Training is currently recognized in every aspect of virtually all progressive organizations. It stands as one of the most critical parts in any organization’s overall strategy. In all organizations, there is a need to establish all the skills that may be required so that there is efficiency in the management of the organization. The necessity of training arises due to an organization’s goals, values and strategies such as a necessity for the improvement of performance, advancement in technology and/or employee professional development. This is why training ranks among the best strategies or departments in any company. A professionally run training department is usually an asset to the company since it is often a source of talent and skill in that company. In this regard, training can be said to be multi-pronged in its benefits. Apart from benefiting the trainees, it equally benefits the organization by the virtue of raising the overall financial status (Rothwell & Kazanas, 1994). In any training program, there is the need to establish a specific training evaluation tool that help in the monitoring of the program’s effectiveness. This tool must analyze the transfer of knowledge from the training given to the on-the-job skill performance. It must also seek ways to improve on the planning processes for training programs to be more effective in the future. The implementation of such an evaluation tool, as well as the subsequent monitoring after the training program, should be related to the organizational objectives, goals, values and strategy. This becomes important since the training program is put to test in order to verify its role in the transfer of knowledge as well as in the creation of more efficient employees in an organization.
The benefits of training are indefinable yet investing in it tends to have dual-phased benefits to both the organization and employees. These benefits are realized for a long period after the start of the training program. To individual employees, training enhances their level of skills and sense of satisfaction, which tends to be a fundamental motivator in employees. As a result, the employees achieve multiple skills that are important in increasing their commitment to their job and employer. Training also has an interesting role in the creation of a better understanding atmosphere of the jobs in an organization. This leads to the reduction of accidents that happen as a result of insufficient skills on the job (Silber & Foshay, 2009). To an organization, training provides skills, the result being a reduction in the overall operational expenses. Further, there is added quality that comes as a result of training employees. The organization’s long-term survival is hinged on the quality; any quality management technique, therefore, requires that the employees get adequate training as a pre-requisite for its successful execution.
Another sector where training contributes positively is in customer relations. As a matter of fact, client satisfaction is proportional to repeat business. This means that when clients achieve satisfaction, they are more likely to repeat business with the organization. This, then, serves as a major factor in the success of the company. Training programs often create employees who are adept at customer relations, and this increases client satisfaction as well as the value of service. A major fraction of quality costs in an organization is always due to supervision. By providing professional training to employees, the organization can significantly reduce such supervision costs which tend to eat into the budget of other important programs and strategies. This, in turn, leads to an increase in the productivity of the employees as well as the processes utilized.
Equally important is the ability of an organization to retain its employees for a long time as possible. One of the biggest threats to an organization is soaring employee turnover since it undermines the very existence of the organization. With the proper training, however, employees tend to commit themselves to their job and to the organization (Liff, 2007). This, therefore, reduces or somehow suppresses employee turnover, helping in the retention of employees. Proper training can make an organization attain a competitive edge over others in a specific industry. This is better demonstrated in the service industries where an organization’s income greatly depends on the employee expertise as well as skills. In such industries and others as well, trying to acquire high-skilled professionals from outside of the company can be relatively expensive (Silber & Foshay, 2009). For this reason, it is better to introduce a training department that imparts ready skills on current employees for efficient running of the company’s processes. On the other hand, new recruits require adequate training in order to handle specific tasks in the company. The training offered helps them in understanding their job well, their responsibilities and the requirements at their work place.
Training also increases the recruits’ appreciation of the organizational culture, thus creating an atmosphere of efficiency in organizational operations. In terms of organizational communication processes, training programs rank among the most critical elements of eliminating deficiencies in the work place as pertains to these processes. This creates transparency that in turn encourages open communication between the different communication channels in an organization. A recent trend in organizational management has focused on staff empowerment as a tool of increasing productivity. However, for such staff empowerment to be successful, proper training programs ought to be introduced (Liff, 2007).
As much as training programs are relevant to an organization’s success, their effectiveness is based on an aggressive post-training evaluation tool. This tool enables the organization management to follow up on the progress of knowledge transfer among their employees as well as monitoring the overall on-the-job performance. It is thus a tool for the analysis and monitoring of the effects of the training programs on the employees. In other words, assessing the effectiveness of the training program is important so as to know where improvements have occurred or where changes are needed to produce effective training. An effective training evaluation tool should seek to majorly obtain feedback on the outcomes of a specific training program. It should also seek to assess the quality of the training in the light of the above feedback (Levine, 1995). Ultimately, evaluation results in making concrete decisions on whether or not the training program was worthwhile, especially on cost benefits strategies. This sheds more light on the kind of improvements that are needed, if any, to make the training more cost efficient. An effective evaluation tool comprises a set of criteria that can be used to measure the level of knowledge transfer, as well as skill performance of training programs. These criteria include sets of questions that need to be answered at the end of the evaluation and monitoring process. They are:
- What effects does the training produce in the employees at the “training room” level? This is what this question seeks to assess:
- Knowledge increase;
- Skills acquired;
- Changes in the attitudes expressed by the employees;
- Whether there are indications of interest in the program;
- The degree of participation by the employees; and
- The level of acceptance of the specific training program.
This criterion measures the effectiveness level of training.
- What is the impact on the employees after the training? This question seeks to assess the effects of the training. An appraisal of the effects is revealed by certain modified behavior observed on the job as a result of the training. The assessment involves the measurement of the transfer of knowledge into certain behaviors and attitudes on the job, the extent and duration of such behaviors, whether the above behaviors and attitude are positive, and whether the training achieved its set objectives. This criterion measures the effect of the training on the employees in the organization.
- What impact does the training create on the organization? This seeks to assess the extent to which the training has contributed to organizational success. This is through improvement in the managerial and supervisory forces, improvement in the functioning of different departments in the organization, improvement in the general productivity and morale, progress in organizational communication processes whether horizontal or vertical, improved customer satisfaction in the provision of services or goods produced, and sufficient retention of talent and skills for current and future needs of the organization.
- How did the participants react to the program? This seeks to assess the reactions of the trainees to the learning experience and to their trainers. It should also assess the reactions of the coordinators to matters regarding the training environment and overall experience. Such reactions are opinions as well as conclusions that are based on observation. Such observation should be first hand.
- What techniques, facts or principles are learned? This criterion seeks to assess the changes in attitudes, skills and knowledge in the employees after the training process. These may be immediate effects (measured immediately after the training) or retention effects (measured several months after the training).
- What changes have been observed in the job behavior as a direct result of the training? This criterion assesses the way the employees behave differently as a direct result of their being trained. It evaluates how and the extent to which the trainees have applied the techniques learned on their job. Further, it assesses the number of trainees that have been changed directly by the training process.
- What are the concrete results of the training? This criterion evaluates the results of the training program in terms of its ability to reduce costs, improve quality and also the quantity.
- Is there any additional outcome of the training process? This seeks to assess other results of the training that were not assessed by any of the above criteria. This includes such effects as the social quality of the training. Questions that may arise here are; to what extent the trainees feel better about their job or themselves, whether the training has helped them realize their goals, how has the training enabled them in realizing their career development?
- Does the training get support from the trainees as well as the management? This is a measure of expectations on the side of the employees as well as the management. It evaluates the participants informed opinions on whether or not they think the training would profit others in terms of its worth and costs.
- Is the training thorough and practical? This question is best answered by getting the reactions of all participants. It seeks to evaluate the training based on its relevance, whether it contains new and useful ideas, which topics were of immense importance and vice versa, and whether the topics should be expanded or contracted in terms of content.
- Is the quality of the training acceptable? The criterion assesses the quality of the training based on the instructors who present the topics. It also seeks ways in which the instructors can improve on their presentations. This may be answered by getting reactions from the training participants as well as the training coordinator.
- Are the physical facilities and services utilized to everyone’s satisfaction? This criterion assesses the facilities and services utilized during the training, and whether they were of acceptable quality. This is done so as to know the best facilities and services that will not interfere with the learning outcome that is desired. To get these answers, reactions of the participants, training coordinators and other stakeholders should be collected. This is to establish positive and negative aspects of the training rooms, accommodation, transport and other important facilities during the training.
Implementation of the evaluation tool is mostly carried out in three ways. This ensures that the implementation process is systematic and objective (Guerra-López, 2012). This further yields greater credibility when drawing conclusions as to the extent of learning in the training program. The three ways utilized are the common-sense approach, the systemic approach, and the experimental approach. The common-sense approach involves a collection of opinions, feelings and conclusions – non-systematically – based on first-hand examination. The systematic approach utilizes indicators and evidences. The evidences and indicators to be collected are fixed in advance before the actual training. It comprises judgments that are logically extracted from inference and observations. The evidences are collected by way of interviews, group discussions, and questionnaires. Lastly, the experimental approach utilizes skills, knowledge and attitudes under controlled conditions. It seeks to study changes in these principles to come up with conclusions.
References
Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. (2013). Management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Guerra-López, I. J. (2012). Performance Evaluation: Proven Approaches for Improving Program and Organizational Performance. Hoboken: Wiley.
Levine, D. I. (1995). Reinventing the workplace: How business and employees can both win. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution.
Liff, S. (2007). Managing government employees: How to motivate your people, deal with difficult issues, and achieve tangible results. New York: American Management Association.
Rothwell, W. J., & Kazanas, H. C. (1994). Improving on-the-job training: How to establish and operate a comprehensive OJT program. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Silber, K. H., & Foshay, W. R. (2009). Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace: Instructional Design and Training Delivery. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
