How to measure training effectiveness using training evaluation metrics

Ineffective training is a waste of time and money. Without training evaluation metrics, you could invest time and money to train and develop employees without reaping any rewards.

Is your employee training effective?

Do you know how to measure training effectiveness?

What about how to measure the effectiveness of online learning?

Measuring training effectiveness is vital to any organization’s long-term training success.

Understanding training evaluation metrics allows you to implement practical training over and over again. Effective training will make your team more productive and satisfy your stakeholders.

In this blog, we're discussing training metric examples and answering essential questions like, “What are some metrics for evaluating training and development?”

So, are you ready to learn how to assess the effectiveness of training in your organization?

If so, keep reading!

What Are Training Evaluation Metrics?

Training evaluation metrics are specific, quantifiable criteria used to measure your training or development program’s effectiveness.

Evaluation metrics can often seem conceptual, and you might be asking, “What are some metrics for evaluating training and development?”

Great question.

Here are some standard training success metrics to help you start thinking practically:

• Number of employees who complete the training
• Pass/fail rate of knowledge assessments
• Rate of behavior change as a result of training
• Return on investment (ROI)
  

Before you administer training, you need to determine your training success metrics; otherwise, how will you know if it’s working? (Spoiler: you won’t!)

Why Are Corporate Training Metrics Important?

The “why” behind training might seem obvious; ultimately, employee training strengthens your workforce to reach business goals. Your corporate training program may onboard new employees, explain job-related duties, develop current skills to improve performance, etc.

Identify training evaluation metrics for each of your courses to measure its impact on employees and overall business performance.

Training success metrics can help answer critical questions:

• Did employees learn what they were supposed to learn?
• Did they apply the new knowledge at work?
• Did they meet a business goal?
• Was this training worth the investment?
  

By deciding beforehand what you want the training to accomplish, you can evaluate whether it fulfilled its purpose or advanced business goals.

How to Measure Training Effectiveness

Now that we’ve covered the “what” and “why” behind training metrics, let’s talk about how to measure the success of in-person or online training.

Here are the top five ways to evaluate training and development in your organization.

1. Identify Training KPIs

Key performance indicators (KPIs) help you measure employees’ progress toward a goal or objective. KPIs are excellent tools for identifying knowledge gaps and refining training procedures.

A good KPI is SMART: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound.

Each team will have specific KPIs, but some common KPIs companies track include:

• Conversion rate
• Customer retention rate
• Order fulfillment cycle time
• Employee engagement
• Monthly sales growth
  
  

Before your employees start the training, think about which KPIs you want to track based on what metrics directly influence business success. This will help you accurately assess training effectiveness once learners complete it.

2. Administer Assessments

Giving your employees assessments is a powerful way to assess learner retention and growth from start to finish.

But when is the best time to administer an assessment?

When to Use an Employee Training Assessment:

• Pre-training: A pre-training assessment gives you a baseline understanding of where employees stand before receiving any training. Assessments act as a gauge for how much improvement takes place from beginning to end.
• Mid-training: A mid-training assessment is optional but can be incredibly beneficial. By testing your employees in the middle of the training (pop quiz!), you can tell if they’re making improvements and make course corrections if need be.
• Post-training: Lastly, test your employees at the end of the training. You can compare this test directly to the pre-training test. If there’s an improvement, then the training is effective. If there’s no improvement or even backsliding, you may need to make some training changes.
  
  

If you're going to use assessments, we highly suggest giving both a pre- and post-training assessment to understand the impact of your employee training.

3. Observe Employee Behavior

An effective training program will move employees to action in observable ways. After a training program, watch your employees to see if they’re applying new skills, procedures, or thought processes from the training.

• Are employees implementing what they learned?
• Is their performance improving?
• Do employees seem more confident?
• Has their behavior changed?
  
  

When employees begin integrating training skills or processes into their everyday workflow, it’s a good sign that significant learning took place and that the training is valuable.

4. Track Employee Engagement

Are employees finishing the training?

Are they doing only the necessary training, or are they also completing non-mandatory courses?

These are helpful questions to ask to understand whether the corporate training you use actively engages employees.

The more engaging training is, the more likely employees are to finish mandatory training and continue learning independently.

If you don’t know how to create engaging content, try gamification or micro-learning videos. Both are proven ways to engage employees with actionable content that they’ll enjoy.

By tracking employee engagement rates, you can determine whether your content makes a difference and provides value to learners.

5. Ask for Learner Feedback

One of the best training evaluation metrics you can easily track is learner feedback.

Feedback is a valuable piece of the training evaluation puzzle, giving you insight into what’s working and what’s not. Ask for feedback throughout the training course to get a gauge on your employees’ learning experience.

Remember, feedback is useless unless it’s honest. Create a space for your employees to share openly about their experience with the training. If you can generate constructive feedback, then you’ll be prepared to administer better training in the future.

Your All-In-One Tool for Tracking Training Evaluation Metrics

Understanding training evaluation metrics and how to measure the effectiveness of online learning will prevent you from wasting time and money while making your training programs (and workforce) more effective.

Start identifying KPIs, tracking employee engagement, and watching employee behavior after training to evaluate your corporate training’s effectiveness.

But we get it: tracking corporate training metrics can be challenging and elusive. So, what’s the best way to keep track of all these training success metrics? We’re glad you asked.

At Unboxed Training & Technology, we have a solution to support all of your training needs. Our social Learning Technology Platform (Spoke®) is a powerful tool that allows you to train, track and elevate your employee’s learning experience. It also enables employees to train anywhere, anytime. Meaning, it’s perfect for your new WFH or hybrid workforce. With Spoke®, you can embrace the new normal and take your teams from bored to engaged regarding training.

Request a demo of our award-winning LMS to take employee training to a whole new level.