101: Evaluating training
Companies know they need to train new employees, but today, training all employees takes on new importance in terms of retention. Forbes cites LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report, which shows 93% of employees saying they would stay at a company investing in their careers. Training programs need constant evaluation. Here are some ideas on the process.
Know the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model, four steps to size up training programs, developed by a University of Wisconsin professor – Donald Kirkpatrick – in the 1950s. The first level of measurement is reaction, gauging trainees’ impressions (with surveys, for example). The second level is to measure learning, with metrics like test scores. Next is measuring behavior, or how the training has impacted the learner’s performance and attitude; and finally, the measuring of actual results, like lower company turnover or higher productivity.
Avoid complacency, advises the Association for Talent Development. “The level of comfort you feel with the training starts to mentally and even emotionally outweigh the perceived benefits of changing things up. It makes you more and more reluctant to spend money on new training becuse you feel like everything is fine the way it is,” the organization stresses. Indicators of a needed change: Employee complaints about too much text to sift through, uncertainty in how to use the information or the training platform itself.
Realize review is constant. According to ManagementHelp.org, training can be evaluated before, during and after. Before training, a manager can use the methods on a highly skilled employee and get their opinion, for example. During training, look for employees coming to the sessions late and leaving early. “Ask the employee to rate the activities from 1 to 5. If the employee gives a rating of anything less than 5, have the employee describe what could be done to get a 5,” the website suggests. After the training, companies can assign an evaluator – maybe someone outside the company – to evaluate the employees’ knowledge.
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