Rita, I’m a little surprised when you say that Level 4 is easier. In fact, Level 4 is the hardest and most time consuming because there are a lot of other factors at play other than training that impact on organizational results.
You ask whether you should set objectives for the trainees soon after the training. There is more than one kind of objective when it comes to training. There are the organizational objectives that you want the training to help deliver, such as “increase employee retention by 20 %”. This kind of objective is decided during the training needs analysis stage and is important for doing a later Level 4 evaluation, amongst other things.
Another kind of objective is a learning objective; what it is you want the learners to learn by the end of the program. This kind of objective is also determined during the design phase of the training program.
Another kind of objective is what the learners want to apply back in the workplace. This is agreed between the trainer and each learner and is sometimes called a “learning contract”. It is introduced at the start of the program and discussed and agree towards the end of the program.
So, the different kinds of objectives serve different purposes. You can find out more about how to make training effective and how to evaluate training in our book,
From Training to Enhanced Workplace Performance
Vicki Heath
Human Resources Software and Resources
http://www.businessperform.com