BTSR guidebook ~ Training & skills self-evaluation

Strand 7 encompasses the overall assessment of training and development for the organisation, the individual and the trainers. An effective performance management system will include the measurement of impact upon individual, team and organisational performance against initial objectives and organisational goals.

Click below for a level

1. No provision – no activity undertaken
2. Base provision – ad hoc, informal activity undertaken, but not evaluated
3. Medium provision – activity undertaken and evaluated
4. High provision – structured activity undertaken, evaluated and impact on the business assessed

Language

Specialist terms sometimes used in connection with evaluation include:

• Formative & summative: formative = evaluation while developing an intervention (as part of forming it); summative = evaluation after delivery
• Kirkpatrick: Dr Donald L Kirkpatrick’s model for evaluating training – proposed in 1959 and pretty much unchallenged since – grabs you by the lapel and says, “Look, it’s real simple”. If you assess these four things, you’re doing evaluation:
  • 1^st level:
    Reaction – what students thought about the training
  • 2^nd level:
    Learning – the change in knowledge & skills resulting from the training
  • 3^rd level:
    Behaviour (sometimes Transfer) – the change in workplace performance
  • 4^th level:
    Results – the effects on the organisation
• RoI: If you want to go beyond Kirkpatrick’s 4^th level, you can measure the financial return on investment (RoI): isolate the costs and financial benefits attributable to a training intervention, then calculate the benefit:cost ratio. Note:
  • You will often find “return on investment” used loosely to mean the bang you get for your buck; “RoI” means specifically the financial return on investment
  • Some trainers describe Kirkpatrick’s 4^th level as RoI. It isn’t.

Evaluation v. performance review

There is a degree of overlap between this strand and Strand 3 (individual performance reviews). Both consider (among other things) the impact of training on job performance:

• Strand 3 looks at performance one individual at a time
• Strand 7 looks at performance one course (or other intervention) at a time

The total impact of all training provided to all employees is the same either way. But each view is able to provide insights that the other can’t. As a simple example:

• One under-performing course might not show up in individual performance reviews
• One under-performing individual might not show up in evaluations of training provided.

So both have a role.

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