Results: How to Assess Performance, Learning, & Perceptions in Organizations

Richard A. Swanson and Elwood F. Holton, III, based this book on valuable material, drawn from various organizations' positive reactions to their Results Assessment System. However, the book's writing actually obscures the value of their material and method. This would be just a subjective matter of style if the book were dull and boring. But that is not the case. The writing is disjointed and unclear, severely handicapping the reader's ability to discern much of what the authors are trying to convey. Nevertheless, we [...] recommend that human resources professionals all pick up this book, simply to extract the authors' system for measuring employee performance and learning. The system itself is - the creators should thank their lucky stars - a much more valuable resource than this documentation of its logistics and performance.

This book is the most useful resource I've encountered in the assessment arena for training and organization development efforts. The book outlines three areas of assessment: PERFORMANCE (system outputs and financial results), LEARNING (knowledge gained by participants & expertise that can be demonstrated by trainees), and PERCEPTION (reactions from both participants and stakeholders). The processes are described for each area using straightforward language, and sample templates show how deliverables could look for each type of assessment. Overall, the structure of the book is logically assembled with references to research supporting the main ideas. I especially found useful the discussion on performance drivers, measurement of outcomes, critical outcome technique, and the certification of core expertise. The book also contains usable information on drawing conclusions from assessment data, key questions to be answered when planning an assessment, and advice on conducting practical, credible assessments. Finally, the assessment framework described in the book makes sense from a business perspective and should help almost anyone be more effective as a practitioner. If you are planning or designing an initiative that involves changing how people do work, you'll likely find benefit from using the framework, tools, and techniques outlined in this book.

This book is a must for every Human Resource Development (HRD) professional! Swanson and Holton make the case for the need to measure performance results, not just stakeholder reactions, if HRD is to be seen as a legitimate business partner and contibutor to organizational performance. To this end, the authors have written a book for the everyday HRD practitioner, not the theorists. They present a comprehensive system for assessment of HRD interventions built around a logical five-step process. A full compliment of simple, yet powerful, tools is presented, which will enable any HRD practitioner to conduct reliable and meaningful assessments of performance results. In the future, HRD must sit at the table, not only as a contributing business partner, but as an organizational leader in performance improvement as well. This book is a starting point for HRD leadership. I've used it - it works!

Finally an evaluation measurement system that works! I have used this approach as a foundation for creating, redesigning and managing two corporate universities in Fortune 100 companies. The RESULTS method worked where the traditional approaches didn't. The Kirkpatrick approach was too complex to implement and our senior management customers wouldn't buy into it. The RESULTS model worked so well that in both situations, our HRD budgets increased even as the organizations were cutting costs. The RESULTS model provides a simple, easy to implement, business framework for rationally calculating return-on-investment decisions about training, organization development, and performance improvement projects. You may know that your work as a performance-improvement professional adds value, but not feel that you are getting the recognition you deserve. Use this approach to prove your contribution to your organization's bottom line. Even if you think no one cares, your internal customers are making these decisions all the time when they approve, slash, or don't approve your budget and projects. Why not give your customers real numbers to work with rather than let them use their imagination? You will find that your credibility increase exponentially. Systematic Human Resource Development is a solid, cost-effective business investment. My only critique is that there isn't more data showing how well the approach works.