Derive Hard Numbers From Soft Skills

Content

Recently, a large gold-mining company based in North America with mines in three continents faced a challenge. Survey data taken from all employees indicated the first level of management needed leadership skills. The chief operating officer agreed and approved a project that involved 14 days of leadership development, coupled with 360-degree feedback processes, and a team of individuals to make this successful. In all, almost 1,000 managers would be trained at a direct cost of more than $6 million. The COO was willing to make this investment if the human resources function would show the financial return on investment of the program, adding, "How can I spend this amount of money and not show my shareholders the return on this investment?" This presented a challenge to the HR executives who had never pursued an ROI study on any of their previous projects.

Recently, a large gold-mining company based in North America with mines in three continents faced a challenge. Survey data taken from all employees indicated the first level of management needed leadership skills. The chief operating officer agreed and approved a project that involved 14 days of leadership development, coupled with 360-degree feedback processes, and a team of individuals to make this successful. In all, almost 1,000 managers would be trained at a direct cost of more than $6 million. The COO was willing to make this investment if the human resources function would show the financial return on investment of the program, adding, "How can I spend this amount of money and not show my shareholders the return on this investment?" This presented a challenge to the HR executives who had never pursued an ROI study on any of their previous projects.