Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Training

Hi Mr. Martin

I went through the your discussion with Reena regarding the calculation of ROI and i m glad to know that u take so much interest in the problems.

I think i m going thru the same problem as i m evaluating the effectiveness of MDP in which again it is difficuylt to quantify the behavioral changes. that is the programme was aimed at the following competencies

TEam building

communication skills

leadership and motivation

Building people capability

influencing skills

delegation

the learning expected at the end of the programme was to understand the role of effective manager, build & lead effective teams & motivate them to get the expected results, communicate effectively to develop & maintain fruitful relations with their team members and peers, manage their time effectively and perform at the higher levels.

Now, the problem i m facing is how to quantify the benefits.

one way u suggested was to find out what that training prevents. but still i find it difficult to understand.

Waiting for your valuable suggestions.

Regards

Pooja

Hi Pooja
To measure the results you need to have skills clealry defined as what each one of them does mean. What do you mean by Influencing skills - definition and the behaviour descriptions which are to be observed to understand
A mullt rater feedback mechanism will be a god bet i guess, where the behavior dimensions are defined - should have been exhibited by the assessee after the training
Any post evaluation of training should have had a pre assessment for us to understand the improvement
This is my view and understanding

Hi Pooja,

Thank you for providing more information on your problem!

Without revealing too much about the organisation you work for, as there may be commercial senstivities here, what are the key indicators and drivers for the organisation, or specifically the division/department you work in?

For example, I have recently been working with a container terminal operation in a port. This type of business has a lot of capital invested in equipment, and pays a lot of rent to use the port facilities such as the quay and berths etc. It also has strong agreements with the unions which means that even on a day when there are no ships at the container terminal, the workforce still comes in to work. There are few opportunities in these respects to reduce costs.

The only opportunities for improving profits (earnings before interest and taxes, known as EBIT) is to undertake process improvement and waste reduction activities and/or to bring in more income - getting existing customers to bring in more trade, and/or attract new customers.

To some extent the trade that existing customers bring in is very much influenced by the national economy - something we have very little direct influence on!

So the focus then is on attracting new customers.

Ideally we must find out what customers value and why they would firstly come to use this terminal, and also why they would stay.

Generally the shipping lines are looking for the following:

* Berthing on arrival - the ship is allowed to dock as soon as it gets in to the terminal. This is affected by the availability of space at the quay/berth, and as shipping lines operate to well defined schedules, they are also interested in...

* Departing on time, and to be able to achieve this requires the terminal to

* Provide a consistent level of performance in terms of the rate at which containers are loaded and unloaded to and from the ships. That is also influenced in part by...

* How efficient the terminal operations are in getting containers to and from the road and rail operators.

Now we have some clarity about the key drivers (income) and performance indicators (EBIT) at the strategic or senior manager level, we can begin to work on finding the links between these and potential training activities.

If possible the approach should not be "how can I get delegation training to help with this problem", rather it should be more along the lines of "we have found the root causes or drivers of this performance indicator or issue and one of these is the inability of many line managers to delegate effectively, resulting in them being overworked and making mistakes, leading to lower performance"

In indetifying the root causes you will collect plenty of evidence amounting to PROOF of the link between training and impact on the organisation.

I often try to think of evaluation as being like a court case. I am the lawyer that has to prove my case to the jury. In the workplace the jury are the line managers that have to release the employees to attend the training, and the finance officers who provide the funding. I need to convince them of my case by showing them the proof, and in the absence of proof I need to have very strong evidence. Sometimes a correlation between the training and improved performance is all they require. Other times the jury demands proof!

I hope this gives you more insight in to what to do next.

Good luck,

Martin

Hi Mr. Martin
Thanx for giving your valuable time . I am doing my project in ISPAT STEEL and the training is given to the managers, sr. managers, AGMS, DGM Level. you mean to say we have to find out key performance indicators ,isn't it? but still i m not very clear about it ...
Regards
Pooja

hi,
pooja this is pranjali...remember me...we have worked together during summers..anyways i got the same proj in my college could u plzzz sne me a copy of it (soft copy)...asap.
tc
pranjali

Yes, you need information on key performance indicators and the factors that affect the values of these indicators.
What specifically are you not clear on?

Hi Pooja ,
As a lot of people on this site I too am doing a project on the impact of training on employee effectiveness .. I have been collecting data using a questionaire that i am not very happy with .. i was wondering if you could send me a copy of ur questionaire so i could get some perspective?? help will be greatly appriciated .
cheers and thanks !
karan

hi martin,
the reference to the site 5boxes was too too good.
thanks a lot for the help
do post some more oinformation on training.........
thanks-
chetna

Hi Martin,
Thank you for giving the insight, infact I had the same question as Pooja.
I am reffering to the sites you have given it is helping me.
Regards
Subhendu

Hi,
Please check the following link.
<link no longer exists - removed>
Regards,
Mallet.