Training Program Evaluation

Training effectiveness refers to the benefits that the company and the trainees receive from training. Benefits for trainees may include learning new skills or behaviors. Benefits for the company may include increased sales and more satisfied customers.

A training evaluation measures specific outcomes or criteria to determine the benefits of the program. Training outcomes or criteria refer to measures that the trainer and the company use to evaluate training programs. To determine the effectiveness of training, an evaluation needs to occur. Training evaluation refers to the process of collecting the outcomes needed to determine whether training is effective.

The information from the needs assessment, the characteristics of the learning environment, and the steps taken to ensure transfer of training should all be used to develop an evaluation plan. Companies invest in training because learning creates knowledge; often, it is this knowledge that distinguishes successful companies and employees from those who are not.

Research summarizing the results of studies that have examined the linkage between training and human resource outcomes (such as attitudes and motivation, behaviors, and human capital), organizational performance outcomes (performance and productivity), or financial outcomes (profits and financial indicators) has found that companies that conduct training are likely to have more positive human resource outcomes and greater performance outcomes.The influence of training is largest for organizational performance outcomes and human resource outcomes and weakest for financial outcomes. This result is not surprising, given that training can least affect an organization’s financial performance and may do so through its influence on human resource practices.

Strategic training is more strongly related to organizational outcomes when it is matched with the organization’s business strategy and capital intensity.
Because companies have made large dollar investments in training and education and view training as a strategy to be successful, they expect the outcomes or benefits related to training to be measurable. Training evaluation provides a way to understand the investments that training produces and provides information needed to improve training.