A majority of organizations don’t always evaluate the business impact of a formal training program out of sheer ignorance or lack of commitment to investing the needed resources to accomplish this noble endeavor. Worse still some organizations are not certain that the engaged training program is favorable enough to address their training needs due to pitiable railroading decisions by top management and voracious training consultants. The factual fact about formal trainings is that transfer of learning from training equipment to actual equipment, from learning environment to work environment, may be thorny if the participants are deficient of management support and approved training effectiveness gauging tools.
First and prime managers need to understand that they are in the people business, as they manage, administrate, train and try specified motivators. As much as they are entitled to provide visions and a sense of direction to the business, they are equally endowed to ensure the various existing personalities are in the warmth of their wings. Remember people don’t leave the company but the manager. One management consultant Tom Hopkins says that when recruiting, managers happen to recruit three different people; they do recruit the person whom they think they are recruiting, the person whom the recruit thinks he/she is and the real person that forms the recruit. There is need to merge all these catalogues through training and effective orientation in order to wrap up with the individual befitting the company’s goals and objectives.
Lisa ford a renowned management and leadership consultant suggests that organizations should spend 2%-5% of the yearly payroll in trainings. She further mentions that companies that invest in trainings normally encounter a lower staff turnover of 19% while those that overlook trainings end up with a 41% turnover and these is likely to rise. Given the large expenditures allied to trainings, it is important to develop business intelligence tools to help your organization improve the measurement of training effectiveness. The tools need to provide a methodology to measure, evaluate and continuously improve training impact while shifting the work environment to sprout and propagate the training seeds. If the result does not tally with the investment portraying a Return On Investment (ROI) imbalance, the venture is brusquely contemptible. Consider also that the business environment is not standing still; competitors, technology, legislation and regulations are constantly changing. What was a successful training program yesterday may not be a cost-effective program tomorrow. Being able to measure results will help you adapt to changing circumstances despite the needed valuable time and resources which are scarce in our organizations today.
Don Kirkpatrick once said that when determining whether the fundamental requirements of a training program have been met, it’s important to view them all with the same significance. The first requirement is to find out the trainees’ reaction to the program and their perception of the whole investment. These depends on several factors which include the content of the training program and the objectives to be met, was it aimed at the appropriate group and did they attend lock, stock and barrel; did facilitators deliver satisfactorily, favorability of the training environment and equipment used, the style and domestics, perceived learning practicability and application, was it a good use of time, level of participation needed in the training, ease and comfort of experience. Lack of training or poor training methodology always results with employees who are not able to fulfill their mandates. In this scenario you will need “happy sheets”, post training surveys or questionnaires and feedback forms to vividly understand their reactions. You may also need to be observant of the body language and verbal reactions to determine whether the music really made them dance or any need for adjustment.
The learning level could be more complex since it’s the training pivot point and still doubles as the stage where you work out the knowledge gain or increase in intellectual capability. It is utterly resenting for managers when they engage their staff in training and the outcome falls short of expectations, a resounding flop. Managers need to find out whether participants learnt and experienced what was intended for them to be taught and experience respectively. These covets can be gauged by conducting typical assessments or tests before and after the training with the establishment of reliable clear scoring and measurements to limit the risk of inconsistent assessments. Assessment methods need to be closely related and bound to the learning aims. Measurement and analysis results are entirely based on the participants’ judiciousness and should be meticulously applicable to any group scale given the ample means of assessment be it through hard copies, electronically, online or interview style. One of the triumphant methods is to schedule review meetings with all three parties concerned, the participants, their immediate supervisors and the training consultants, in attendance. The participants should be allowed to express their needs, appeal for the required support to enable them realize their action plans and any other objectives in tandem.
Behavior evaluation seeks to determine the extent of learning application and its relative impact on individual’s behaviors. Evaluation of implementation and application is an extremely important assessment – there is little point in a good reaction and good increase in capability if nothing changes back at work, therefore evaluation in this area is vital, albeit challenging. This can be evaluated immediately and several months after the training depending on the situation. Behavior change is less easy to quantify and interpret than reaction and learning evaluation. Basically the mission is to ascertain whether the learning, relevant skills and knowledge, was put into effect on job resumption. The focal point should be directed to any noticeable and measurable change in the activity and performance when back to performing roles not to forget the sustainability of the newly acquired knowledge level and behavior change because it might just be a case of excitement junkyizm. Assessments need to be designed to reduce subjective judgement of the observer or interviewer, which is a variable factor that can affect reliability and consistency of measurements. The observer should attempt to find out whether or not the trainee is aware of their behavior change, knowledge, skill level etc. 360 feedback and Self-assessment techniques can be useful, using carefully designed criteria and measurements. For an effective 360 self awareness analysis, evaluations should be extended to peers, direct reports and managers to establish the level of impact to an individual. Assessments can be designed around relevant performance scenarios, and specific key performance indicators or criteria. It would also be paramount to find out if the trainee is able to transfer their learning to another person. Online and electronic assessments are more difficult to incorporate when evaluating behavior change – assessments tend to be more successful when integrated within existing management and coaching protocols.
Finally, the business or environment should supremely benefit from the improved performance of the employee as depicted in a precise Results evaluation. Unless a training program exists simply for the sake of training, results should be measured based on business performance data, not just training data. Including selected metrics-such as sales, customer satisfaction, workplace safety, productivity and others-into a reporting strategy can help demonstrate where training has increased revenue or decreased costs. Being the acid test, measures should typically be business or organizational key performance indicators such as Volumes, values, percentages, timescales and other qualitative and quantifiable ROI aspects of organizational performance, for instance; number of complaints, staff turnover, attrition, failures, wastage, non-compliance, quality ratings, achievement of standards and accreditations, growth, etc. At this point it is vitally important to document and file success stories for reference. Good performance awards can be initiated to motivate and keep the good news streaming. For senior participants particularly, annual appraisals and ongoing agreement of key business objectives are integral to measuring business results derived from training.
Organizations should also conduct in-depth surveys of potential training consultants they intend to partner with. Training consultants can also act as the external factors greatly contributing destructively to organisational and business performance, which cloud the true cause of good or poor results. Training firms should be steadfast enough to provide Human Resource Development with straightforward guidance and sponsorship, based on the consultative needs assessments, to see them through the training and enhance quality post training mutual follow-up. They should also assist in harnessing programs that put the organization’s and trainees’ training needs in lock and devour the ever existent contrast of employees mapping for trainings that will strategically make them industry marketable whereas management prefer trainings that will improve the organization productivity and performance, through the training needs analysis and seal the gapping “what is” and “what ought to be”.
