The global market size for corporate training is expected to exceed $417 billion in 2027, up from about 333 billion in 2019.
Also known as workplace learning, corporate training aims at helping your employees perform better on the job. This training improves your staff’s performance, motivation, productivity, and retention. It’s one of the investments that bring you closer to achieving your business goals.
The amount companies spend on training has been increasing each year. In 2019, small businesses spent approximately $367,490 on training programs.
When you’re spending that much money on training, training effectiveness becomes a thing of great interest. You want to be sure you’re getting the best value for your money.
But why is it important to measure it? More importantly, how do you evaluate training effectiveness?
If you’re asking these questions, you’ve come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide, we tell you all you need to know about this essential business task.
Why Evaluate Training Effectiveness?
The role of continuous employee training in boosting productivity in your business is without question critical. But investing time and money in a training program only makes sense if the program works. That’s why you need to measure training effectiveness.
Here are three tangible benefits of continually evaluating your training effectiveness.
You Identify Areas That Need Improvement
The number one reason for evaluating your training program is to know whether the program is producing the results you implemented it for. You get to see where the program is falling short and take necessary action. Regular training effectiveness evaluation thus helps you improve employee training.
You Get to Keep Trainees and Trainers Accountable
Evaluating training effectiveness should involve your training technology, as well as the people using it. Many companies today opt for online assessment, as it makes it easy to track employee training.
This assessment gives you helpful insights into your employees’ engagement with a training program. It’s easy to administer surveys and determine the ROI of your training programs.
With regular evaluation, you can hold everyone involved in your training programs accountable to the standard for training you’ve set as an organization.
Evaluating Training Effectiveness Helps You Boost Retention Rates
From the insights you get from measuring training effectiveness, you can make adjustments to the program to better suit learners. Better training means more development of the employee. When employees feel more confident in their work, they’re more committed and inclined to stay with your organization.
Tips for Evaluating Training Effectiveness
Now that you’ve seen some of the benefits of evaluating training effectiveness, it’s time to talk about how you can go about this task. Here are seven surefire tips for evaluating and measuring training effectiveness in your business.
Determine Specific KPIs
One of the first things you need to do when evaluating the effectiveness of a training program is to identify your key performance indicators (KPIs). What data points are the most vital to your company? Some good examples of KPIs you may consider include:
- An increase in the sales of a particular product
- Higher staff engagement
These two KPIs can serve as good indicators of whether your training program is working or not.
Conduct a Pre-Training Evaluation
Before you start an employee training program, perform an initial assessment. The idea is to find out what your employees know and what they don’t. You’ll then compare these results with the results you get at the end of the program to determine whether the training has been effective or not.
Get Feedback During Training
Don’t wait for the end of the program to get feedback. From time to time, check-in with the learners as they work through the content.
Conduct surveys to determine their views on the training program, what they like, and what changes they think can improve their learning experience. From the feedback you get, make appropriate adjustments to improve the program.
Evaluate Engagement
Employee engagement is another critical metric when measuring training effectiveness. How are your employees reacting to the content?
If employees are completing only the minimum requirements of the training, it’s a clear indicator that there’s low engagement. But if they’re going above and beyond to complete even non-compulsory training, it shows they’re enthusiastic about the material.
Remember to evaluate different training modalities. Stick with the ones that seem to engage learners the most.
Measure Knowledge Retention
The aim of evaluating knowledge retention is to determine what your staff has learned and what they can remember outside the classroom. The best way to measure knowledge retention is by having the learners take the same assessment they did before starting the training.
Evaluate Behavior
Measuring employee behavior helps you find out how effective training has been. Is there a noticeable change in employee behavior since the completion of the training? Some of the changes to look for include:
- An Increase in confidence on the job
- An increase in efficiency
- Employees asking fewer questions as they now know how to do things better
When it comes to behavior assessment, you can opt to conduct virtual surveys or physically with the help of the coaches.
Measure Results
This is the last step of evaluating training effectiveness, and you do it by going back to your KPIs. All results need to be evaluated based on the KPIs you listed at the beginning of the program. Ask yourself:
- Have the sales of the product you wanted to promote increased?
- Do employees seem more engaged?
Sometimes, the results are not immediately clear. Continue training. Refine the program if need be, and your employees and business will improve with time.
Measure Training Effectiveness Regularly to See Better Results
A training program is only as good as its ability to help you meet your business goals. It’s the reason you need to regularly evaluate training effectiveness to determine whether you’re getting the best ROI from your training programs.
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