Measuring Training Effectiveness

With so much effort devoted to training, the real question becomes evident: Did anyone really learn?

According to ATD, the overall spending on employee training in the US is $165 billion and the average employee receives 30.3 hours of learning per year. The average cost to train each employee is $1,195.

What do these numbers tell us? Organizations care about improvement and are willing to invest. Period. With so much effort devoted to training the real question becomes evident: Did anyone really learn?

It’s clear that learning and development professionals are struggling to answer this question (showing ROI in the L&D department often requires faithful leaps of logic) – a question we simply can’t afford to ignore any longer.

The days of measuring learning based on multiple-choice questions are gone. This type of measurement is focused on short-term retention of knowledge as opposed to a long-term ability to apply knowledge. Ultimately, the goal of corporate learning should not only to see a return on the investment of training, but to improve the skill sets of PEOPLE!

In today’s world, the ability to successfully DO something absolutely trumps the ability to pass a test. With the rapidly growing need to get employees educated and running at peak performance, organizations need to focus on other ways to measure learning is taking place. This will allow them to focus their time, energy and resources on training initiatives that move the needle.

Here are 3 ways to measure training effectiveness:

Visual Confirmation

In traditional training, learners might demonstrate their knowledge by performing a role-play. Technology allows us to take that exercise a step further. Instead of demonstrating knowledge that may or may not be true to the learner’s job, learners now have the ability to share visual confirmation can complete a task in real life. Imagine employees uploading a video or audio recording and/or submitting other visual proof of a new skill being applied (for example from an iPhone video). Now, imagine a training manager having access to those videos (and other visual proof) of employees using knowledge from a workshop in real life. Visual confirmation doesn’t only change HOW learning is measured, it can also impact the way we train by honing in on the most effective training initiatives and taking the closer look at those initiatives that aren’t “measuring up.”

 Social Ownership

The ability to teach others is one of the highest forms of mastery of a subject. Social Ownership puts learners in the position to teach others by showing how they apply concepts in their real world. This concept not only engages employees to teach and learn from each other, it also gives training managers the ability to measure how well concepts are being implemented within the organization. These peer-teaching moments can be captured via video or by having peer-peer workshops. Ultimately providing a new way to get employees involved and engaged to increase training effectiveness.

Skill Assessments

Creating a visual assessment of an employee’s skill set and performance before and after a training moment. These snapshots, or skylines, of a learner’s abilities can give a clear picture of performance and skill improvements you can directly tie to training. A simple example would be, testing a sales person’s current sales skills prior to training, then retesting the individual after the event to see the delta. There are so many improvements going on in this area right now because of data analytics, it’s a good one to jump on ahead of the curve.

These are just 3 ways organizations can improve the way they measure training effectiveness. LearnCore can provide all these possibilities and discuss the best practices of our customers who are finding success.