expertus Survey Reveals Executive Frustration with Learning Measurement

Mountain View, CA – June 19, 2007 – Expertus, a global provider of services that optimize the business impact of learning, and TrainingOutsourcing.com, a company that offers guidance and consulting to buyers and sellers of outsourcing services, jointly announced today the results of the last survey in a series on training outsourcing challenges. This latest survey is part of an ongoing initiative to learn more about issues related to training measurements.

One of the most surprising findings of the survey was the high level of dissatisfaction (81% of respondents) with LMS reporting capabilities. Integration issues (49%) and limited standardized reports (54%) were the two biggest problems cited. Other specific areas of dissatisfaction identified included limitations in data collection (48%), customization requirements (47%) and usability (46%).

In fact, more survey respondents say their companies rely on internally developed software, or spreadsheets or manually compiled reports for learning metrics, than on LMS-generated reports.

The survey found that the overall biggest challenge to training measurements was data accuracy and standardization (cited by 51% of respondents), followed by lack of data (45%), and data accessibility (35%).

Survey results also indicated a desire to bring more business focus to training measurements. For instance, only 43% of respondents currently include performance measurements – such as revenues per sales representative or number of resolved calls per representative – in regular reports. However, when asked what data would be most important to include in regular measurement reports if accessibility were not an issue, 76% of respondents listed performance-related measurements and 53% listed business-based costs. Almost 77% of respondents say their current measurements fall short in providing meaningful intelligence for business planning.

“The one common theme we’ve heard in recent conversations with learning executives is the need for business-focused training measurements,” said Ramesh Ramani, CEO and president of Expertus. “As learning organizations become more closely aligned with business units, executives want to provide the data support that business managers need to assess learning investments, prioritize learning programs and assist with planning. Unfortunately, most do not have easy access to meaningful data to provide such intelligence.”

Other survey findings include:

• The primary users of training measurements, according to respondents, are business unit executives and managers (69%), followed by HR (57%), and C-level executives (28%).
• Most companies still focus on learning-related metrics such as course completions (84%), registrations (57%), and learner costs (49%).
• Current training metrics are used most frequently to support learning-related decisions such as course offerings (77%), budgeting (63%), and class scheduling (60%).
• The data sources most frequently used for measurement reports are LMSs (55%), HR systems (47%), and performance systems (31%).
• Almost half of respondents said the one area for which they had adequate data is for compliance reporting.

“This survey shows that companies need more support for developing meaningful training measurements,” said Doug Harward, CEO of TrainingOutsourcing.com. “Companies have to grapple with significant technology and integration issues, data standardization and storage, and efficient accessibility to data. Many just don’t have the bandwidth or the expertise to apply to this daunting challenge.”

An analysis of all survey results is available at https://www.expertus.com/survey/results6/LearningMeasuremt.pdf.

Those interested can also obtain results of prior surveys on global training, channel partner training, LMS consolidation, LMS implementation and maintenance, and training administration at www.expertus.com.

About Expertus
Expertus is the leading global provider of services that optimize the business impact of learning. For more than a decade, the firm’s 500+ learning management professionals have defined and implemented plans, processes and technologies that transform training organizations – creating measurable value for the world’s most successful corporations. Clients include ADP, Cisco, ConocoPhillips, EMC, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin. Every day at these and other companies, more than a million employees, customers and business partners are educated as a result of Expertus’ innovative business strategies, outsourcing services and technology-rich solutions.

Based in Silicon Valley, Expertus serves its clients from offices in the US, UK and India. For more information, visit www.expertus.com, or call toll-free 1-877-827-8160.

About TrainingOutsourcing.com
TrainingOutsourcing.com offers guidance and consulting to buyers and providers of training outsourcing services with the goal of facilitating mutually beneficial economic relationships. Its web-based knowledge community offers a wealth of information resources and best practices to those interested in any aspect of training outsourcing. For more information on TrainingOutsourcing.com and its webinars and conferences, go to www.trainingoutsourcing.com.