Measuring Training Effectiveness: Insights on Evaluation and Impact Assessment

Do you believe that all trainings imparted are measurable? Please support with examples.

Dear Valerie,

It depends on the subject modules. Not all the training modules are measurable. Personality Development and Business Etiquette are quite difficult to measure.

By the way, how many training professionals know how to measure what is measurable? This topic, in itself, is quite good for debate.

Ok...

Dinesh V Divekar

Dear Valerie,

Mr. Dinesh is right. It depends on the subject and the very purpose of organizing the training.

Training for just training's sake may not be measurable. But training with a purpose is always measurable.

I can give you many examples from my field, i.e. industrial safety. Safety training to deal with an immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) situation - such as working in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere. The participants are put to the test. The result is measurable. We need 100% understanding, not 99%, for the lack of 1% may invite a death warrant.

Take another simple example: Training to use an ordinary first aid fire extinguisher. If a person is not trained, they cannot use it effectively. There have been cases of untrained people throwing fire extinguishers into fires. But if trained just once, they may not have committed such blunders. Conduct training to use fire extinguishers with live demonstrations, and the result will be measurable as everyone will operate it perfectly.

Regards,

Kesava Pillai

Dear All,

Thank you for your input. One of the challenges we experience in our field is the non-measurable training, primarily focusing on soft skills. These trainings are crucial for the employees and have a long-term impact on the business. For example, a training session on Business Etiquette may appear unnecessary at first glance. However, it plays a key role in helping the organization establish a positive brand image through its employees. This, in turn, can assist the organization in acquiring clients or boost the employees' confidence.

Is there anything we could do to address this challenge effectively? Currently, I ask my trainees to articulate in writing the benefits the training will bring to them personally and to the organization in both the short and long term. I am open to exploring other strategies that might be more effective for future implementations. I would appreciate it if you could share how you approach these challenges in your own training sessions.

Thank you.

Hello Valerie and others,

In any business organization, all activities have to be targeted to achieve the corporate mission (be it profit-oriented or non-profits). Secondly, all resources are scarce. Every dollar/rupee spent has to maximize returns. Hence, it's important to evaluate the gap between required and current levels of knowledge or specific skillset and schedule training with the specific aim of bridging the gap. The gap, the cost-benefit analysis of the investment in training versus the desired levels post-training, and the actual levels before and after the training have to be quantified. Whatever the parameter (knowledge/technical/soft skills/...), a yardstick has to be evolved to measure it, be it as simple as a scale of 1 - 5 or 1 - 10.

I believe that before and after every training/presentation, there has to be a formal or informal assessment and feedback mechanism.

Dear Valerie,

Your posting is "training imparted are measurable"? If you wish to know whether training impact can be measured, my answer is yes. Please read "Measuring The Impact of Training" by Pamela A. Wade.

Dear Friends,

This is an interesting discussion. Measuring is possible for any module if the objective of the training is established appropriately, even for personality development and etiquette modules. We try to address attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive aspects. Relevant parameters may be decided.

Regards,
Vipul
Corporate Trainer

Most of the so-called non-measurable trainings are measurable if only one can attempt to make a pre- and post-training test in collaboration with the client organization. This also helps prevent the trainer from being airy-fairy. I myself hesitate to make these tests because they are an extra burden and clients do not want to pay extra for additional efforts, but wherever required and negotiated as a part of the contract, I do.

I think, yes, all trainings are measurable, only if you know what you want out of this training. You need to design the measuring tool and decide on benchmarks while you are creating your training module. If you train first and then think of measuring the impact or effectiveness, then it's difficult.

Yes, the effectiveness of training is measurable. One such model is the Kirkpatrick's model.

The four levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model essentially measure:

- Reaction of student: what they thought and felt about the training
- Learning: the resulting increase in knowledge or capability
- Behaviour: extent of behavior and capability improvement and implementation/application
- Results: the effects on the business or environment resulting from the trainee's performance

All these measures are recommended for full and meaningful evaluation of learning in organizations, although their application broadly increases in complexity, and usually cost, through the levels from level 1-4.

Dear Keshava & Dinesh,

The reply that was given by both of you was impressive. Keep up the pace.

It depends on what and how one sets their training objectives. A rightly set objective must take care of how it would be measured, at least in a training situation. The methods will take care of the transfer of learning to the job and how the performance is to be assessed or how the performance objective is to be measured.

At the job level, the measurement of performance standards may be time and effort-consuming, but where there is a will, there is a way.

Nice debate! I would say training is a step to have an initial concept, like a toddler struggling to walk on a floor. The more effort a toddler puts into implementing his initial learning, the more perfectly he walks. Similarly, the more effort a professional puts into polishing his learning, the more perfect he becomes for its implications, and the output can be measured with the result. There is a saying "We learn to commit a new mistake, we mistake to learn."

Thanks,

Mr. Kanchan Deb
PGDPM, PG (ECO), DME
Email: deb_kanchan10011972@yahoo.in

Hi All,

All training programs are measurable, and this has been proven. If you want to confirm it, please check out the attachment.

Regards,
Sareeta