How to Measure Employee Training Effectiveness

U.S businesses collectively spend over $80 billion on employee training. Moreover, global spending on learning and development has been touted to increase by 400% in 11 years.

Yet, simply spending money on training does not automatically imply achieving (optimal) results.

In fact, reports suggest that organizations constantly churn out extensive resources with little to no ROI.

‍For example, organizations are estimated to lose a whopping $13.5 billion yearly per 1000 employees due to ineffective training.

Here's how to do better.

📈 What is training effectiveness?

Training effectiveness refers to the quality of training provided to employees and measures the impact of the training against its objectives and goals. Thus, measuring training effectiveness will reveal how well your training efforts support learning and development within your workforce.

The following are some examples of goals and objectives associated with training efforts: an improved rate at which employees meet a specific business goal, an increase in employee communication levels, improved customer satisfaction rating, and building a future-proof workforce through upskilling and reskilling.

Measuring training effectiveness requires using specific, measurable and relevant training evaluation metrics. In the next section, we will examine what a training metric is and identify some examples of training metrics. 

🔍 What is a training metric?

A training metric is a quantifiable measure used to track and assess the status and success of a training process. Thus, training metrics are useful for evaluating different aspects of employee learning and performance.
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➡️ Examples of training metrics

What are some examples of training metrics? You might ask. While there are tons of effective training metrics out there, the following should give you an idea of what you could use within your organization. 

It is important to note that not all training metrics refer to effectiveness. Some would measure the progress of the training process, the number of participants etc. Effectiveness-specific metrics will strictly refer to the outcomes of a training programme considering its original goals and expected results.

While there are tons of effective training metrics, the following should give you an idea of what you could use within your organization.

• ‍Scoring helps you measure the learner's performance and adjust the difficulty level of a test or quiz, where applicable.‍
• The pass or fail rate applies to quizzes and tests and their successful completion.‍
• Training experience satisfaction pinpoints employees' perception of training and development and how to improve the learning experience if needed.‍
• The training completion rate shows the number of learners who completed a course or training program from start to finish.‍
• The learning dropout rate shows the number of learners who dropped out of a course at some point or didn't complete a course. This clearly indicates employee demotivation toward learning — which could stem from factors such as adopting a one-size-fits-all learning approach, content, or even browser compatibility.‍
• Post-training performance shows the effectiveness of training and gauges employee performance level post-training. Metrics for success in this scenario could be increased productivity, enhanced communication, and improved employee enablement.

Another important metric for success you shouldn't forget is the return on investment (ROI). ROI analyzes the financial value of training your employees against your investment to achieve those results.

There are certain factors that can help you select the right metrics for measuring training effectiveness in your organization. Our top two recommendations are to:

• identify key business outcomes that can be improved by training your employees. (For example, to achieve higher customer satisfaction rates, your new customer support hires will need additional training for conflict resolution.)
• find out what you can and can't actually measure. If your business never tracked a customer satisfaction score, you would not be able to assess whether training influenced customer satisfaction.

❓ Why do you need to measure training effectiveness?

Statistics show that companies worldwide invest heavily in training their employees. In fact, Statista reports that companies spent $42.4 billion on employee education and training in 2020. But how do we know whether or not this money was well-spent?

Training success metrics can help you answer various critical questions:

• How effective was the training program in helping employees gain skills or knowledge? 
• How do the employees themselves assess the training program's quality and relevance?
• Can the employees apply the newly obtained knowledge in their jobs? 
• How will the newly obtained skills and knowledge translate into job performance?
• Did the training program meet its initial objectives? How are they reflected in specific business goals?
• Was the training worth the investment? If not, what lessons can you learn? What areas require intervention?

Yet, currently, only a small percentage of organizations measure training effectiveness to gauge business outcomes. Instead, many organizations focus on more basic metrics such as completion rates, number of registrations etc. We view this as a missed opportunity.

So, if you're still wondering why measuring training effectiveness is important, here are a few reasons worth thinking about.

1. To ensure the training's ROI

Who spends money on anything without expecting some added value or return on investment?

Like all business spending, a training program will also seek to achieve specific business outcomes.

For example, increased worker productivity, increases in sales, or increases in customer satisfaction scores are some specific "business-oriented" goals associated with training programs.

Indeed, studies have shown that businesses which regularly invest in training their employees accrue more benefits than those that do not. 

Thus, since investing in training is essential, it is important to implement proper monitoring and measuring. This will ensure that it was indeed the training that contributed to alterations in business outcomes and not something else.

2. To determine if the training benefits employees

Without a doubt, a critical reason for measuring training effectiveness is to determine if it upgrades your employees' skills and performance. After all, training activities take time away from an employee's normal workflow. Who would want to spend time in training that does not improve one's skill set? Or, even worse, spending time in training that is irrelevant to one's role?

Furthermore, evaluating the effectiveness of training paints a vivid picture of the achievements and shortcomings of your training programs in relation to employee satisfaction and performance. This will help you identify future intervention areas, thus providing a guideline for taking your training initiatives to the next level. 

Besides improving employees' knowledge and skills, measuring training effectiveness can be an effective employee engagement and retention tool when used correctly. By this, we mean using the results from past learning and development programs as critical tools for future training initiatives. Doing so keeps the employee experience at the forefront of future development. As a result, this would help employees feel heard and seen and believe they're part of the organization's bigger purpose. 

3. To discover obstacles to reaching goals

When you invest money, time, and energy into your learning and development programs, you must measure their effectiveness in relation to the original objectives. Thus, training your employees must align with your business and its long-term goals. 

Measuring training effectiveness will reveal whether or not you are on track to achieving those goals. Focusing on effectiveness will also allow you to identify any obstacles to reaching those goals on time. For example, you don't want to run a costly year-long training program only to find out at the very end that it has little to no impact on your strategic goals. 

It probably goes without saying that running training programs that fail to meet your business objectives will do more harm than good. And we do not refer exclusively to the financial bottom line but also to employee engagement and morale.

A poorly planned training program might lead to unrealistic leadership expectations regarding employee performance. On the other hand, from an employee's perspective, this can lead to frustrations and feelings of alienation. How can your employees increase their performance when the training itself was not properly planned and or designed?

Evaluating the effectiveness of your training initiatives can bridge the gap between employee needs and expectations and the projections for business outcomes of your decision-makers.

📊 Evaluation methods for measuring training effectiveness‍

There are various evaluation methods for measuring training effectiveness. We will take a deeper look at two of them. We will firstly look at the Kirkpatrick model, and then we will follow up with the Learning-transfer evaluation model.

How to measure training effectiveness using the Kirkpatrick model

Dr Donald Kirkpatrick, former president of the American Society for Training and Development, is credited with first introducing measuring training effectiveness. 

The Kirkpatrick model assumes that evaluation is only valuable if four specific levels of evaluation are followed. Therefore, the model differentiates between the following four levels of training evaluation:

• Level 1: Reaction - focuses on the participant's satisfaction with the activity.
• Level 2: Learning - measures the acquisition of skills, knowledge, attitudes, commitment and confidence.
• Level 3: Behavior - measures the degree to which participants apply what they learned during training when they are back on the job.
• Level 4: Results - measures the degree to which targeted outcomes occur due to the training. The results level is the most important one - it's closest to the actual goal behind the training efforts.

Level 1: Reaction

This level aims to determine learners' perceptions of the training. For example, what did the training participants feel about the learning experience? Did they find it enjoyable? Did they find it useful for their jobs? 

Goal: Get feedback from learners about the courses completed and identify which training materials or types genuinely work and which ones need improvement.

How to measure training effectiveness at the Reaction Level:

You can evaluate your employees' reactions by:

• Online polls and feedback forms.
• 1-on-1 or face-to-face interviews.
• Printed surveys and questionnaires.

Level 2: Learning

You would want to determine the learning success of your employees at this level. You will assess whether or not they absorbed new information. Additionally, is this new information improving their knowledge and skills? How about their attitudes? 

Goal: Find out if your employees learned something new.

How to measure training effectiveness at the Learning Level:

You can gauge your employees' knowledge by:

• Online tests and quizzes.
• Written exams.
• Real or simulated tasks.

Level 3: Behavior

You want to check if your employees are applying the new knowledge to their jobs at this stage. 

Goal: See if your employees do something different due to the training.

Were they able to transfer the new knowledge to a specific situation? 

How to measure training effectiveness at the Behavior Level:

Use the following to assess your employees' knowledge transfer:

• Interviews with supervisors and colleagues.
• Printed or online self-assessment questionnaires.
• Customer surveys, complaints, or comments.
• Data gathered from work processes (error rates, call resolution time, etc.).

Pro Tip: When evaluating behavior, remember that you are measuring the effect of both the training and work environment.

Level 4: Results

The last stage of this evaluation model recommends that you assess the company's results against the company's overall business goals. 

Goal: Discovering the effect of the training on the company business outcomes.

Gauging results takes you back to the training goals you set in the first place. 

• Did the rate of employee turnover decrease? 
• Did productivity levels increase? 
• Did their motivation levels increase? 
• Are profit margins influenced due to higher employee productivity or higher customer satisfaction?

How to measure training effectiveness for business results

Lower costs — Did the training reduce training costs per employee by XYZ times?

Improved quality — Did the training increase employee performance and boost productivity? Is there any impact on employee engagement? Did it drastically reduce customer churn rate or improve employee retention?

Increased income — Did the financial outcomes justify the training? In short, was it ROI-worthy?

Wondering how to calculate ROI? Here's the formula:

ROI (%) = {(Total Program Benefits – Total Program Costs)/ Total Program Costs} X 100

Total Program Benefits refer to the profit accrued for the company per employee over a year as a result of little to no errors, revenue gains, increased customer satisfaction, and increased sales.

Total Program Costs refer to all the training expenses incurred during the training period. They include 

• Instructor costs;
• Employee training needs assessment;
• Software or equipment expenses;
• Travel and logistics costs;
• Participant salaries, and
• Learning content.

An example of how to calculate the ROI of a training program

After its latest training program, Zavvy's annual profit increased by $24,000. The total cost for the training was $6,000. 

Using the ROI formula above: 

ROI (%) = {($24,000 – $6,000)/ $6,000} X 100 = 300%

A 300% ROI means that Zavvy received $3.00 of profit for every dollar invested in employee learning.

‍Pro Tip: If your ROI exceeds 100%, your training program leads to a net benefit. You have accrued a net cost if the result is less than 100%. Also, getting reliable estimates when calculating your ROI can be difficult. We recommend asking the accounting department for support.

🚀 How can Zavvy help?

Zavvy allows you to create questionnaires and seamlessly track the results without printing, managing, or transcribing paper forms. In addition, with Zavvy's workflow builder, you can automate repetitive tasks, e.g. send people surveys via Slack or Teams at different points after a survey, automatically remind them, and even repeat core learning from their training.

Sample survey questions to use:

• How much new information did you learn?
• What did you enjoy the most about the training?
• How relevant was the training information to your job?
• Was the content engaging? Did you have fun while learning?
• Were you satisfied with the training organization?
• Did you face any challenges during the course?
• Is there anything else we could have done to help you achieve better results?

With Zavvy's workflow builder, you can monitor your employees' learning progress and track their skillset on every assessment. At Zavvy, we recommend the following metrics for measuring employees' learning progress and achievements.

Progress and completion rates — Your aim should be to track how often and how successfully the learners consume the content.

Pro Tip: If you notice that your employees' motivation for learning is low, you should conduct a survey to discover the root cause.

Score results — Unsurprisingly, this is one of the most critical employee training metrics because it paints a glaring picture of your program's effectiveness. 

Pro Tip: Use a test before the training (pre-test) and after the training (post-test) to assess your employees' learning progress more objectively.

No. of attempts and answer breakdown — This allows you to see the learner's mistakes and the number of attempts they made. In addition, it will give you insights into which subjects a learner is struggling with and, where applicable, assign them additional learning materials.

‍Pro Tip: Use the answer breakdown metric to measure each question's average score and users' answers. For example, suppose you noticed that a large percentage of the participants answered a question wrongly. In that case, that's an indicator that either there was insufficient coverage of the topic or confusing communication about what you wanted them to do in the test.

The learning-transfer evaluation model

The Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model (LTEM) was developed as a practical alternative to the Kirkpatrick model. It was designed specifically “to help organizations and learning professionals determine whether their evaluation methods are effective in providing valid feedback.”

LTEM is composed of eight levels: attendance, activity, learner perception, knowledge, decision-making competence, task competence, transfer, effects of transfer. The levels start from completely inadequate methods of learning evaluation (such as attendance) all the way through to the effects of learning transfer.

Level 1: Attendance

Attendance can be measured by looking at course sign-up rates, starting courses, sitting through learning events, and completing learning experiences. 

Tip: Just because your employees sit through a session, it does not mean they are indeed getting something out of it.

Level 2: Activity

Activity can be measured by looking at three factors (1) attention, (2) interest, and (3) participation. All of them strictly refer to the participant's behavior during the training sessions. Yet, none are acceptable measures of knowledge transfer.

‍Tip: A participant may be active, pay attention and display interest during the session, but this is no guarantee he is learning anything new or useful.

Level 3: Learner perceptions

Learner perceptions can be gauged: 

• formally (through surveys or feedback forms) and 
• informally (finding out the "word on the street" from both employees and their superiors). 

Formal methods of capturing learner perceptions will reveal their opinions on instructor competence, initial expectations and actual experience, and whether they would recommend the course to others.

Tip: Learner perceptions are better indicators of the reputation of the learning experience versus a measure of learning. 

Level 4: Knowledge

Measuring knowledge targets the extent to which employees have actually learned something during the training. 

There is a difference between knowledge recitation and knowledge retention, the defining element being the time frame when employees are tested on their knowledge. Needless to say, one does not want employees only to remember the new information the day the training is completed, but to be able to take them with them as part of their day-to-day activities. 

Thus, it is necessary for employees to retain knowledge. Yet, tests gauging the learner's knowledge focus on questions related to facts and terminology. But this is insufficient for enabling decision-making and superior task competence. 

Tip: Do not stop at testing only the knowledge of your participants. Incorporate real-life situations that can allow participants to apply their new knowledge. 

Tip: Always ensure that the knowledge contained in training is relevant to the employees’ roles and responsibilities. Anything else is a loss of precious resources - money and time from productive work.  

Level 5: Decision-making competence

Decision-making competence measures the extent to which the learners are able to implement what they learned. 

"Training that is aimed only at creating awareness—without any expectation that behavior should change—is training that is likely a waste of time." Will Thalheimer, creator of the Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model.

You can measure decision-making competencies through high-fidelity simulations, asking learners to make decisions in real-world situations. 

Learning must enable the participants to link learned concepts with real-life situations. Measuring decision-making competencies is still considered an inadequate training effectiveness method, as it is hard to evaluate whether learners can maintain their newly-learned decision-making competence over time — to support them in using their skills on the job.

Tip: Ensure that the training simulations support realistic decision-making situations.

Level 6: Task competence

Task competence comprises decision-making, as exemplified in Level 5, but it also adds task performance. Thus, level 5 measurements ask learners only to make decisions, not implement those decisions — level 6 measures when decisions and actions are measured as complete tasks. 

In a real training context, future leaders may simulate making decisions based on realistic leadership scenarios. So let's say that in dealing with a troublesome employee, the leader decides to terminate the agreement. 

Task competence will look at the implementation of that decision: 

• How is the conversation steered? 
• What is the tone of voice? 
• How about body language? 

When learners demonstrate full task competence, it is a solid learning result. But there is still the time element. Will the learners demonstrate task competence over time or only shortly after the training is complete? 

Tip: For measuring task competence, participants must be presented with realistic situations where they evaluate (without help or hints), are enabled to make decisions and take actions in line with those decisions.

Level 7: Transfer

Learning transfer happens when people who had previously engaged in some learning experience have to use what they learned on the job (or in other targeted performance situations). When designing training programs with a clear focus on transfer, you create learning that is more likely to be remembered and utilized in the future. 

Measuring knowledge transfer will assess the level or capacity of applying the newly learned knowledge while discharging their responsibilities, with or without help.

Tip: When measuring for transfer, it is critical to select a relevant performance situation to target. 

Level 8: Effects of transfer 

Measuring the effects of transfer is the ultimate target for gauging training effectiveness. It targets three core components. The first refers to the learning outcomes that affect an array of stakeholders and their environs. The second refers to both benefits and harms of the training program (lost time from other productive activities, the carbon footprint of flying employees across the globe for specific in-person activities etc.). The last component refers to using rigorous methods to conclude the learning experience's causal impact. 

‍Tip: We must ensure that the training produced those results and no external, non-controllable variables.

📝 15 Post-training survey questions‍

A post-training survey collects feedback from trainees after the completion of a training program. The survey helps ascertain areas of improvement in your L&D initiatives. 

Here are some of the post-training survey questions you should ask. Bear in mind that we don't recommend using all of them in one single survey:

1. How many days' notice were you given before starting this training?

2. What are your key takeaways from this training?

3. What specific topics do you want to learn more about?

4. Was participation and interaction encouraged?

5. Were the training objectives clearly defined?

6. Were the topics covered in the training sessions relevant to you?

7. How well was the training structured?

8. Was the content easy to follow and well organized?

9. What do you think of the instructor's expertise/proficiency?

10. How was the quality of the teaching?

11. Did the instructor provide relevant examples during the training?

12. Did the instructor answer all your questions or concerns?

13. Did the multimedia used in training make it easier to understand the topic or not?

14. Was the training interactive enough?

15. Did the training meet your expectations?

❌ The limitations of measuring training effectiveness

Most times, measuring training effectiveness is not a straightforward task, especially when it comes to identifying the impact of training on business outcomes.   

Measuring effectiveness can also be difficult because of improper planning or unrealistic expectations of the impact of training. As we have discussed with the various levels of measuring effectiveness, not all indicators are relevant, especially concerning long-term results.

Thus, it is essential to find the right KPIs to measure the effectiveness of your training program. For example, if team performance is your end goal, you have to first identify the factors that contribute to a higher or lower performance of your team.

For example, you must identify the link between current skills and potential for improvement. 

Save yourself the research time and launch Zavvy's training needs assessment at your company right away!

Beware that research suggests that a deficit of skills and knowledge is often only a small part (about 15 to 20%) of the overall lack of employee performance. In such a scenario, the training might not significantly impact your team's performance. Thus, measuring team performance as the core indicator of training effectiveness might not reveal the real picture.

Another scenario is when training is wasted because employees cannot apply on the job the skills and knowledge gained during training. Thus, training is ineffective simply because it was not strategically designed to address the desired business objectives and realistic interventions. Consequently, there is no space for impact. 

Conclusions

When planning employee training programs, it's normal to expect improved skills and productivity levels and increased work performance.

However, spending your entire yearly budget on a new training program is not enough to produce the anticipated and desired results. Just because your employees participated in the training program does not mean that it was relevant, optimized or engaging for their specific needs.

That's why it is crucial to start with concrete goals and metrics and assess the extent to which these were met at the end of a training initiative. 

So we highly recommend going for a more data-driven people development approach that combines clear competency requirements with intelligent insights and targeted training.

💡 Check out our talent development software to see how it works!