The Data Collection and Analysis Plan
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When it comes to determining the ROI for coaching, we certainly
have our work cut out for us: converting benefits to monetary value,
isolating the effects, tabulating program costs, and calculating the
ROI. The intention of this chapter is to make this evaluation as
simple and painless as possible. An evaluation process will be presented
that has been battle-tested and proven to work with coaching
time and time again. Consequently, not every possible angle for
the evaluation will be explored. Readers who wish to further explore
alternative approaches to evaluation are encouraged to review the
References and Further Reading section at the end of this book.
Many excellent resources are available to help build knowledge and
skills in the art and science of evaluation.
This chapter cuts to the quick: how to plan the data collection and
analysis and quickly select those data collection tools that will
creditably show the ROI. The sponsors and leaders of coaching
initiatives, evaluators, HR professionals, coaches, and others will
have, in this chapter, all they need to conduct an ROI evaluation of
coaching. The next chapter presents a slimmed-down version of
evaluating only the application of coaching.
The first step is to develop the Data Collection and Analysis Plan.
This plan is the link from the evaluation strategy to conducting the
evaluation. The Data Analysis Plan has six major elements:
1. The evaluation objective, which comes directly from the
evaluation strategy
2. The isolation strategy, which again comes from the evaluation
strategy
3. The sources of data, which are required to execute the isolation
strategy
4. Data collection tools, which will be used to gather all relevant
data from the identified sources
5. The analysis approach, which summarizes how the data will be
collected and analyzed
6. The key events schedule, which includes the major activities
required to execute the data collection plan
Let’s return to OptiCom to see how they utilized this format and
created an effective plan to analyze the evaluation objectives. In this
example, we look only at how they planned the Data Collection and
Analysis Plan for the first objective: increased collaboration among
leaders resulting from coaching. Table 12.1 presents this plan. Let’s
break it down as follows:
_ Isolation strategy. The isolation strategy was taken directly from
the evaluation strategy document (Table 11.2). Expert estimation
is planned as the only isolation technique. Neither a
pre/post nor a comparison group analysis were planned to be
used. This means, of course, that the credibility of the entire
Table 12.1 Data Collection and Analysis Plan for One Evaluation
Objective at OptiCom
Evaluation Objective 1: Increased collaboration among leaders resulting from
coaching