Demonstrating Good Training ROI
Here at Spark Coaching and Training we’ve been in the field of training and development a long time and pride ourselves on providing training solutions that deliver a good return on investment (ROI). Ironically though we sometimes have to work quite hard to persuade managers to let us help them show a good training ROI!
Our start point is always the Training Cycle. As it is a circle, it’s useful that “Evaluation” is not automatically shoved to the end of the process but is considered at the very start of a conversation about training needs. You can see how this works in the following illustration.
It is often too late once a programme has been delivered to start to look at the metrics if the training provider has not set the benchmark at the beginning from which to improve on.
The cycle shows that there can be various loops back to different parts of the process to aid ultimate outcomes.
Evaluating the Impact of Training
Key Benefits of Evaluation:
- Spur for training providers to improve
- Encourages learner participation
- Helps trainers make best use of resources
- Enables client to establish a contribution to the goals of the organisation
- Being specific during the conversation with commission clients about evaluation is also crucial otherwise vague woolly statements of intent abound with no way of measure outcome
Here is an example of what we put in a recent proposal for some recruitment and selection skills:
“We will know we have been successful when after the training:
- Participants have rated the training well as a learning experience via feedback sheets.
- People show improved confidence (via self-assessment scoring) enough to run an interview to the required standard following the agreed protocols– and be happy to do it.
- People use their action plan created on the workshop in their next interviews and report improvement from using it. Anecdotal evidence to be gathered by HR Manager.
- In observed interviews (co-interviewing or second interviews) we would see more evidence of behavioural questioning at a more sophisticated and professional level.
- Reduction in no-shows for interview due to improved selection techniques”.
What we are seeking to do here in the proposal is to show how we can evaluate our programmes at different levels following Kirkpatrick’s model. This model has been around for over 50 years but is still a simple structure to understand:
Contact us and learn more now about how Spark Coaching and Training delivers training that provides real value added outcomes and cost savings for your training budget.