Insights

Notes on measuring people, honestly

What the assessments actually tell you, where the numbers mislead, and how to run development programmes you can defend to a finance team.

A plant manager seen from behind at a grimy factory window, a hi-vis vest over one shoulder, holding one blank sheet of paper, the sunlit shopfloor beyond.

Training needs analysis · 11 November 2026

A one-page TNA brief the plant head will actually read

A TNA brief is not the analysis. Put the decision first, rank the causes with evidence on both sides, and move the rigour into a numbered appendix.

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Training needs analysis · 10 November 2026

Your training sample may be missing the people who need it

Reconcile the HR roster against payroll and gate records before sampling for a TNA, so silent omissions do not turn a precise survey into a biased plan.

Two hands compare a marked questionnaire grid on a factory site-office table.

Training needs analysis · 9 November 2026

Why field TNAs fail at the translation step

A two-translator review, item-level stop rule and short field test can catch meaning drift before a multilingual TNA turns into incomparable scores.

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Training ROI and impact · 9 November 2026

When the metric moves and training did not cause it

Four rival explanations for a business metric that moved: the calendar, the mix, manager attention and the measurement itself. How to rule each out first.

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360° feedback · 9 November 2026

Who should not be on a 360 rater list

Most 360 programmes write inclusion rules and no exclusion rules. Four exclusions worth writing down, who decides each one, and how to replace the raters you remove.

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Emotional intelligence · 8 November 2026

Team-level EQ scores mostly measure your team size

An averaged EQ score for a team of six is not a team measure. Test agreement and reliability first, then track the two numbers that survive small groups.

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Cognitive ability testing · 8 November 2026

Retesting candidates: what a second attempt actually measures

A second sitting lifts a score by about a quarter of a standard deviation. Most of that is familiarity. Here is the policy and the decision rule that stay honest.

Open ring binder of a printed competency framework on a wooden desk, one column marked with a yellow paper tab, a steel ruler and pencil at the edge of the page

Competency frameworks · 8 November 2026

Keeping a competency framework alive after year one

A framework rarely fails by being wrong. It drifts. Freeze year-one data, run three drift checks, and version the anchors so scores stay comparable.

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Training needs analysis · 7 November 2026

Designing a TNA for a distributed field workforce

A field TNA fails on sampling, language and rater drift, not on the questionnaire. How to sample sites, size the sample for clustering and calibrate supervisors.

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Competency frameworks · 7 November 2026

A competency framework and a job description are not the same document

Keep scope in the job description and behaviour in the framework, join them with competency IDs, and stop maintaining two copies of the same text.

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Cognitive ability testing · 7 November 2026

Use an ability score to design the training, not to label the person

An ability score forecasts how fast someone absorbs new material, not how far they can go. Use it to set structure and practice volume, and keep it off the label.

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Cognitive ability testing · 6 November 2026

Test security is an item supply problem, not a proctoring problem

Proctoring watches the session. What actually protects an online cognitive test is a capped item pool, look-up-proof items and analysis of response times.

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Emotional intelligence · 6 November 2026

How to run the EQ feedback conversation after the report

The report only creates the occasion. A five-stage conversation in which the manager reads the data and writes the commitment is what changes behaviour.

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Training ROI and impact · 5 November 2026

Why a single training ROI number is usually fiction

The ROI formula is sound. Its three inputs are guesses. How to report a fully loaded cost, a benefit band and a break-even threshold a CFO can use.

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Competency frameworks · 5 November 2026

A competency framework for 40 people: how much is enough

For a 40-person company the useful framework is smaller than any template. Size it from the decisions you actually make, not a catalogue of competencies.

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360° feedback · 5 November 2026

A 360 report changes nothing until someone follows up

Most 360 cycles end at the report. A 30/60/90 follow-up with one if-then commitment and a named witness is what turns ratings into changed behaviour.

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Cognitive ability testing · 4 November 2026

A percentile is only as good as the norm group behind it

How to date a norm table, put a band around any percentile you quote, and decide when a local norm beats a published one.

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Training needs analysis · 4 November 2026

Three training needs analysis instruments that cost nothing

A desk review of records you already own, eight critical incident interviews and one observed work sample. The method in order, plus a one-page template.

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Emotional intelligence · 4 November 2026

EQ is not niceness, and it is not one ability either

Emotional intelligence is four separate problem-solving areas. How to tell which one a manager actually lacks, and why one EQ score cannot answer that.

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360° feedback · 4 November 2026

Rater fatigue is why your 360 completion rate collapses

Completion is decided by load per rater, not per participant. Cap the item bank, widen the pool, and spend your two reminders where they work.

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Training needs analysis · 3 November 2026

Who owns the training needs analysis, and who pays for it

Split three decision rights, name one budget owner per need, and the analysis stops producing a wish list. A working method for HR, L&D and the business.

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Training ROI and impact · 3 November 2026

What a training impact report should contain, line by line

Six lines that make a training impact report checkable: baseline, target, result, attribution caveat, cost, decision. With a worked one-pager.

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Competency frameworks · 3 November 2026

One result, one level: competency mapping without double counting

Map every assessment item to one competency cell before the data lands, run the row budget, and audit drift quarterly. The arithmetic that keeps levels honest.

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Training ROI and impact · 2 November 2026

Your pre and post test measures the test, not the training

Same-items pre and post tests credit the programme with gains the test itself produced. Build two forms, counterbalance them, and score people with a reliable change bar.

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Emotional intelligence · 2 November 2026

Using EQ data in manager development without a label

A score becomes a label in one sentence, and the label is what stops the feedback working. Four rules for reporting EQ data so managers can act on it.

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Emotional intelligence · 2 November 2026

Can emotional intelligence be trained? Yes, but check what moved

Meta-analyses put EI training at about half a standard deviation. The useful question is which score moved, and whether anything reached the desk on Monday.

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Cognitive ability testing · 2 November 2026

Adverse impact in cognitive testing: the ratio is not the finding

The four-fifths rule flags noise and misses real gaps. How to read a stage-level funnel, add a significance test, and document the call.

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Cognitive ability testing · 1 November 2026

Adaptive versus fixed difficulty tests: what actually changes

Adaptive testing buys precision per item and spends review, predictable length and a score the candidate can estimate. How to choose between the three designs.

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Training ROI and impact · 31 October 2026

Leading and lagging L&D metrics: a six-line scorecard

Six metrics paired so each fast signal has a slow one behind it, the four tests a metric must pass, and the single line a CFO will actually read.

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360° feedback · 31 October 2026

How to run a 360 cycle without it becoming a popularity contest

Liking inflates peer and upward ratings more than manager ratings. Size the rater pool, fix the nomination rules, report by source group.

Two HR colleagues reviewing a spreadsheet of assessment tools at a desk in a plain office, one pointing at a row

Competency frameworks · 31 October 2026

How many assessment tools an L&D team actually needs

An audit that maps each assessment tool to the decision it changes, tests overlap on your own people, and shows which four tools collapse into one.

A team leader speaking to two colleagues beside a whiteboard in a plain meeting room, one colleague taking notes

Emotional intelligence · 30 October 2026

Goleman's five domains are a vocabulary, not a measurement

The five domains describe intentions, not things a rater can see. How to convert each one into an observable cue, three anchors and an agreement test.

A manager alone at a desk in a plain office reading a printed stack of feedback forms, colleagues visible through a glass partition behind him

360° feedback · 30 October 2026

Anonymous or attributed 360 feedback: decide by rater group

Anonymity in a 360 is three separate decisions, not one switch. What each choice buys, the reporting threshold that protects raters, and when to drop it.

A manager sitting beside a colleague at a shared desk in a bank branch office, holding a printed one-page form while the colleague works at a screen

Training ROI and impact · 29 October 2026

Running Kirkpatrick level 3 without a research team

A countable behaviour sentence, the observer already in the room, a baseline before day one, and a six-field form that a branch manager can fill in two minutes.

A manager and a colleague at a desk in a bright office, comparing a printed framework against a spreadsheet on screen

Competency frameworks · 29 October 2026

How to build a competency framework managers will actually use

Cap the list at twelve, write anchors that survive a retranslation test, and roll out with calibration instead of an email. The build order that works.

A manager marking a printed rating sheet at a desk in a branch office, a colleague reviewing the same sheet beside her

Training needs analysis · 29 October 2026

Competency gap analysis that ends in a one-page plan

A gap is two judgements subtracted. Rate against evidence, weight before you rank, then route each gap to training, coaching or a process fix.

Two colleagues at a plain meeting table in a bright office, one listening with a notebook open while the other explains a point

360° feedback · 28 October 2026

Six 360 feedback questions that actually surface a blind spot

Most 360 items ask raters to guess what is going on inside your head, so the report measures them. Six questions built on observed incidents, and how to read the delta.

Two colleagues at a small office table, one listening with a notepad while the other reads a printed report

Emotional intelligence · 28 October 2026

Self-report EQ tests mostly measure self-confidence

Self-report EQ scores correlate .18 to .21 with ability tests and about .43 with emotional stability. What to use them for, and what never to decide with them.

Two colleagues at a plain table in a bright office reviewing a short stack of printed assessment sheets beside a closed laptop

Cognitive ability testing · 28 October 2026

Your cognitive ability cut-off is doing less work than you think

Cognitive ability predicts job performance at .22 to .31, not the .51 in the vendor deck. How to set a defensible floor, band scores and spot when a test stops ranking.

An L&D lead talking a team through a competency matrix on a whiteboard in an office training room

Training ROI and impact · 27 October 2026

Your training worked. You just cannot prove it

Most L&D teams measure attendance because they never set a baseline. The measurement order that makes training impact provable, and defensible.

Two colleagues at a meeting table in a bright office, one explaining a point with a pen while the other listens with a laptop open

Training needs analysis · 27 October 2026

Training needs analysis vs identification: where the budget leaks

TNI collects requests. TNA decides what a request is worth. A four-question filter that stops a course wish list from becoming your training plan.