Question Detail How do you Evaluate Training? The question was posted by Claire Fellows on 26/02/2010 14:54:22   I have been given the task of reviewing the way we evaluate training and I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share how they do this within their organisation? I'm particularly interested in the more long term rather than the usual 'happy sheet' evaluation at the end of a training session. How do you measure the effectiveness of training especially with regards to the 'soft skills'. Also, how do you evaluate the trainer(s)? Many thanks    Claire Fellows has requested the following response type(s): General advice and information: Recommendations of other people's products and service. (Those responding will not be able to promote their own services): Information from Trainers' Library members about their products and services that will help me: responses date author I would suggest you to consider the ideas based on kirkpatricks 4 levels of evaluation, as Jane has mentioned here. And this involved all stage in ADDIE framework of learning. To help in your evaluation of training, you need to plan ahead in your analyze, design, develop, and implement. 02/03/2010 Sadat Math Here are some ideas based on kirkpatricks 4 levels of evaluation - level 1 (reaction) is your happy sheet / trainer view of the session - level 2 (learning) is about whether they have learned something from the session so a case study, quiz etc can help here done periodically, i also have some questions on my evaluation sheet that link to the course objectives e.g. I am skilled at asking open questions and then ask them to rate before and after the course on a 1-10 scale which will show an uplift - level 3 (behaviour) - sample focus groups of attendees perhaps - what have they changed since the training, what impact has it had? learning logs can be helpful here in terms of getting people to reflect on what they are doing differently (can be a painful process requiring support as it's not necessarily easy to do). More interesting things could be doing a video filmed by the individaul filming interview questions with those they work with; 360 would also work at this level - level 4 (results) is looking at business impact that you would hope to have seen change e.g. sales, costs, problems, processing time (as appropriate to your business) You might want to think about what level of evaluation is appropriate for what you are assessing as proper evalution can be time consuming so at what point does the cost outweigh benefit; also how much do you want to attribute to the training. For example at levels 3 and 4 there are other influencees at play not just the training, so you may want to attribute say 20% of the change to the training. Hope that helps Jane 01/03/2010 Jane Hapgood Hi Claire Whilst we use assessmnets at the end of some courses i.e. multiple choice questions etc, for the 'soft skills' courses such as Assertiveness or Team Leading, we begin the evaluation much earlier. The line manager of each participant is asked to complete a pre-course evaluation sheet scoring the performance of their employee against relevant competencies such as 'Identifies when someone is unhappy and adjusts their approach accordingly'. The lower the score, the more development is required. These are discussed with the employee prior to attending to ensure they understand their priorities. When action plans are completed at the end of the course, the participant can use these sheets to prioritise actions. 6 - 8 weeks after the course, the same sheets are sent to the line managers for a post-course evaluation and we are looking for those scores to have increased. In that way, we can demonstrate the difference the training has made and therefore the effectiveness of the course - and the trainer. It also means the manager can clearly see the benefits of losing a member of staff for 1 or 2 days. If there is little change then I follow up with the manager. the only time we've not achieved the desired improvement (my own objectives are set at 40% improvement in performance on average for the year), has been when the manager didn't spend any time discussing the action plans with the participants he'd sent. This was soon rectified and he then saw the change. Hope that helps but please let me know if you'd like more explanation 01/03/2010 Paula Knight Hi there As part of my KPI's I carry out a quartely TNA where we measure where we are in terms of soft skills as well as day to day tasks. This gives me a basis of what training to carry out over the next few months, technically the next time I carry out the TNA the levels should have increased. Obviously taking into consideration staff turn over. As we are a type of call centre I have service excellence modules based around customer service, these modules co-inside with the phone coaching sheets, again if we are low in listening skills for example I carry out that particular module, therefore the following month the coaching scores in that area should increase. I hope this makes sense! feel free to contact me direct if yo uwant anymore info laura.askell@searchflow.co.uk 01/03/2010 Laura Askell