Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

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Custom Design & Delivery

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Predictive Evaluation

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Enterprise Learning Strategy

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Dave Basarab Consulting has elevated the training experience, offering an end-to-end comprehensive approach that includes training strategy, instructional design, development, delivery , post program training transfer, and evaluation (via the unique Predictive Evaluation methodology). Virtual Chief Architect Dave Basarab has combined all of these individual training elements with his user-friendly, comprehensive Learning to Performance approach, which significantly increases companies' training ROI.

Why we are different

Innovation: Our primary focus is creating learning programs using a Learning to Performance approach.
Expertise: Dave offers the depth and breadth of his experience, including working internally at prestigious companies (Motorola, Ingersoll Rand and Pitney Bowes) as well as his knowledge and expertise as a highly-respected, sought-after consultant.
Partnership: Basarab collaborates with companies, serving as their own Chief Learning Officer whenever they need to plan, strategize, or implement training initiatives.

Training Services

Enterprise Learning Strategy

Enterprise Learning Strategy

At Dave Basarab Consulting, we're experts in creating Enterprise Learning Plans. We work with you to develop your company's learning strategy and direction.

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom training is an effective way of developing the capability required to execute your strategy. We are a custom design house that creates programs specific to your business.

Learning Burst Development

Learning Burst Development

We can create and deliver your courses via our unique Learning Burst Method - keeping your employees at their jobs while receiving world-class training.

Predictive Evaluation

Predictive Evaluation

We predict the ROI for your courses and establish success gates. We then evaluate the course against the success gates to show value realized and continually improve results.

Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Turn-key virtual custom leadership development program that combines world-class leadership speakers/educators with post-event personalized coaching to provide you with a cadre of highly skilled leaders.

Predictive Evaluation

Reading Training Metrics to Find High-Potential Talent Beyond Surveys

Most learning leaders in Australian organisations still rely heavily on end-of-course surveys and manager nominations to flag emerging talent. Those tools have their place, yet they consistently miss the quiet performers who finish modules early, apply new skills on the floor, and lift the people around them. Training metrics offer a sharper, evidence-based view of who is actually ready for more responsibility.

This piece walks through the data points that matter, the behavioural patterns worth watching, and how teams in Sydney, Melbourne, and regional hubs can build an identification framework that does not depend on self-report. It also covers a practical shift away from survey fatigue toward measurable, observable performance.

Why Surveys Fall Short for High-Potential Identification

Surveys ask people to rate themselves, and self-rating is a famously unreliable science. The high-potential who is already leading a project rarely pauses to fill in a form, while the eager voice in the room often does. Add the polite workplace culture found across many Australian offices, where direct self-promotion can still feel uncomfortable, and you end up with skewed results.

There is also the timing problem. Annual engagement surveys and pulse checks capture mood, not growth. They tell you how someone felt in March, not whether they absorbed a difficult compliance unit in May and then coached a colleague through it in June. For organisations navigating tight labour markets in sectors like mining, health, and aged care, that delay costs real productivity. Learning analytics close the gap by tracking application of training, not just reaction to it.

The Metrics That Reveal Real Potential

The table below contrasts common survey approaches with the kind of training metrics a learning team can actually pull from a modern LMS or learning experience platform.

Element	Traditional Surveys	Training Metrics & Analytics
Data source	Self-reported perception	System-recorded behaviour
Timing	Quarterly or annual	Continuous and real-time
Bias risk	High (politeness, recency)	Low (objective events)
Predictive power	Limited to sentiment	Strong for future performance
Detail available	Aggregated scores	Skill-by-skill evidence

The shift here is from asking "Do you think you are growing?" to showing "Here is the pattern of how you have grown." For example, time-to-competency on a new system, the speed of progression through custom adaptive e-learning pathways, and the consistency of assessment scores across multiple attempts all become useful markers. Each metric adds a layer of evidence that a single survey question simply cannot match.

Behavioural Signals Hidden in Learning Data

Numbers tell only part of the story. The most revealing signals sit in the behaviour wrapped around the numbers. How quickly does someone return to a module after failing an assessment? Do they revisit optional resources, or do they race past them? Are they the first to complete a new compliance update, or the last?

Practical indicators worth tracking include:

Frequency of voluntary content access outside assigned pathways
Peer interaction patterns in discussion forums or cohort chats
Application of learning as evidenced by on-the-job assessments or manager observations logged in the LMS
Spaced retrieval scores that show long-term retention rather than short-term recall

In a Brisbane-based retail headquarters, for instance, a learning team might notice that a small group of store managers consistently complete their micro-learning before the deadline, score above the benchmark on conflict-resolution scenarios, and then go on to coach new starters. That cluster of behaviour, not a survey answer, is where potential lives.

Applying This Approach in Australian Workplaces

Australian workforces are spread across capital cities, regional centres, and remote sites. That geography shapes how training data is collected and how potential shows up. A FIFO roster out of Perth, for example, produces predictable gaps in connectivity, so completion rates need to be read alongside offline activity logs rather than dismissed as disengagement.

Local regulations also matter. The Fair Work framework and the VET sector's competency standards mean that capability evidence is already part of the language of HR and operations. Linking training metrics to those existing competency standards makes the conversation with executives far easier. Leaders respond to evidence tied to business risk, and high-potential identification becomes credible when it is anchored in recognised benchmarks. Emotional intelligence and self-awareness are also part of the picture, which is why the work of Dr. Marcia Reynolds on these themes can complement technical skill metrics in a complete framework.

Building a Sustainable Identification Framework

A useful framework combines three layers: leading indicators from learning data, real-time performance signals, and qualitative check-ins reserved for the final shortlist. Training teams should agree on a small set of metrics, define what "good" looks like for each, and review the data quarterly. The goal is a shared lens that HR, operations, and L&D can all use without creating another dashboard that no one reads.

Recommendations for putting this into practice:

Choose four to six metrics that tie directly to business outcomes, such as time-to-competency or application rate of new skills
Pair every quantitative signal with at least one behavioural or contextual check before promotion decisions
Pilot the framework with one business unit, such as a regional sales team or an aged-care site in Adelaide, before scaling
Train managers to read the data with their teams, not behind closed doors, to avoid the surveillance feel that turns people off learning
Refresh the metric set annually as roles and capability requirements evolve

The real value of training metrics is what they reveal about people over time, not what they confirm in a single moment. Australian organisations that treat learning data as a live, trusted source of evidence will spot their future leaders earlier, develop them more deliberately, and hold on to them longer. The shift away from surveys is not a rejection of feedback, it is a move toward a richer, fairer, and more useful picture of who can grow into the next big role.

Learning to Performance

Learning to Performance, a complete training approach, gives companies world-class training to drive significant return. This approach includes upfront work (Impact Mapping, design), training (for staff and company executives), and post-training efforts to ensure training transfer. This unique recipe - the key for successful training and adoption - is changing the way companies implement training. This methodology could work with any content for organizations in any industry.