Training Evaluation: How Effective is the Kirkpatrick Model in Real HR Scenarios?

Hi all,

Training evaluation is an essential area of HR. I hope you find this useful.

Dear Nazia,

There is a lot of material on the internet about the Kirkpatrick Model. However, implementing it requires a lot of willpower from management, HR, participants, and finally from the trainers' side. These concepts that appear beautiful on paper are equally challenging to implement. The true meaning of human mindset or attitude can only be revealed when we put such ideas into practice.

To implement this model, a significant amount of preparatory work is needed from management, HR, training, participants, and trainers' sides. Through my years in training, I have observed that only about 1% of companies demonstrate the willingness to reach Level III of this model. Alarmingly, numerous trainers and HR professionals are unaware of the existence of this model.

If you have any case studies on the implementation of this model, please forward them to me.

Warm regards,

Dinesh V Divekar

Hello Dinesh,

I agree with you on the requirement and preparatory aspect of Kirkpatrick's model, or for that matter, any training model. No doubt, just knowing something is not an end in itself, but at least it's a beginning. HR has ceased to be just an admin function now, and to bring in the change, we have to incorporate some changes ourselves.

Thanks

Hi Dinesh / Nazia,

Completely agree with you; our HR leaders expect world-class results without support, and we have gone crazy in implementing the Transfer of Learning. If not insurmountable, but yes, it is difficult. Please share if you have something on how best we can implement the transfer of learning apart from pre and post-assessment. To which level can we take it, and what kind of support is needed from the stakeholders.

Cheers!!! Manoj

I had adopted the Kirkpatrick model for evaluation in our company. However, when I went for an interview at another company, they completely rejected this model. They told me that it is a total failure because you cannot evaluate Level-IV for soft skills training. So, which method is the best?

Regards