Measuring behavior change

HR and L&D departments have access to a very large number of indicators on the training and transformations deployed. Collecting this quantitative data provides a factual vision of the results of these initiatives in order to estimate their impact. But the data currently available to HR and L&D departments offers only a partial measure of this impact.

Indeed, the data that we mainly have today remain limited to the description of the effort devoted to training and transformations:

• the satisfaction rate,
• the completion rate,
• Theattendance of participants,
• ...

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These measures, while important for evaluating the effectiveness of initiatives implemented, are not sufficient to accurately describe their impact, namely how the organization has actually changed.

This change can only be measured by a concrete, palpable, observable change in the way in which employees work, interact and make decisions in their daily professional lives.

Indeed, in order to be able to say that feedback training has been successful, it is necessary to be able to notice a real change in the way in which employees give each other feedback. The ability to “see” the new behavior is key: just because I know someone is athletic (without seeing that person practising) doesn't mean I can measure their ability to do sports. With this idea in mind, some organizations use other types of indicators:

• Assessment of acquired knowledge via quizzes;
• Self-assessment or peer review via Likert scales (“This person delegates effectively: 1. Strongly disagree/2. Rather disagree/3. Neutral/4. Somewhat agree/5. Totally agree”)

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However, the use of these has shown significant limitations, explained by behavioral sciences, in particular because of our cognitive biases, inducing a gap between “Knowing” and “Doing” (It's not because I know that I do), overconfidence or undertrust (which distort the results of the Likert scales).

But how can a change in behavior be effectively measured?

Behavioral sciences allow us to answer this question.

Indeed, they teach us that a behavior is in fact only a series of gestures, simple actions. As a result, if we can measure the implementation of a set of actions, we can deduce a precise measure of the implementation of a behavior.

Behavioral sciences also tell us that, in order to be able to be measured with certainty, these actions must have specific characteristics. They must be:

• Simple,
• readily observables,
• and leave no doubt about their execution (or non-performance).

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For example, if an employee needs to anchor a behavior associated with active listening, such as “show the interlocutor that you are listening fully”, a measurable action would be “during your next exchange, rephrase what the interlocutor just said before responding”. It's simple, observable, and it's either done or not done.

Measuring behavior change with Fifty

Fifty applies this method precisely to measure behavioral change, by providing HR and L&D managers with a set of relevant data on the implementation of the training courses and transformations deployed. Here are a few examples:

• Rate of implementation (share of employees who have succeeded in putting target behaviors into practice),
• Least successful program actions (actions for which employees have encountered the most difficulties): to highlight things that require additional effort or organizational blockers.
• ...

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Fifty, through its approach focused on real data on behavioral change in daily professional life, allows its customers to measure the effectiveness of their training and transformations.

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For more information, you can read our white paper on measuring behavioral change HERE.