Securing Training Budgets in a Tight Economy through ROI
with Rick Howell, Human Capital Director, Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging, Inc
January 14, 2009

Note:  The Learning Directors' Forum (formerly Senior Forum) is targeted for training and development professionals who have a minimum of 10 years of training and development (or equivalent) experience and are responsible for developing training and development strategy. Director level professionals are also responsible for decision making in their organizations. These programs are designed to offer strategic insight and time for round table interaction with peers.

Overview

When times get tough, the first place to cut costs is often thought to be the training budget.

Training can be an easy target if we aren’t able to show measurable results from the programs offered.

Usually a training effort begins with a consensus that education will solve a problem. Too often the focus immediately shifts to getting the training developed and into the classroom. As training professionals, we also need to quantify the need and baseline performance before the initiative is rolled out. Otherwise, it is hard to show the improvement or value that was achieved through the training initiative.

In this session, Rick Howell will share various measurements that examine the “entire” value of training: the return on investment (ROI). Kirkpatrick’s model, including ROI, will provide the framework. The focus will be on real world examples and practical measurements to make a case for why an organization should spend, or continue to spend, money on training efforts.

We will explore several scenarios that might include:

1. You have a training initiative that will cost $150,000 that is competing for funding with a $150,000 marketing campaign and a $150,000 capital expenditure for the production line. How do you sell the value of the training initiative deserving of funding over these other two needs?
2. You’ve been asked to cut your budget by 30%. What creative strategies can you develop so your training initiatives do not have to be reduced or eliminated?
3. You are thinking about adding staff to the training department. Your organization doesn’t like to add labor expense. How can you justify your request?

Come explore proven strategies and tactics that will help you maintain your budgets during challenging times!

Learning Objectives

• Explore ROI level of evaluation (the strategy)
• Learn how to calculate ROI for training (the tactical)
• Learn how to prepare a pitch to senior executives to fund training (strategy and tactical)
• Hear real world examples of problems addressed through training, how it was pitched, measured and results obtained
• Share real world examples and approaches with your peers who have implemented ROI as a basis for training learning and development (L&D) in their organization

Alignment with National ASTD Competency Model

9 Focus Areas Areas in BOLD will be addressed in this presentation.

1. Designing Learning 2. Improving Human Performance 3. Delivering Training 4. Measuring and Evaluating 5. Facilitating Organizational Change 6. Managing the Learning Function 7. Coaching 8. Managing Organizational Knowledge 9. Career Planning and Talent Management

Speaker

Rick Howll
Director of Human Capital
Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging, Inc.
Longview, WA

Rick Howell is a veteran HR professional with 22 years of experience. Rick also has a strong financial background including an MBA in finance. In his current turnaround assignment, he is responsible for leading the culture change, succession planning, Fibre University, organizational structure changes and the talent management process.

Rick’s human resource experience also includes positions at Knowledge Learning Corporation, Columbia Forest Products, Nike, The Heathman Group, Red Lion and Westin hotels. At various points in his career, Rick has specialized in training and development, employee relations, compensation, safety and workers compensation, with titles ranging from Coordinator to Vice President.

Rick holds BA and MBA degrees from Washington State University and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) and Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) certifications. A frequent speaker at human resource conferences, Rick has also taught evening classes at Washington State University, Portland State University and City University (Seattle) for the past twenty years. He has served as President and other leadership positions with 1000+ member PHRMA (Portland Human Resource Management Association) organization. In 2006, he received NHRMA’s Distinguished Member award.

Details

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