A variant of an old joke; however, it depicts much of what we do in training evaluation and measurement. While many organizations make extensive efforts to evaluate the on-line or classroom experiences and to document learning, others focus on practical ways to evaluate changes in employees' behaviors following training. Increasingly, organization leaders and training directors are worrying about and working on proving the return on their training investment.

We are on our hands and knees asking questions that center on the learning experience. Is it positive? Do people learn? Do they use the skills? What is our financial return on the training? Just as the contact owner ignored the area most likely to contain the contact, we in the training industry too often ignore what is outside of the learning experience that substantially shapes learning and performance improvement.

We know that the learner's experience before training--being adequately informed about the training and seeing its potential benefit--and after training--being held accountable for using the skills--turns training into a performance improvement strategy.

Practical Approach to Measuring What Impacts Performance

At the start of a class or on-line training, ask the learners to complete a short survey about how well they have been prepared for the training. As the director of training you will have timely information about the percent of learners who--

•    Received written information about the training.
•    Talked with their supervisors about the training.
•    Learned from their supervisors how the training will be of use on the job.

By handing out the survey to the supervisors weeks before the training begins, you are likely to increase the pre-training communication. Reporting the results by department provides managers with a measure of the extent to which they are contributing to training that drives performance.

A month after the training, resurvey the learners and ask them about how the training is being reinforced in their work environments.

•    Do their supervisors expect them to use the skills?
•    Have the supervisors talked with them about what they learned?
•    Do they receive positive feedback from their customers, coworkers, and supervisors when they use the skills?
•    Do they have opportunities in their jobs to use the skills?

Here, too, giving the post-training survey to supervisors before the training begins will increase the likelihood that the use of skills will be reinforced and developed. One sales organization that asked these questions learned that all managers had prepared the sales force for training, but 55% of the sales force had not had follow-up conversations with their managers. This finding was the catalyst at a sales management meeting for carefully examining what managers were and were not doing and for taking practical actions to reinforce use of the training.

Performance improvement is responsibility of training and management

Here are three steps for improving the results.

•    Clarify the roles and responsibilities of training and of management in using training to improve performance.
•    Administer, summarize, and report findings from two simple surveys that ask about how the learners were prepared for the training and how the use of the training is reinforced.
•    Use the survey results to affirm what is being done well and to initiate problem solving for areas that are not being addressed.