Anthony Ward Rushton, Regional Head of Learning, Asia Pacific, Human Resources, HSBC
With over 30 years of banking experience, Anthony Ward Rushton, Regional Head of Learning, Asia Pacific, Human Resources, HSBC has spent the last 15 years specialising in Learning and Development.
Rushton has been responsible for designing a number flagship learning programmes which add commercial business value. Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation is often used—reaction, learning, behaviour and results—to accurately assess the effectiveness of the training programmes they design.
Delegates are always requested to complete an evaluation form so the L&D team can, according to Rushton, “Get a very clear line of sight on how effective the programme is and secondly, how well the facilitator or trainer is.” This is especially useful when L&D are working with new trainers or new vendors on new programmes.
A unique aspect with their training programmes is using professional actors. Rushton explained, “We often use professional actors in role-plays to act as clients and this works fantastically well.”
He elaborated, "The advantages of using actors are that they are professionally trained to play roles. We can brief them to make the role-play more difficult or easier. That means everybody is getting the correct stretch in terms of the learning experience. The other advantage of this is we can get feedback from the actor by asking, ‘How did you feel going through that interview process?’ This means that we get their perspective and what they experienced being the client.” From these programmes, there is an increase in learning in terms of both knowledge and skills.
When measuring level four, Results/ROI, L&D ensures that this is discussed in detail with the delegate at the beginning of the programme as to what kind of ROI is expected. Rushton added, “You must obtain agreement with the business sponsors as well as the trainee. ROI can be costly to track. It is better to do it really well with one or two key programmes rather than to boil the ocean.”
Rushton concluded, “It is more effective if the training programmes are business specific so that the delegates kind of get it and know that it relates to their job.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
