store • contents • survey • templates • articles • workshops • the authors • blog • contact • home

Corporate University Workbook Survey

It is important to know how your training and development function is perceived by management and by the employees in your organization. Effectiveness and success is closely tied to perception. Without an objective view of how you are perceived, it will be difficult to make changes that are meaningful and that will result in your function gaining credibility and effectiveness.

This survey is designed to help you calibrate the quality and characteristics of your current education efforts. Your score on this survey will provide some idea of how much effort will be required to move your education function to higher levels of usefulness and effectiveness.

Take the survey yourself, give copies to all the people helping you design the corporate university, and distribute it to as many other people as you can. The more people you can get to take the survey, the more reliable your results will be. A broad, composite view will give you two benefits: (1) it will establish a baseline view of your current activities (even if the view turns out to be painful to hear) and (2) it will give you an idea of which aspects of your education function need improvement and where to focus your improvement activities.

You can repeat this survey after the corporate university has been in place for a while and track your progress. In fact, this survey could be given periodically to continue to track your progress.

Instructions:
For each of the following, please rate your level of agreement using the scale "Strongly disagree," "Disagree," "Agree," "Strongly Agree," and "Don't know/Not applicable." When you are finished, click "Submit" at the end of the survey and your final score will be presented to you.

Note: This survey is slightly different than the version you might find in the book and on the CD-ROM to allow for automated scoring this web survey technology allows.

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree	Don't know/ not applicable
1. Our training and development staff have a clearly defined strategy regarding our objectives, describing how and when they will be achieved.
2. Our training and development function goals are related directly to key business goals of our organization.
3. All employees clearly understand who receives the benefits of the training and development function and why.
4. The training and development function's primary stakeholders are clearly defined.
5. Our training and development function's organizational structure enables us to efficiently develop and deliver our services to meet our business objectives.
	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree	Don't know/ not applicable
6. Our training and development function has a governing structure that makes major decisions.
7. The budgeting process is well understood and clear to all the stakeholders of the training and development function.
8. The people who staff the training and development function have strong business knowledge.
9. Our training and development function has a communication process we use to publicize to all employees how we contribute to profitability or have improved employee productivity.
10. The curriculum is thoughtfully developed to achieve specific, measurable business goals.
11. The training and development function has developed a set of measures or metrics used to gauge the performance of the department.
	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree	Don't know/ not applicable
12. We regularly report our performance metrics to senior management.
13. Curricula are often delivered by a combination of methods including elearning, on the job training, action learning, and other methods.
14. We report how training and development has helped the company achieve its business goals.
15. Our training and development staff is credible to the line management and to employees.
16. There are explicit financial metrics and processes for both tracking and reporting financial performance.
17. Our processes and structure for funding the training and development function within our organization are clearly defined and understood.
	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree	Don't know/ not applicable
18. There is a governing person or board to guide the training and development function and provide advice and support.
19. Our training and development organizational structure is practical, effective and is easy to operate in.
20. Our governance board provides training and development management the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
21. Our training and development function's charter is clear to the rest of the company - everyone can express why there is a corporate university and what it does.
22. Our training and development function has a robust and updated Intranet (or internally accessed web site) that communicates its activities, plans, and all information employees need in order to effectively utilize the department.
23. Our training and development function stakeholders are in agreement regarding the range of services offered.
	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree	Don't know/ not applicable
24. Line managers understand where to go or where to send their employees for educational and learning services.
25. Line managers in our organization understand how the training and development function can help them achieve their business goals.
26. The way decisions are made about learning priorities is clear to all stakeholders.
27. Our training and development function is ultimately responsible to a single person or committee, which also has financial control.
28. There is a budgeting cycle and special projects can be funded outside this cycle when necessary.
29. Our training and development function staff spend at least half of the time directly involved with the business, on customer needs or on product or service issues.
	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree	Don't know/ not applicable
30. Portions of the curricula are delivered by line managers, content experts, and other employees who are not part of our training and development function.
31. We have a set of metrics or a scorecard that demonstrates how all stakeholders benefit from the training and development function.
32. Our training and development function is not asked to deliver training outside the area(s) for which we are financed and staffed.
33. Our metrics measure both efficiency (i.e., speed, cost) and effectiveness (i.e. goals achieved, strategies implemented) of our training and development function.
34. Our training and development function has a depository or data base containing key learnings, vital strategic data, competitive data and other material that can assist decision making and improve learning.
35. We have a process for receiving feedback regarding training staff effectiveness and credibility.
36. Our curriculum is designed to encourage internal development function in order to reduce the need for external hiring.

If you are interested in receiving our periodic newsletter containing tips and helpful information for improving or starting your corporate university, please provide your name and contact information below.

Name
Company
Email
Phone

store • contents • survey • templates • articles • workshops • the authors • blog • contact • home

© 2004 Corporate University Workbook. All Rights Reserved.