During the past two decades, we have seen a surge of corporate universities (CU). In fact, the Corporate Leadership Council claims a growth rate of 400 percent since the early 1980s when only about 15 CUs existed. Today, you can find more than 2,000 corporate universities.

While CUs do not award degrees or typically have campuses, the structure provides an opportunity to achieve tangible and intangible results. One key benefit that is quickly realized is that by eliminating redundancies in a decentralized organizational structure, CUs can drive down the costs of employee development.

In addition, the CU structure makes way for centralized vendor management, which allows for volume discounts. Companies can realize even more savings by breaking organizational silos and leveraging resources. For example, a company can cross-promote a course originally suitable for only one business segment, avoiding multiple expenditures.

Such was the goal driving one CU initiative at a large financial company. By forming a CU structure, the university increased support for one-company initiatives that allowed them to transport talent, regardless of business unit experience.

The initiative began with a strategic measurement plan that included:

1. A needs assessment.

2. A dashboard.

3. A five-level evaluation framework.

Needs Assessment

The needs assessment process combined existing and newly developed data to align learning and performance objectives with business needs. Using a two-tiered approach, organizational, departmental, and team analysis was first completed by reviewing available data. This included strategic business plans and employee opinion surveys.

The second tier of assessment encompassed specific job analysis to define the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to achieve optimum performance. This allowed for customization of individual performance needs. Data sources included task analyses and 360 degree assessments.

Other data sources for the needs assessment strategy included:

• Level-3 follow-up questionnaires

• talent forum data

• interviews with business partners

• operational data

• sales/marketing data

• personnel data

• financial data

• customized surveys

• skill-gap assessments.

Dashboards

A dashboard operates similar to the display in an automobile, providing managers with all the information they need to keep driving - focusing on the relevant measures for operating the business, rather than one measure. By mapping the university strategy via a dashboard to business priorities, results in a plan that outlines employee development goals. Sample dashboard measures included customer satisfaction and utilization of internal and external learning offerings.

Tracking Evaluation

The financial company used Level-1 measures, reaction data; Level-2 measures, learning data; and Level-3 measures, skills applied on the job. Level-4 measures (results or business impact) indicators included:

• talent retention

• number of promotions

• number of new accounts

• dollars sold, commission rates

• time to develop job skills

• productivity

In one case, the university implemented a program designed to help retain frontline leaders. After one year, this effort garnered a cost-benefit ratio of 1.35:1. Within one year, they achieved a cost savings/avoidance of $1,356,550 (Level-5 measure).