The Kirkpatrick Model shown below is comprised of four areas. It has traditionally been used to evaluate training programs. The model was developed in the 1950s by Donald Kirkpatrick. The primary use of the original model was to discover the success of the training program. 

https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Kirkpatrick

The model has been adapted to be used to evaluate this change effort. 

The CSO I’m working with has stated their objective to implement a succession plan successfully. To support the development of the succession plan, two additional purposes have been added; developing an internal career ladder and increasing gender and minority diversity in leadership roles.

This is a department-wide initiative and will require the support of all managers and supervisors. They will be called upon to support the following:

• Skills assessments of employees.
• Determine the skills required for each role.
• Provide an interactive map of the different departments and job functions DAR employees interact with across the university (this will assist with future recruitment efforts).
• Discuss career growth and strategy with employees.
• Have career-related conversations with employees from across the division.
• Hold career-related conversations and progress towards skills completion goals with their staff twice a year (minimum) and be held accountable for having them by their supervisor.

For the manager to successfully meet these new expectations, awareness of the program, systems training, and knowledge of the impact that this will have on the employees and overall organization must be clearly communicated and supported by managers.

Kirkpatrick’s model will be used to show the efficacy of the implementation of the program.

Stage 1 Reaction:

The objective is to create a succession plan for all managerial and leadership positions within DAR. Strategic Talent Management will create two internal focus groups of ten managers each to present the initial project design. The change effort is reliant on managers being able to help train and motivate their employees to take advantage of the resources available to build upon their current skills and develop new skills. It will also require that managers are having conversations with staff from different departments. These conversations will expose interested employees with those in a management role. It will also help the employees to understand what skills and knowledge are needed in various roles o succeed. Within the unit to help employees understand the skills required to succeed within each department, and as necessary, expand the responsibilities of their employees to support their growth into higher-level roles.

Focus groups will provide their feedback through individual and group interviews and surveys. We will be looking to achieve:

• 80% participation in focus groups
• Four individual interviews
• 2 group interviews with a minimum of 3 people
• 85% survey completion rate

Stage 2 Increase knowledge and skills: Roll out of the program to all managers and supervisors.

The next step, once 85% or more of the focus group participants are supportive of the change effort is to begin training them on how to have conversations around career growth, skills training, performance reviews, and informal progress reviews. Managers will be held accountable for ensuring that the staff who are interested in growing their careers within DAR are working on developing their skills. Managers will need to know how to navigate SkillSoft.

In advance of the rollout, a survey will be deployed, sharing a bit about the initiative and why it’s been supported by senior leaders. The survey will then solicit feedback from managers about their feelings of the program, any reluctance they may feel to participating, what they hope will come from it from both an organization and an individual point of view. Responses to the survey will be addressed in the rollout.

Select managers from the focus group will help to facilitate the role out of the initiative by leading a small group or unit-specific discussions on the objectives and reason behind the effort. These managers will work with the Strategic Talent Management team to facilitate training on how to deliver useful feedback, how to run a skills assessment, and how to create an interactive map

Surveys will be sent following the training to provide feedback to the presenters on the way they presented the material.

Managers will be asked to submit completed skills assessment forms and a training schedule for their subordinates. Subordinates and managers can opt-out of their individual training plans; however, a skills assessment and interaction map will need to be provided.

KPIs-

• A participation survey will be sent to all management participants to ensure that questions are answered and to gather additional feedback
• Managers participation in SkillSoft- providing feedback modules
• Submission of skills assessment of employees
• Submission of the department interaction map
• Registration of internal coaching/ mentor calendar (interested managers will act as coaches/ mentors for entry-level staff.

Level 3 Behavior

One of the main ways that we’ll be able to measure if managers are implementing what they’ve learned is that we will begin to see their progress through the program training, such as feedback and skills assessments. As new jobs are posted and recruiting takes place, we will measure the number of internal candidates, as well as see the active internal recruitment of current staff for available positions.

KPIs

• Adaption of more staff and completing modules in SkillSoft
• Increased promotion to the team about open positions through emails
• Increased applications from current staff to open positions
• Increased participation in employee engagement survey and greater engagement
• Increased number of career conversations across teams and levels of management.
• Interview focus group participants assess the implementation of the program.
• Increased number of communications from senior leadership and Associate Vice President of Strategic Talent Engagement, further promoting the career development program.
• Inclusion of staff development metrics in annual reviews.
• Creation of talent pool of internal candidates who have shown the skills, ability, desire to be promoted, and remain with the organization. 
• Development of staff affinity groups to further encourage staff engagement and retention.

Level 4 Results

If successfully implemented, we expect to see the following results: