Collecting consistent and accurate data is integral to measuring change over time, but the lack of standard methodology around skills-first data collection has made building a strong approach a challenge. To address these obstacles, Grads of Life developed the Impact Measurement Metrics Data Guide.
The skills-first movement has rapidly gained momentum as employers increasingly recognize the value of a skills-first approach to talent management. Amid this rapid growth of the movement, many companies beginning their skills-first transformations grapple with questions about how to assess if their skills-first initiatives are working, how to measure and communicate the business case for continued investment, and how they compare to their peers. In response to these questions, Grads of Life, in partnership with the Business Roundtable and companies from their Multiple Pathways Initiative (MPI), developed an Impact Measurement Framework Playbook to provide companies with a list of recommended metrics to track and evaluate their adoption of skills-first practices and the impact that their skills-first efforts have on employees, the business, and society.
In August 2023, Grads of Life again partnered with the Business Roundtable, along with the OneTen coalition, to launch the Skills-First Impact Measurement Action Cohort. The goal of this Cohort was to foster awareness and adoption of the Impact Measurement Framework, empowering participants to track, measure, and analyze key metrics to evaluate and share the return on investment (ROI) of their skills-first efforts both internally and externally. The cohort served as a dedicated peer-to-peer learning space for employers where they could share experiences and learnings and make progress together. Grads of Life subject matter experts facilitated each session, which covered a range of topics from goal setting to external reporting, and shared new supplemental tools built to support the members with using the framework at their companies.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to measuring the success of skills-first efforts. It must begin, however, with setting robust skills-first goals and identifying success metrics that align with those goals. From there, companies’ skills-first leaders and data teams – which each have varying levels of maturity, capacity, and resources – must align on what data is feasible and important to track, taking into consideration the effort required to capture and track certain data points, the timeframe needed to see change, and the frequency of data collection and reporting. Companies know that collecting consistent and accurate data is integral to measuring change over time, but the lack of standard methodology around skills-first data collection has made building a strong approach a challenge. To address these challenges and supplement the Impact Measurement Framework, Grads of Life developed the Impact Measurement Metrics Data Guide.
The Impact Measurement Metrics Data Guide is a self-serve reference tool with information about each of the metrics that make up the Impact Measurement Framework. The information in this guide is meant to assist decisionmakers in selecting an individualized set of priority metrics to track based on the unique goals, needs, and resources within their own company. It can also assist data teams with understanding what it takes to track each metric in the framework. While it would be ideal to track all the metrics listed in the framework from the start, this simply is not realistic for most companies given capacity and existing systems. This guide is therefore intended to help employers familiarize themselves with the metrics and provide additional information that will help teams understand how to begin collecting the data needed to measure skills-first outcomes.
Our hope is that this tool equips skills-first leaders with the guidance and information they need to build a strong strategic vision around impact measurement. The steps, questions, and worksheet included in the guide provide a starting place for facilitating internal conversations and promoting informed decision making. Leveraging the Impact Measurement Framework, supplemental tools and resources, and the continued support of employer peers and implementation partners, companies are already diving into the work of measuring impact. This strong foundation is laying the groundwork to further enhance data collection and reporting capabilities, understanding, and standardization across the field.
