by Melissa Wray

Spring Has Sprung!

Ah, spring. With the warm weather we get to finally shed the sweaters and coats and soak up some sun.

We’re getting the spring kicked off with a benchmarking double header. As workplace learning professionals, we are often asked to prove our worth through tangible results of our efforts. But we can also turn the tables on this recurring challenge, and use benchmarking to request the funds and resources we need.

If you were able to attend our March chapter meeting, you were treated to a great presentation by Rita Smith, Vice President, Enterprise Learning for Ingersoll Rand as she asked the question “How are you doing?” Rita’s presentation opened our eyes to how companies in the U.S. are operating their training organizations so that we could evaluate our own organizations.

In April, Bob Cestaro and Kristy Temple from Ingersoll Rand University, and Scott Neely from the Rubbermaid / Irwin Training Center will show us how they perform benchmarking in their own organizations.

ASTD also has two resources to help you prove the business case for training to your organization:

• The WLP scorecard is a tool that your organization can use to rate compare itself to other organizations. You can also subscribe to reports and indices made up of the data collected by participating organization. www.wlpscorecard.astd.org
• The Benchmarking Forum is a member organization sponsored by ASTD. The Forum not only benchmarks learning and performance improvement processes, practices, and outcomes, but it also provides networking opportunities for high-level learning professionals to network with other professionals from around the globe. www.astd.org/bf

So whether you are just trying to prove your business case, or you are looking to network and share your experiences with a worldwide network of workplace learning professionals, there are many resources available to you.

Melissa Wray

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