Nebraska Public Power Leverages a Metrics that Matter® Pilot Program to Plan and Budget for Learning Measurement
Company Overview: Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) is Nebraska's largest electric utility, with a chartered territory including all or parts of 91 of Nebraska's 93 counties. It was formed on Jan. 1, 1970, when three utilities--Consumers Public Power District, the Platte Valley Public Power and Irrigation District and the Nebraska Public Power System--merged. NPPD is a public corporation and political subdivision of the state of Nebraska. The utility is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors, who are popularly elected from NPPD's chartered territory.
Description of Learning Program: NPPD offers a variety of training programs to meet the organizational development needs of its employees. As a part of NPPD’s commitment to learning, the need to understand the effects of the learning on the employees and the organization is of paramount interest.
Measurement Approach: TNPPD received a special offer brought to them by KnowledgeAdvisors to pilot test the Metrics that Matter® learning measurement system for a three-month period. The pilot was with absolutely no financial obligation to NPPD. The rules were simple, Metrics that Matter® will show its value and result in a 12 month agreement to use it within NPPD or it would not and NPPD could walk away from the pilot without a single penny allocated toward the exercise.
In the minds of NPPD learning professionals, the pilot was really a proof of concept. To NPPD, the pilot would permit the organization to really use the tool day in and day out for three solid months to understand the administrative and reporting elements of the system. More importantly it would allow NPPD to understand if learning measurement would be perceived as a valuable exercise to NPPD management and executives, resulting in the provision for it to be included in the budget proceeding the pilot.
For three months, NPPD used Metrics that Matter on a daily basis. An account was setup specifically for NPPD and personnel were trained on the use of the system. At the end of the pilot, over 255 participants had accessed and completed KnowledgeAdvisors data collection instruments at various points in time in the learning process. Over twenty different events in over a dozen course offerings were measured using the tool. On a daily basis, instructors could see their results, management could view aggregate data, course designers could access customer feedback and training managers were alerted to classes that did not meet expectations. At the end of the pilot NPPD was able to run a comprehensive ROI scorecard showcasing a balanced set of measurement indicators, including a financial ROI. In addition, they were able to compare their training to a benchmark database of several thousand other users of Metrics that Matter® as an external point of reference.
Measurement Obstacles: The main obstacle was the initial commitment to proceed with a pilot. Although there is no financial obligation, NPPD felt resources would be needed to implement the system. Surprisingly, an account was created within a week of agreeing to do the pilot and only a few hours of NPPD time was needed in that process.
Measurement Successes: NPPD was able to take advantage of the pilot to really ‘kick the tires’ before they invested in the learning measurement solution. An important by product was that it gave NPPD learning professionals solid, quantitative evidence that a tool like Metrics that Matter® could be used on a continuous basis to produce credible business intelligence to provide to their stakeholders. In addition, learning professionals were able to see first hand how technology could really be leveraged to automate a highly manual and labor-intensive process. Once the concept had been proven, the budgeting process and approval for an annual subscription to Metrics that Matter® was made easier. NPPD is now a regular user of the Metrics that Matter® technology.