End of Training Evaluation: Let’s Start at the Very Beginning

 

Level Four training is where you want to be when you evaluate training…but if you haven’t been in the training industry long, you have no clue what Level Four training is. And sometimes, even if you’ve been in the industry a decade or two, you still wonder how to get your trainees there.

In evaluating your training, you look at the Four Levels:

1. Did they like it?

2. Did they learn it?

3. Are they using the information?

4. Is the information/training making a difference?

Evaluation begins at, well, the beginning—a very good place to start. Before the training is even drafted, you need to pinpoint the need or the purpose of the training. What should this training accomplish? Is it to orient new hires? Train on safety issues? Improve sales? If a sales team is disheartened by a poor manager, very little will be gained by training the sales team on new sales techniques when they have no desire to perform for their current boss. So evaluating the issue or need is a key first ingredient. If you don’t accurately pinpoint the solution, training or otherwise, you won’t have a shot at Level Four.

Once you’ve done your legwork and homework, you’ve got your training drafted and you’re ready to train. Evaluations that get results evaluate much more than participant reactions. Effective evaluations use open-ended sentences or questions to provoke thoughtful responses. Evaluation forms are given early on in the training so participants can reflect on the most important learning—they’re not given at the end when the participants can’t wait to beat rush hour. And don’t be afraid to have the evaluation question the relevancy of the material presented. You need to know if your needs analysis was accurate—if you’re somewhere near the mark. Better to learn it now than later, eh? And check with managers—is the information making a difference back on the job. This is your key to job security.

There is so much involved in Needs Analysis, Evaluation and being able to benchmark your Return on training Investment. For a copy of Bob Pike’s Needs Assessment Matrix, email us. The matrix helps evaluate what the type of need is, what level of the organization is involved and proper corrective strategies—which may or may not include training.

This article was re-uploaded from our internal archive.

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