BENCHMARKING THE BEST

This article highlights detailed data from leading-edge companies in t he Benchmarking Forum of the American Society for Training & Developme nt on such topics as outsourcing, learning technologies, and evaluatio n. Bassi is vice president of research at ASTD, and Cheney is director of the Benchmarking Forum. Forum members include Motorola, Coming, In tel, AT&T, Caterpillar, Bell Atlantic. Polaroid, and Texas Instruments . The forum is made up of 55 firms that share their best practices and other information to improve training and learning approaches for the benefit of the entire field. The article focuses on outsourcing and h ow it is affecting the training profession and industry. For instance, the expansion of outsourcing has made estimating the cost of training even more difficult than previously, but forum data provides an appro ach that uses reported and adjusted estimates of expenditures to arriv e at a credible figure. The article also shows to what extent forum co mpanies are using new learning technologies and in which areas-such as training delivery, administration, and information management. The da ta shows how much such technologies as the Internet, intranets, and CD -ROMs are being used. Interestingly, classroom instruction is still th e predominant means of training delivery. Kirkpatrick's model is still the predominant means of evaluation, though the use of Level 1 has de creased and the use of Levels 2 and 3 has increased. The forum compani es say they are trying to evaluate training more carefully and strateg ically than in the past.