Evaluating the Training Efforts
After trainees complete their training (or perhaps at planned intervals during the training), the program should be evaluated to see how well its objectives have been met. Thus, if assemblers should be able to solder junction in 30 seconds, or a Xerox technician repair a machine in 30 minutes, then the program¡¦s effectiveness should be measured based on whether these objectives are met. For example, are you trainees learning as much as they can? Are they learning as fast as they can? Is there a better method for training them? These are some of the questions you can answer by properly evaluating your training efforts.
Overall, there is little doubt that training and development can be effective. For example, many companies that invested heavily in workplace training have substantially improved their positions. While it may not be just the training, Xerox retained over 110,000 employees worldwide in the early 1980s and soon regained market share in its industry. General Motors is another firm that has used training to help recapture market share. Formal studies of training programs also substantiate the potential positive impact of such programs. A study conducted in the early 1990s concluded ¡§firms that establish workplace education programs and reorganize work report noticeable improvements in their workers¡¦ abilities and the quality of their products. Another study found that businesses that were operating below their expected labor productivity levels had significant increases in productivity growth after implementing new employee programs.
There are two basic issues to address when evaluating a training program. The first is the design of the evaluation study and, in particular, whether controlled experimentation will be used. The second is the training effect to be measured.
Controlled experimentation is the best method to use in evaluating training program. In a controlled experiment, both a training group and a control group (that receive no training) are used. Data (for instance, on quantity of production or quality of soldered junctions) should be obtained both before and after the training effort in the group exposed to training and before and after a corresponding work period in the control group. In this way, it is possible to determine the extent to which any change in performance in the training group resulted from training itself rather than from some organization wide change like a raise in pay; we assume the latter would have affected employees in both groups equally. In terms of current practices, however, one survey found that something less than half the companies responding attempted to obtain before-and-after measures from trainees; the number of organizations using control groups was negligible.
Training Effects to measure
For basic categories of training outcomes can be measured:
1. Reaction ¡V First, evaluate trainees¡¦ reactions to the program. Did they like the program? Did they think it worthwhile?
2. Leaning ¡V Second, you can test the trainees to determine whether they learned the principles, skills, and facts they were supposed to learn.
3. Behavior ¡V Next, ask whether the trainees¡¦ behavior on the job changed because of the training program. For example, are employees in the store¡¦s complaint department more courteous toward disgruntled customers than previously?
4. Results ¡V Last, but probably most importantly, ask: ¡§What final results were achieved in terms of the training objectives previously set? Did the number of customer complaints about employees drop? Did the reject rate improve? Did scrap page cost decrease? Was turnover reduced? Are production quotas now being met? And so forth. Improved results are, of course, especially important. The training program may succeed in terms of the reactions from trainees, increased learning, and even changes in behavior. However, if the results are not achieved, then in the final analysis, the training has not achieved its goals. If so, the problem may lie in the training program. Remember, however, that the results may be inadequate because the problem was not amenable to training in the first place.
Source: Human Resource Management - Author Gary Dessler