Training evaluation

Training evaluation is an assessment of the effectiveness of the training program. The criteria of training evaluation should be related to training objectives. The evaluation can have several levels:

• quality of coach work,
• quality of place of training,
• impact on employee's knowledge,
• impact on employee's skills,
• impact on employee's behavior.

The first four training evaluation criteria can be assessed directly after the training. Quality of coach work and quality of place of training can be evaluated by employees who attended the training. The employee's knowledge, however, has to be evaluated either by coach or by other person who has knowledge extensive enough to perform evaluation.

The skills and behavior can be assessed only in work during some period of time, e.g. 1-3 months, depending on type of skills and intensity of using them. It can be beneficial to plan short training after the training evaluation period, during which some key and forgot elements would be reminded.

The training evaluation is nowadays a major part of the strategic Human Resource Development. The growing trend nowadays is to track the progress and effectiveness of various training programs in order to ensure the vitality of the HRD across the organization. Some advocate for the training and development evaluation methods as means to justify usage of various employee benefits - it is both a way to evaluate the employees performance, but also to provide incentives relating to higher salaries/better workplace conditions and non-monetary benefits. Nowadays, the training and development departments’ existence is a given in most companies, regardless of the economic conditions affecting the enterprise - training evaluation is as an inherent part of the strategic management of thereof.

Some of the Human Resource Development studies that are closely related to performance measurements and evaluations take into consideration the division into four competencies such as: the business, technical, interpersonal and intellectual.

Human resource development research and performance measurement and evaluation

Some of the Human Resource Development studies that are closely related to performance measurements and evaluations take into consideration the division into four competencies such as: the business, technical, interpersonal and intellectual.

The business competencies are for example:

• The cost/benefit analysis, where alternatives are being weighted in terms of strategic, financial or psychological impact on the environment and their pros and cons.
• Record management is a specific business-oriented skill where the data is being stored in an orderly and secure fashion which is also easy to retrieve.

The technical competencies to evaluate are, among others:

• The objective preparation, which is a skill that requires using clear communication in order to describe a specific, desired output,
• Performance observation in turn is a skill where specific behaviours and their effects are being described and analysed,
• Research, is a skill where usage of statistical data collection methodologies is used. The information selection, division and knowledge development are significant parts of this competency

Some of the interpersonal competencies are:

• The feedback which is a specific skill where communication regarding the opinions, feedback stored information is conducted in a clear and understandable way, and some conclusions and improvements can be derived from it.
• Questioning skills depend on gathering various information and providing an insight into some issues thanks to the use of various questioning forms such as interviews, questionnaires etc.

And one of the intellectual skills is the data reduction skill, where one is supposed to scan, synthesize and draw some conclusions from the previously collected data. All those methods can be seen as specific methods of evaluating the human resource management in an enterprise, especially while evaluating the training given or received by the employees.

Training evaluation — recommended articles

Job analysis — Marketing research — Effectiveness evaluation — Skills transfer — Employee selection — Job scope — Evaluation of education — Effectiveness of training — Work sample test

References

• Morey, J. C., Simon, R., Jay, G. D., Wears, R. L., Salisbury, M., Dukes, K. A., & Berns, S. D. (2002). Error reduction and performance improvement in the emergency department through formal teamwork training: evaluation results of the MedTeams project. Health services research, 37(6), 1553-1581.
• Bramley P., (2003).Evaluating training CIPD Publishing, pp-1-113
• Phillips, J. (1997).Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods London: Routledge, p. 1-44
• Kirkpatrick D.L., Kirkpatrick J.D., (2007).Implementing the four levels - a practical guide for effective evaluation of training programs San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, p. 1-21

Footnotes

Author: Anna Śliwa