Editorial
Envision you’re sitting at your desk, drinking your morning coffee, when your computer pings with a new email from your organization’s chief talent development officer (CTDO). In the email is a link to the Association for Talent Development’s 2023 State of the Industry report, an annual review of TD trends, spending and activities that can help benchmark your team’s work. Your CTDO wants to know how your organization is faring compared to the report’s averages. "And," the CTDO writes, "can you prepare to present the comparative data to the executives at their quarterly meeting next month?" If reading that scenario made your palms sweat, you aren’t alone.
Allow me to take you step by step through how to collect, benchmark and present your data.
Step 1: Collect the Data
As an Enterprise member, you can begin by reading the 2023 State of the Industry report, which is included in your benefits (get a sneak preview here). Many data points are in it, and you must understand how ATD defines each one so that you can collect similar information from your company.
Drawing upon a sample of 454 organizations, this year’s report presents results demonstrating what happened in TD in 2022. You — and your executive team — may wonder why the data is a year behind. The 2023 report highlights 2022 data because ATD Research sends out the survey after the calendar year is over.
The 2022 data you must collect about your organization fits into four categories: staffing, content/delivery methods, expenditures and learning hours.
Let’s start with collecting employment numbers. Document the number of full-time equivalent employees at your organization in 2022 and the number of full-time equivalent TD staff.
Next is collecting information that may be more difficult to amass: data related to the learning content provided in 2022. For each content area — including executive development, customer service and interpersonal skills — consider whether your organization provided none, some or most of the content. Determine the percentage of learning hours your TD team delivered through various learning methods, including e-learning, blended learning, hybrid learning, traditional classroom and virtual classroom.
I’ve saved the most challenging data for last: total expenditures and learning hours used in 2022. Collect information about your total direct expenditures on learning in US dollars in 2022. Total direct expenditures include TD staff salaries (gross wages including benefits or employer-paid taxes), travel costs for TD staff, administrative costs, nonsalary development costs, nonsalary delivery costs (such as classroom facilities and online infrastructure), outsourced activities and tuition reimbursement. Total direct expenditures do not include learners’ travel expenses; costs of participants’ conference attendance, fees and travel; nor cost of lost work time while staff engaged in learning activities.
One last data point to locate and calculate is the total number of formal learning hours employees used in 2022. For example, if 100 employees took an eight-hour workshop, multiply 100 by eight for 800 hours. Do that for each formal learning opportunity in 2022 and then add them together, giving you the total number of formal learning hours used.
Step 2: Benchmark the Data
It’s time to start comparing your company’s data to the 2023 State of the Industry report. Before you begin, remember that the data points provided in the report are averages across all types and sizes of organizations. Your data won’t exactly match the data in the report; therefore, use the information to better understand your company’s learning expenditures and activities — and next year, do the exercise again to record year-over-year data for your organization.
According to the report, during 2022, the average direct expenditure across all organizations was $1,220 per employee.
Small organizations (with fewer than 100 employees) spent $1,814 per employee; medium organizations (between 100 and 2,499 employees) spent $1,121 per employee; and large organizations (with 2,500 or more employees) spent the least, at $809 per employee. Larger companies can spend less per staff member because the cost of learning is spread out across more people.
Compare your numbers to the benchmarking data. Is your data higher or lower than the averages? Can you identify a reason the numbers are similar or different? Your data may also differ due to industry or regional differences.
Step 3: Present the Data
Now that you have gathered and benchmarked data and determined why your data is similar or different, put all the information into a presentation to the executive team.
Consider the organizational culture and how company leaders prefer to receive data. Whether you write a report, create a PowerPoint presentation, or provide the data in another format, tell the story of the data. You should be able to answer questions about why the data looks the way it does, and come prepared to discuss how you can make improvements in the future.
Get the Report
ATD’s 2023 State of the Industry whitepaper provides an easily digestible version of the data extracted from the full report. For a sneak peek of this year’s report, download our complimentary whitepaper. Enterprise members can access the full report from their member benefits center. Not a member and interested in joining? Contact a member of our team.
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This article is adapted from “Get Your TD Yardstick Ready,” originally published in the December 2023 issue of TD magazine. © Association for Talent Development
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