Good afternoon
I has been tasked with setting up a process for evaluating training to ensure that we can demonstrate value for money. I was wondering if someone within learning and development could point me in the right direction, I will need to also look at ways to quantify, measure and put a financial value on the training.
I do hope that someone will be able to assist me.
Thanks in advance.
Nia
You need to be a member of DPG Community to add comments!
Did you know your local CIPD branch will put on relevant events that are free to CIPD members.
Take a look for your local branch here and what events are happening. Remember attending these events are great CPD evidence.
Click here to see a full list of members including our Facilitators.
Did you know that if you go to the list of members, the Members Online button will show you who is online right now? Why not say hello?
Replies
Hi Nia, I'd be careful about using Kirkpatrick. There's a lot of debate over its effectiveness and value as a tool. It tends to be a counting tool which creates data; that doesn't necessarily mean it creates value. For example, an attendee might enjoy a training event and record on a L1 Kirkpatrick form that they thought the event was useful. They may go back to work and not think about it for some time. They made a connection with a colleague at the event who recommended a new way of working. They try that and their performance improves. It was not referenced in the training event or the content the trainer presented but the person felt happier after the training.
Is that a result of the training, the facilitator, the experience, the content, or something else?
I'd suggest look at performance measures - what business benefits happen as a result of people attending events. Your starting point HAS to be the current performance, otherwise you'll have no benchmark to measure to. For techniques to support this, I'd recommend Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method as a starting point.
I'd recommend looking at Donald Clark's writing on this - he has a highly critical view of Kirkpatrick. http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/kirkpatrick-4-levels...
Happy to discuss.
Kirkpatrick was a foundation for us, we went more towards impact, outcomes and behaviors.
Knowing if the venue was nice, the coffee warm and if the tutor was helpful didnt really cut it with us....we dropped that a long way back. We've now moved beyond the employee opinion too and have a managers evaluation 3 months down the line to assess the impact in service delivery and the return that it gives driving a continuous conversation.
Kirkpatrick gets my vote, we used this as a base and then bespoke it a little more on top.
Hi Jason
Thank you for your response. What tools did you put in place to be able to measure / evaluate the training?
Nia
Sent you a connection request to chat.
Hi Ady
Thanks for responding and thanks for the information. I will definitely have a look at the different models and let you have my thoughts. We currently do not do anything to evaluate training and training and development is new to me therefore I am not aware of any techniques.
Nia
Aha. Great. You'll find Kirkpatrick very interesting I think. Different 'levels' of evaluation. I think you'll find that really useful. Let me know.
HI Nia,
Hope you're well. Great topic thanks for sharing.
I'm curious as to what type/topic of training you're hoping to evaluate? Is there anything you already do to evaluate? What techniques are you already aware of if any?
We did an opinion poll on this a while back here on the DPG Community where we asked people to vote for the evaluation model they're most likely to use. Have a look at these and perhaps do some digging around each of those. We can help with this if you need a hand.
Keep this conversation going with your findings though Nia. I'm interested.
Have a look at the opinion poll we ran here.