Most of us find that positive feedback can be inspiring. Yet most performance improvement activity is not evaluated. At the end of a programme, neither the participants, the programme leaders nor the organisation really know what impact the programme has had. As managers and leaders, it is up to us to make sure that training evaluation is not a test.

It still shocks me that organisations can spend millions of pounds on training programmes with only the vaguest anecdotal ideas of their impact. This doesn't just apply to training. Training is an example that we know well, but you could substitute any a performance improvement programme in your function and much the same process would apply.

Evaluation of training programmes is not a back-covering exercise for those who have nothing better to do. At its best, it is a pro-active operation that starts BEFORE any training has happened and ends with well thought out reports that guide future training investments and decisions.

Many people ask: "What is the ROI on my training programme?" Our response is usually:
"whatever the number is, you get far more useful information from the PROCESS of finding the answer, than from the answer itself."

As with many things in life, the journey is as important as the destination. So what does a good journey look like?

This is closely linked to the initial business case for a training programe. It:

Training evaluation can quickly be made very complicated – the main advice we offer to clients is to keep it straightforward and focus on the aspects of training evaluation that will add value to them. Use simple tools and concepts, and gradually build up a picture of the impact of your programme. If you try to do everything at once, you run a high risk of getting lost in all the data and systems you create. You can find some useful concepts to help you on our website at www.3ctraining.co.uk or join our next OPEN workshop 'How to Measure ROI in Training' on January 17th 2007 (details available here ).

Much of this process can be easily supported by simple web tools that go way beyond the basic Happy Sheet. Call us for a demo or to talk over your needs on 01491 411 544.

If your training evaluation suggests that your programme is not delivering the results you want, try to treat this as good news. At least you know, and can do something about it. Of course, you may wish to be careful who you share this with.

Training evaluation is about helping you improve, not finding excuses to cut budgets. Even when news is not so good, if it is presented well and with strong support, we can be inspired to go out and achieve more.

Start thinking about how you are going to evaluate your programmes and I'm sure it'll be time well spent.

Have a good week.

Hedda
Hedda Bird
Managing Director of 3C Associates

To find out more about our January 17th 2007 Open ROI workshop, please click here .