Benchmarking training in terms of financial cost is something we tend to learn as part of our own HR role development. We’re used to justifying training in terms of cost. We’re familiar with having to add up costs spent versus skills gained.
However, when it comes to evaluating whether your last staff training day was worthwhile, we can actually get caught up in the real financial costs at the expense of other lessons. In so doing, we miss the opportunity to evaluate a more complex and broader spectrum in terms of the value of training.
Understanding the worth of a staff training day is not just a pure financial cost-benefit analysis. It’s about realizing the potential of training to propel growth and drive results. It’s about factoring in how things such as employee engagement are vital to the success of your business.
These factors are less tangible, but we need to try and pin them down. In so doing we can drive the value of future training. What factors do you need to consider?
- Course content for skills acquisition:
The prime purpose of the training will have been to gain relevant knowledge and skills with the express purpose of improving an individual’s performance.
To know if this was a successful outcome of the course you need to get up close and personal with the course content itself, combined with a clear understanding of an individual’s role.
Looking at the course material is a valuable insight into this factor. Review the course content and match it against the core competencies of an employee’s role. If there wasn’t a clear connection between content and required competencies, why was this so?
- New skills and knowledge:
Even refresher training should contain new skills and knowledge, or a new way of looking at a problem or situation. Remember, the purpose of training is to add value. For this to happen at the employee level it requires the development of new skills or the acquisition of new knowledge.
Time is in poor supply, and an individual attending training is away from their ‘day job’. Therefore, you must be able to evaluate that a training course was worthwhile in terms of their skill-base going forwards. Timeout for training is only worthwhile if the person going back in to work the next day has a new weapon in their arsenal.
This can be assessed through discussion with the individual, with line managers, and through training feedback forms.
- Delegate engagement:
Delegate engagement can be looked at on two levels: how engaged the individual was in the training itself, and; how the training impacts the delegate’s engagement with the organization following their training.
Engagement in both is absolutely crucial to assess in terms of training. Being engaged in the course itself boosts its value. An engaged learner learns.
Secondly, valuable expertly delivered training stimulates engagement with their role and the wider organization. Given engagement fuels productivity, this is invaluable.
- Social interaction:
Staff training days offer an opportunity to enhance relationships which in turn improve workplace culture which itself impacts team productivity. Training experiences should never be viewed for their skill acquisition alone but also against these broader opportunities.
Evaluate the course in terms of how it has enabled employees to build stronger links and nurture valuable working relationships.
- Self-Review:
Vitally, don’t forget to ask staff themselves what they feel. Knowing what they experienced from their viewpoint is crucial to improving training delivery in the future.
Appreciate the constructive criticism that you can gain from delegates in terms of honing training opportunities in the future. Give the individual a chance to consider the benefits of the course, its value to their role, and its value to the wider organization.
Learning the Lessons of Training
It’s not enough to simply formulate training courses and deliver them. If you want to maximize the return-on-investment then you need to consider the course against the above factors, after the event. Reviewing and evaluating the course in this way should enable you to make sure the next course is even more worthwhile.
Gaining insight into the success of a course, not just financially but in these harder to define ways, enables you to ensure all staff training is necessary, valuable, goal-achieving, useful and enjoyable. This puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to getting the most out of training opportunities for your staff.
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- Was Your Last Staff Training Day Worthwhile? - May 13, 2018
