Evaluation is not just for the trainers and learning professionals, it’s for the adult learner, the middle managers and everyone involved in the process of training and development – Even more important, in today’s recession, training is unfortunately one of the first areas in a business to be trimmed or cut. So we have to have an effective instrument to evaluate post training, showing the people who “hold the purse strings” the value training and development plays in organizations.
Instruments include feedback, Donald Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation model, and Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains are invaluable in post training evaluation. Here is a that you may want to look at to explore more evaluation tools http://www.businessballs.com/trainingprogramevaluation.htm#workplace_training_evaluation – there are free instruments you can look at too.
Learners and trainers alike benefit from evaluation at the end of training, it is a reinforcement for both parties. As we end the training remember to try and be positive and give constructive criticism try and show the positive outcomes and if there are negative outcomes discuss these in a positive manner.
There are several ways to evaluate training from surveys, interviews, performance reviews etc. One important thing to keep in mind is follow-up, make sure each training is followed up at intervals of 3, 6 12 months and depending on the extent of the training you might want to follow up at 24 months. (This could be useful when doing an ROI).
There are many websites that can help provide templates and such for evaluation just google instruments used in training evaluation and there you go!
Happy training and comments, concerns and guest writers are always welcome.
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For more resources about training, see the Training library.
– Looking for an expert in training and development or human performance technology?
– Contact me: Leigh Dudley – Website – Linkedin – 248-349-2881
– Read my blog: Training and Development
Jack Shaw is a communicator who does training and has been in the trenches as well as in management and development areas. His priority is how to communicate credibily in the workplace.