The approach, called "Results Assessment", developed from the work of Brinkerhoff, Holton, Kirkpatrick, and others and has been refined for L&D practitioners following a workshop held in Oxford last year involving a number of specialist training, talent, and HR consultants. Facilitated by Dr John O'Connor of Ceres Management and Russell McCann of Bright Beyond, the participants reflected on their evaluation needs and explored ways to improve the evaluation of training and development initiatives.

According to Ceres Management's John O'Connor, there was agreement across the group that, to be effective, an evaluation model must

• define what business success looks like
• align evaluation goals with business needs
• focus the evaluation around clear performance needs
• define success indicators, especially for behavioural outcomes
• be easy to apply and administer.

O'Connor then introduced Results Assessment and took the group on an interactive "test drive" to show its detailed workings. Participants' reactions were extremely positive, with special mention being made of the model's innovative aspects and "business focus". O'Connor comments, "Results Assessment has been specifically designed to link engagement to measuring value and provide practical ways to move beyond 'level one' measurement."