Abdi monthly newletter

Issue 29 - September 2009

Greetings from abdi
abdi ltd has a depth of experience unique in the UK in impact measurement and ROI studies to assess investment in human capital. abdi ltd undertakes external evaluations and trains key individuals in private and public sector organisations to measure return on investment in HR interventions of all sorts including learning and development, change programmes and international assignments. Check out our website www.abdi.eu.com




Green shoots

If the word that the crunch is easing is true, the timing couldn't be better. Many projects and programmes start in the autumn. The holidays have done their work. Winter is still some time off. There's plenty of zip and optimism about.

But this time we're not 100% sure. There could be another dip. No one wants to get caught out by committing too much too far....... or by not having the guts to commit anything at all.

This really is where the ROI Methodology comes into its own and gives you the tools to invest responsibly, and manage the consequences.

The secrets are:

That way you know why you're investing, have the means of tracking the impact on people and what they do in their jobs, and you establish a clear chain of impact that shows why you got the results you did. So you find out as you go along what's achieving results, and what isn't.

That gives you the two things you most need - first-rate data, and the ability to adjust and control your investment.

Jane Massy


Ioan Morgan chooses abdi and ROI for Warwickshire College

The earliest adopter of the ROI Methodology in the FE sector, working with abdi to embed it in its work with employers, has been Warwickshire College.
Leading from the front on tracking impact has been its Principal and Chief Executive, Ioan Morgan,  also a member of the UK Commission on Employment and Skills and former national chair of the prestigious 157 Group of Colleges.

'We're very conscious of our brand' he told us. 'We're told it's strong, and for us a brand is a promise of high quality performance and cost-effective performance.

'We first came to the Methodology,' he says, 'through work I'd seen done in the US, where there seems to be a more embedded ROI ethos amongst suppliers of training to companies.

'What I intended to get out of it in my college was to validate our work with companies - put some science behind our assertions that we could make a difference.

'At the point of our engagement with companies we like to make it clear that, if the parameters of success are met, one of our payoffs will be their support and advocacy.

'Rolls Royce for instance has stood by us in discussions with other companies. We measure success by the number of iconic brands supporting us. The ROI methodology helps us with that.'

A key part of abdi's work with Warwickshire College has been to train its key employer engagement staff in the ROI Methodology. Ioan Morgan has seen the impact of that, and wants to see it followed up nationally in the FE sector. 'I have been asked to contribute to authoring the next generation of leadership courses for managers in the FE sector, and I intend to make sure that ROI is an integral part of that training.

'ROI', he told us, 'is becoming embedded because it has synergy with many of the current approaches we're pushing through, like Lean. And it helps us focus on what's important to us - ensuring that we use our energy to focus on our core business and what has impact.  It's an ethos-changing change management tool for an organisation'.

Congratulations to this month's additions to the growing list of abdi/Edexcel ROI graduates

Evaluator level
Arnauld de Nadaillac, Managing Director, Consulting/Training on Competency and Learning Systems, ANC Consulting Co Ltd, Thailand
Sara Pearson, Workforce Development Manager, Hull and East Yorks NHS Trust, Hull Royal Infirmary

Foundation level
Deborah Stiff, Workforce Information Manager, Human Resources, Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Vanessa Roberts, Employment Projects Manager, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,
Roy Ackema, Consultant, Tracoin Quality BV, The Netherlands,
Anna Maciver, Senior Training Specialist, The Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa, Fife,
Allison Foster, Organisational Development Manager, Directorate of OD and Corporate Affairs, NHS Doncaster Primary Care Trust
Linda Palmer, Staff Development Officer, NHS Barnsley - Care Services Direct, Centre for Learning & Development
Dave Gaunt, Business Manager, Development and Events, Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust

abdi partners Anglia Ruskin University in Shell Step  

For eight weeks this summer we've had Anna Majerova, a brilliant business student from Anglia Ruskin University, working with us on a marketing project.

The Shell Step Programme has recently been praised in a CBI/Universities UK report as a model of best practice in providing students and graduates with real work experience, and benefitting employers at the same time.

Our experience of Shell Step has been wholly positive - Anna did great work for us. We felt we had tremendous value from paying her student training allowance for the eight weeks she was with us. We'd have been delighted to have had her with us for longer. We'd recommend other employers to go the same route.

We wish Anna all the very best as she begins her next semester in Maastricht before returning to Cambridge to complete her course.

Building a library

The ROI Field Book - Strategies for Implementing ROI in HR and Training, by Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Jack J Phillips, Ron Drew Stone and Holly Burkett, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007

Question
I've grasped the ROI Methodology - I've got my abdi/Edexcel ROI Foundation accreditation and maybe even gone to Evaluator level - and now I need a lot of support embedding it in my organisation. Where will I get it?

Answer
First of all from us at abdi. We'll give you a flying start and help you develop the processes and templates that make it work for you. And we'll customise Foundation training for key members of your staff.

But we'll also tell you to back it all up with some further reading, and this will be close to the top of the list. Not only does it reprise the Methodology for you, but it supports it with a host of working experience and knowledge, sample templates and a CD of case studies and other materials.

The sections follow the thought and planning you need to put in from planning through the implementation process, identifying and overcoming the issues you'll meet, and finishing with keeping the process on track.

As the authors point out when they discuss implementation issues, 'By some estimates, 70% to 75% of major organisational change efforts fail. Imagine the time, money, and human effort wasted with that dismal figure.  If implementing organisational change is truly that difficult, then it is clear that planning, resource and management needs have to be addressed from the very beginning'.

That's what the ROI Field Book does in a transparent and practical manner.

'An ethos-changing management tool' - Ioan Morgan, Principal and Chief Executive, Warwickshire College

You can still take an early opportunity to learn how to track and plan for impact by signing up for one of the remaining places on our 2009 autumn public ROI Foundation courses:

If you've already got the Foundation Certificate - go to the next level
The autumn ROI Evaluator Course, taught by world-class ROI expert Jane Massy is on 18, 19 and 20 November.

All these courses are taught in Cambridge. To secure a place, or for any other enquiries about our services, go to www.abdi.eu.com or call 01223 360 240

If Cambridge is difficult for you to get to but you'd like to attend a Foundation course in another part of the country, get in touch and tell us who and where you are.

We're expanding ROI training in 2009/2010 - we'd like to come where you are.


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