LearnSmart Training Blog

It has been said that “anything worth doing is worth doing well.” And while there’s no question that employee training is something that’s worth doing – via online tutorials, in-person lectures or video courses – it’s not entirely clear just how well employees are being trained. This is not pointing out a flaw in the training itself, but rather a failing on the part of the organizations who arrange for it. After all, what’s the point of training employees if you don’t have an effective means of discerning how useful the training was, or if the employees gained any practical knowledge that can help improve on-the-job performance?

Think about how you were taught in school: Information was presented, and you were tested on it. Then, subsequent lessons would build upon what you’d already learned, thereby reinforcing that knowledge. Tests were devised by the teacher, and evaluated not only what you’d learned, but also how well you learned it, and your ability to put that knowledge to use. How can you be sure that employees are absorbing what they’re watching on video, or hearing in class? Well-structured online classes often provide the benefit of quizzes and labs to test student knowledge throughout, but what can companies do to make sure their employees are truly learning – no matter what training method they use?

The solution lies in the evaluation forms you use. All too often, evaluation forms ask about the training presentation – Did the presenter make his/her points well? Did the course move along at an effective pace? – rather than the training content. It doesn’t matter, however, that participants like a training course if they don’t learn anything. And ultimately, companies buy training courses to teach their employees, not amuse or entertain them for a few hours.

An effective evaluation – also known as a Level 2 evaluation – can be structured to help determine if learning actually occurred. In many online courses, students must pass a Level 2 evaluation in order to receive a certificate of completion. It is during this final exam that companies can determine whether students have the required skills and knowledge, and a mastery of the material, or if they need additional instruction. Companies can then extrapolate this information – which already indicates problem areas – to ascertain why some people are “getting it” and others aren’t. This approach is a key part of the well-known Kirkpatrick Model – a system developed in 1954 as a means of measuring the business value of training programs.

Here are three steps for ensuring that training and evaluations are truly serving their purpose:

1. Figure out exactly what the goal is. Determine what the training is supposed to accomplish, who needs to know the results from the evaluations, and what the next step – modifying the training, personnel decisions, etc. – might be.

2. Make a distinction between “knowledge” and “performance,” and make sure that your training and evaluations do the same. Just because someone has the necessary knowledge, it doesn’t mean that person is able to put it to practical use. To that end, you need to tailor the training, based on whether you want your people to know something, or be able to perform certain tasks. The former can be handled with standard quiz-style testing, while the later requires performance-based activity, such as labs, role playing or demonstrations. Performance evaluation also requires a customized metric, such as a behavior checklist, or anchored rating scale.

3. Validate the results. You’ve got your test, you’ve got your evaluations. The question is, do they accurately measure what you want them to measure? The best way to determine this is to compare results; the percentage of “passing” scores, and the scores of stronger candidates vs. weaker ones should remain consistent (within an acceptable margin of error) each time people take the test.

Ultimately, there’s no reason that training shouldn’t accomplish exactly what you want – for your employees, and your company. It merely starts by figuring out exactly what that is.