This is my brother, proudly pointing us in the direction of travel on the first day of a three-day hike through the Peak District in 2019.
Unfortunately, he is pointing us in the wrong direction.
The problem was our compass.
Without us noticing, while stored in my brother’s pocket, the magnet from his phone case had reversed the polarity on our compass and we had hiked 5 kilometres in exactly the wrong direction by the time the path petered to nothing in a field of disinterested sheep.
To get where you’re going, it helps to know where you are and what direction you are heading in.
And obviously, the same applies to early talent programs.
Like a three-day hike, the journey from recruiting university graduates to finding them fulfilling roles at the end of the program is a long one. You can’t see the whole thing laid out neatly. So, along the way, regular checks of progress and direction are needed.
Tracking and measuring data has three main benefits:
Providing an early warning system
Acting as both a planning and problem-solving tool
Sharing successes and impact
Early warning system
Firstly, having measures which you monitor regularly will act as an early warning system for future issues, and help you get ahead of problems.
By identifying and measuring the downstream warning signs of risks, you’ll be able to see dark clouds on the horizon and have a chance to course correct. For example – if you measure the number of applications and you see they are low, you will be able to predict difficulty in filling roles and take action to further promote roles.
Problem solving and planning
Secondly, by collecting data you’ll be able to uncover issues that might not otherwise be obvious.
For example, by measuring the progress of diverse candidates through your selection process you will be able to identify any areas where they are disadvantaged by the process and problem-solve to ensure that your process is giving everyone a chance to show their strengths in the right way.
Celebrating and sharing successes
Thirdly, by having clear measures of your program’s achievements and the data to back them up, you’ll be able to quickly show your stakeholders the impact your program is having.
By measuring your program’s return on investment, or the rate of promotion your graduates achieve as a result of the training and experiences they’ve had, you’ll be able to take an abstract and long-term goal of ‘providing a pipeline of future leaders’, and make it concrete and real to managers, leaders and future graduates.
In my work at Brightworks, we often see that many programs are not taking full advantage of the power of measurement and evaluation in their programs. In my experience that’s often because graduate program managers are already taking on responsibilities in marketing, recruitment, training, wellbeing, logistics and complex stakeholder management. Adding measurement and evaluation to the list can be overwhelming, especially when it’s a new skill or there’s little time.
To take advantage of the power of data, here are my top tips:
- Start with a clear idea of your process. It doesn’t help to measure data for data’s sake, you need a clear theory of how you think things should be going. The simplest example of this is recruitment: the more leads and applications you start with, the more likely you are to finish with a pool of suitable graduates. Take some time to map out what you believe this system is at each stage of your program.
- Decide on the key data to collect. Aim to identify the data that will give you the biggest bang for your buck, even if it’s not perfect. For example, attendance at development programs is not a perfect measure of how much learning actually happened, but it does give you some idea of enthusiasm for the program and its perceived usefulness by graduates – and it’s EASY to collect. So, if you don’t have time to do several surveys, you may decide that bums on seats is what you’ll measure (at least to start with).
- Set some goals. Use your best judgement based on your experience to set goals for your program. I like to think of a goal like a hypothesis – an opportunity to test my understanding. Goals, whether you achieve them or not, help you understand more about your work and what works.
- Set a time for evaluation. Timing is very important for the usefulness of data and evaluation – waiting even a month to evaluate the success of your marketing campaign might be too late. On the other hand, other processes need to be looked at over a long period. But make sure you’ve got time in your calendar to measure and, more importantly, evaluate your work – see if you achieved your goals and work out why or why not.
- Get an audience. Find time to share your findings with supportive stakeholders. This can be a useful activity in gaining more insight and problem solving, and it can also illustrate the work you do to stakeholders who may not have it front of mind all the time.
- Get help. Here, of coure, is where I let you know that Brightworks offers both an excellent ‘health check; which will give you a full run-down and evaluation on where your program’s currently at, and expertise in helping you set up your own measurement and evaluation systems. But, getting support or assistance from others in the business is also strongly recommended – whether it’s a colleague with an interest in data or your organisation’s data team, have a chat with them to help you get started.
