Assessing professional development program impact

Purpose – This paper aims to present a useful framework for guiding HR leaders, and their executive education (EE) program providers, towards program assessments that focus on, and capture, information related to the enterprise‐level benefits created by a customized professional development education program. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is the culmination of 40 years of working with corporations in the design, development, delivery, and assessment of EE professional development programs. It is also inspired, more recently, by the program assessment perspective that several larger corporate clients have sought and have most highly valued. Findings – A guiding framework for enterprise‐level EE program assessment is presented. Practical implications – The framework presented here is immediately and broadly applicable to those HR managers engaged in partnering with providers of custom EE professional development programs aimed at enhancing organizational‐level benefits. In addition, an example of a set of program assessment content prompts is provided in order to help HR leaders fashion their own IMPACT‐inspired assessment instrument. Originality/value – Readers are provided with a field‐inspired framework for EE program impact assessment. The paper posits the framework as an alternative to a more traditional individual‐only impact assessment and to a more problematic finance‐based ROI approach to program assessment.