The training world and your dog (and cat) have their own take on testing and evaluation and we seem to hear the same argument over and over again. Usually around ROI and finding things to measure.
Like many who got into Training, I did it because I like to help people (well, and brag!) I love getting up in front of an audience and empowering, inspiring, and motivating them. On a one-on-one level, I love to talk about it and watch the lights go up when the person I’m coaching realizes what they need to do.
I did not (and I suspect many of you feel the same way) did not train to do evaluation. It is not that it is not important, far from it, it is essential. But it’s just that, I suspect, trainers as a breed just don’t want to do it, sitting at a desk trying to come up with ways to measure training just doesn’t fit.
So this article is not written by someone who has a real passion for testing, or for whom testing has been easy. I found little solace in evaluation theory, which had some good points but nothing to make it work in the real world. What I realized is that it was a waste of time to complete a TNA, implement the training, and then try to measure something that I didn’t fully understand what I was trying to measure. Therefore, I developed the supremacy method after long trial and error.
Have we ever wondered why we did the training in the first place? What was the business need? What were our reasons for doing it again?
Let’s take the assessment on weight loss. You weigh yourself and set a target weight over a period of time, but in training, one of the biggest crimes is that we don’t bother setting the measurements, and before you bother anyone, I totally agree that training provides a lot of , many intangible benefits that cannot be measured
But we know we can’t measure them, so why bother with them? Let’s work within our circle of influence and measure the measurable
When we are on a diet, the only thing we can measure are the kilos we lose and body measurements. So that’s all we measure, we don’t measure the increase in energy and feeling of well-being, but it’s there and we know it’s there, but if we can’t quantify it, we’ll just enjoy it.
If you are going to evaluate, start from the beginning (Training Needs Analysis). I think this is the main reason the assessment fails, like the weight loss scenario, know where you are and where you want to go, with yard sticks along the way. shape and measure what you can measure
Ask yourself at all times “Why do we need this training?” Don’t be afraid to change the way you do things if you can’t see a clear path to why you’re doing it.
Identify any financial gains or savings (staff retention, hiring costs, increased profitability, etc.) if you search hard enough, you can find them. Use the detailed question “this means that”. E.g
Training motivates people
This means that they will be happy at work.
This means that they will work more efficiently.
This means more work will be completed
This means that the company will increase productivity in…etc. etc.
It is much easier to measure productivity financially than to measure motivation!
Don’t be afraid of being wrong. Some trainers I worked with stopped evaluating when the evaluation process showed that their training intervention was not working as planned, and inevitably, sometimes, their evaluation will show that their training has not generated the return on investment that they expected. This is what evaluation is for, so that you can learn from it and modify your practices and improve it next time.
Always be evaluating!!!
Learn more about the practical assessment at http://www.supremacytraining.com