Demonstrating ROI

• PRE-EVENT
• At the launch of the first programme, all nominations were collected through
e-mail. The team relied on e-mail to communicate the new programme and to
connect with the target population.
• A more functional database was developed allowing easy access to all details
of attendees from across Europe by country, business unit, programme
attended, and nominator.
• The learning management system has now been successfully implemented
throughout the majority of Europe and options are currently being generated
to maximise this facility in the nomination of participants, ensuring cross-
business unit and cross-geography partici- pants on each programme.
• A three to six month Business Challenge is a key part of the prework for
participants. The Business Challenge was devised together with the external
provider delivering the workshop and the global Learning Team. The Challenge
is agreed upon with the local line manager and brought to the event to share,
discuss, and create an action plan.
 Demonstrating ROI
• PRE-EVENT
• The postprogramme conference calls have begun to identify business
opportunities across divisions in the organization and direct revenue-
generating projects as a result of the network estab- lished and promoted at
the event.
• Feedback after the first few programmes in 2002 alluded to the struggle to get
to know everyone and how they contributed over the three-day event. As a
result, Europe implemented an additional prework assignment named
Background Information.
• Each participant was asked to complete a brief electronic proforma prior to the
event documenting his/her name, office location, business unit, three to six
month Business Challenge, time of service with the company, greatest
achievement while at Marsh, and what they do on a Sunday afternoon. These
data are e-mailed to the Programme Manager to be collated into a simple
spreadsheet and circulated to delegates at the beginning of Day 1 of the event
to help people know and remember colleagues they meet and learn from. This
document is also circulated after the workshop by e-mail, along with an e-mail
distribution list to encourage the network to sustain and grow.
 Demonstrating ROI
• POST-EVENT
• Marsh Europe invested in a questionnaire distributed to a random selection of
colleagues who had attended the programme. These questionnaires were sent
out to delegates six to eight months post event through an online Web-based
interview tool allowing the results to be recorded electronically and
transferred into a database for future reference.
• The feedback identifies that while colleagues felt that the programme gave
them much material to enrich their personal effectiveness, few were able to
make the connec- tion to how the learning had impacted the organisation.
• The Business Challenge template has been revised in the third year of delivery
of the programme to include a specific question to the delegate of the hard-
dollar value of the business challenge they hope to complete as a result of
their learning. These documents are signed before each delegate leaves the
event and sent to a central global team to collate.
 Demonstrating ROI
• POST-EVENT
• The next step proposed in this process, with a high-man-hour intervention, is
to go back to each delegate three to six months after the programme to
reconcile proposed dollar return with actual return to clearly demonstrate a
tangible bottom-line impact.
KM across the Learning and Development
Community
• The global Learning and Development network has been investigating KM
oppor- tunities to enhance and ensure consistency in the role of colleagues
increasingly involved in managing this programme around the globe.
• Through the programme’s life of just more than two years, colleagues in
different geographies have approached its implementation in slightly different
ways, all sharing their experiences with the global Programme Manager based
in New York.
• The global Learning network is now looking to use a specific database
functionality through the cross-company e-mail system to communicate with
each other, store documentation, and to share tasks.
• The decision to use this particular database came after consideration of a
number of internal options, including a Microsoft® Access database, use of an
intranet, and use of technology known as E-Room.
• The E-Room facility offered the closest match as a type of online filing cabinet
where information could be stored, e-mails could be sent and access levels
could be dictated; unfortunately, this option was prohibitively expensive for
the number of users anticipated over the foreseeable future.