Question

For this scenario consider the organization that you are currently employed with. You are responsible for developing training programs to address training needs. At the completion of every program, you conduct an evaluation to determine if the training was effective in terms of changes in attitudes and improvements in job performance. The company has experienced financial difficulties in the last three years. Thus, to save money the CEO decides that evaluation of the training process is no longer a priority. From the CEO's perspective, no one really cares about training evaluation and in most cases, there is nothing to evaluate. As the trainer, you know that the CEO is not correct. Therefore, you decide to challenge the CEO's misconceptions. What counterarguments would you present to support your premise that training evaluation is a necessary component of an effective training program and what the data is used for does matter? If the CEO's position remains the same, how might failure to evaluate training processes cause problems with the organization in the long-term?

Answer 1

Counterarguments I would present are:

• It is important to evaluate if the training program met goals and objectives set. If not, the evaluation would help in modifying the training program. Further, it is important to understand if trainer imparting knowledge was able to communicate effectively or we need to change the trainer
• Need to understand the effectiveness of training in imparting knowledge to trainees and skills gained by trainees. By using evaluation, we can chalk out methods that work best and which don't work.
• Training evaluation helps in calculating ROI of the program. We need to see whether the training brought desirable changes in trainee behavior leading to organizational benefit

The data collected during training evaluation is important and matters for following reasons:

• Evaluation data and feedback from participants help in making right changes to programs and plan future training better
• Evaluation data helps in defining learner audience i.e. which type of employees benefit most from a particular training program. The trainee audience can be defined accordingly
• Evaluation data helps in finding ROI and proving that training adds value to the organization. Not all training may add value, so this exercise helps in rationalizing types of training

If CEO does not change his stance then following problems would be observed in the long-term:

• Training programs with no benefits - In the long-term company may find itself running a number of training programs with negligible benefits to the organization. The problem could be with the content of training program, delivery method or target audience. However, the company would never find this out without an evaluation process
• No improvement in programs - Company won't be able to make its training effective as there would be no feedback to trainer or feedback on content's effectiveness. The training programs would run just for the sake of it. The improvement in the quality of future training programs would be zero.
• A drop of interest - Employees may not wish to participate in training programs if they had a bad experience wherein they gained nothing from previous training programs. They may consider it as a waste of time.
• Unable to measure ROI - Company won't be able to evaluate ROI or benefits realized from the training program. The company would keep all the programs functional and won't be able to rationalize on the basis of ROI i.e. drop less effective programs.