Training Evaluation Examples: Benefits, How To, Plus Informative Templates

Organizations globally are investing $400 billion annually in training.  But, if you invest so much in training, you should show a measurable positive impact.  That’s where training evaluations come in.  But are all training evaluations the same, and are the benefits of training evaluations worth the effort?  We answer these and more by providing training evaluation examples you can apply to your organization.

What Are Training Evaluations?

A.C. Hamblin defined training evaluation as “any attempt to obtain information on the effects of training performance and to assess the value of training in the light of that information.” That’s a pretty broad definition, albeit true.  And such a broad definition doesn’t provide much guidance to create an evaluation of a training course.

So, the idea of training evaluations is simple, conceptually.  Your organization has developed a training program and wants to see its success.  But the devil is in the details.

Measuring The Impact Of Training

While the definition of a training evaluation isn’t complicated, measuring the impact of training isn’t so easy.  There are examples of training evaluations that focus on the financial costs of changing behavior.  And others that incorporate holistic measures of skill, ability, and knowledge.  And in all fairness, isolating the impact of training is no straightforward task.  For instance, an employee’s improved performance could result from several factors: office culture, financial perks, supervisory feedback, growth possibilities, and the training they have recently received.

For instance, perhaps you have designed examples of training evaluations for courses on improving employees’ productivity.  Or the efficiency of procedures at the workplace.  However significantly different training evaluations are necessary for other situations.  For example, consider a course on selling instructional products to generate revenue or educating customers about a new product they purchased from you.  These all need different examples of training evaluations.  So, finding a suitable evaluation method is essential.  To this end, we provide training evaluation examples for these and other situations.  But first, what are the benefits of training evaluations, and are they worth the effort?

Benefits Of Training Evaluations

While many examples of training evaluations exist, designing the right one isn’t a trivial task.  But before we get into specific examples, let’s highlight the benefits.  As you’ll see below, the benefits of training evaluations are multi-dimensional.

Areas Of Improvement

One of the main benefits of training evaluations is pinpointing shortcomings and areas for improvement.  What was missing?  What was irrelevant?  Should we restructure the format?

From the content to the planning and tools used to deliver the courses, slight tweaks can improve results.  Moreover, with the fast-paced world of technology, ideas can quickly become out-of-date.  And so it needs updating.  All examples of training evaluations must provide recommendations on improving or updating your course.

Improving Participant Engagement

The feedback provided can be another benefit of training evaluations and can be used to increase the engagement of future participants.  You can gain valuable insights by including a few simple questions in your assessment.

For example:

• How did you find the course?
• Which parts of the training were most relevant to you?
• Can you describe the most important, or best, part of the course from your perspective?
• How could we improve the course?

Asking open-ended questions in whatever training evaluation methods you use allows you to receive more feedback than asking closed-ended questions.  Genuine feedback from open-ended questions can be precious.  With it, you can find out how to improve the training further.  And are likely to identify improvements you wouldn’t have thought of, which will enhance participant engagement.

You can also use some of the positive responses from participants as testimonials to encourage others to take the training by building credibility in the course.

Measure Of Knowledge And Learning

One of the main benefits of using well-thought-out training evaluation examples is that it helps to find out if the instructional goals of your training have been met or not.  Typically, you can assess knowledge transfer at different points throughout the course.  But, the particular approach will vary depending on the goals of the training.  For example, learning specific knowledge and tasks will be easier to gauge.  But, the success of less tangible outcomes, such as from a leadership course, may need to be observed in a role-playing situation.  Or after completion of the training by assessment later.  Such as a supervisor observing how a person interacts with their team members.

No matter the type of training course, you should always include one question in any examples of training evaluations you use. “What are you – the learner – going to do with this new training?”  No matter what training evaluation methods you use, this should be a standard question.

Employee Retention

As firms seek growth opportunities, so do employees.  They search for professional development and better pay.  Companies, by investing in training signal they value employee growth.  An added benefit is that organizations providing training and development opportunities increase retention.  So, quality training evaluations also improve employee retention by enabling future improvements in the training.

Efficient Use Of Resources

A focus of most organizations is the efficient use of their resources.  And if used correctly, one of the benefits of training evaluation methods can be to enhance that.  No one wants to continue offering a course that isn’t meeting expectations.  So, find a way to improve it or stop running it.  And divert those resources to areas that have a more beneficial outcome.

You can also use training evaluations to analyze the effectiveness of different training programs or delivery methods.  For example, how does an on-demand e-learning course compare to an in-person instructor-led course?  How does the achievement of the instructional goals compare?  How does the ROI compare?  Do participants prefer one delivery method over another?

Additional Funding

Another of the less common benefits of how you construct your training evaluation methods is that they can help you receive extra funding.  Businesses can use the results of training evaluations to support requests to expand the program.  Or, if you are a non-profit organization, results and examples of training evaluations can support grant applications to scale or grow your program.

Instructors Evaluation

If you use an instructor in part of your training, you can also provide feedback for them.  Are there any areas for future improvement for the instructor or facilitator?

Reasons Training Evaluations Fail

Despite these and other benefits, evaluations fail for several reasons.  These include the following.

Willingness To Complete Training Evaluations

Training evaluations to be successful require at least some feedback from the participants.  Suppose the participants aren’t willing to spend the time to provide feedback.  In that case, you are missing out on valuable information.

Often, people are more willing to provide feedback if the time required to complete training evaluations isn’t extensive.  Also, examples of training evaluations where participants understand why giving feedback is essential result in increased responses.

Convoluted Or Complex Training Evaluations

If your training evaluation methods are complex, people will focus on getting through them rather than on the quality of the feedback they provide.

Poor Questions That Fail To Capture The Important Information

You could miss out on many valuable insights if you ask the wrong questions.  It’s easy to ask participants to complete a few multiple-choice or rate questions on a scale.  And it’s quick for them to respond.  But is it getting at the information you need to improve the course and measure its effectiveness?  Often, the most valuable information results from an open-ended question.  So, in developing your training evaluation methods, be precise in your questions and balance what you ask with the ease of completing it.

A Failure To Act

You could have the best training evaluation examples ever designed.  But unless you act on the information they provide, it won’t help.  You must use this valuable information to make decisions about the training.

Examples Of Training Evaluations

Below, we discuss five very different examples of training evaluations.  Each of these provides insights on how to develop various training evaluations.  In addition, we provide a training evaluation template for three of the types of evaluations discussed below.

Our first example is training employees in a retail setting on new products.

1) Examples Of Training Evaluations – Selling Clothing In A Retail Store

You have probably heard of the Kirkpatrick method of training evaluations.  While well known, this is only one of many training evaluation methods.  It is most suitable to use where the training has very transactional aspects, such as in a training session on new products in a retail store selling garments in a clothing store.

It consists of 4 levels of training evaluation described below.

Level 1: Reaction

The degree to which participants find the training favorable, engaging, and relevant to their jobs

Level 2: Learning

The degree to which participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and commitment based on their participation in the training

Level 3: Behaviour

The degree to which participants apply what they learned during training when they are back on the job.

Level 4: Results

The degree to which targeted outcomes occur as a result of the training

 

Let’s assume that the training consists of a 1 to 2-hour session to explain a line of new clothing products to store sales reps.  In particular, you want the sales reps to understand the new clothing line and the advantages of this line over other products to increase sales.

The first part of your training evaluation template could include a few questions about the participant rates from 1 to 5 to assess their reaction to the training.  Was the session informative?  Are they excited about the new product line, etc.?

The next part of the training evaluation could be a short quiz testing their knowledge of the products.  It could be using multiple-choice questions to test knowledge about the features of the products.  Or advantages of them over similar products.

The third part determines if they can apply the knowledge they have learned when they are back working.  One way to do this is to have their supervisor observe their interactions with customers.  The added benefit is that the supervisor can also provide coaching and feedback.

The final part of this training evaluation template could assess how well the training helps increase sales of the new products.  To be effective, you must have baseline product sales data before the training.  Or, if this is an entirely new product, you could have a few control groups.  These are groups of untrained sales reps, and you compare their sales with those of reps who have taken the training.  Based upon these results, you can assess how well the training contributed to the sales goals.

Download this training evaluation template and modify it to your specific circumstances.

2) Using The Learner Transfer Evaluation Model (LTEM) For Employee Training 

A better model for training evaluations in less transactional situations is Will Thalheimer’s LTEM. This model is described below.

Let’s apply this model to an employee diversity training session.  You could use these examples of training evaluations in other related situations.  In this instance, the main goal of this program is to create a positive work environment by helping employees recognize and be tolerant of differences among co-workers.  You can create training evaluation methods of this type as follows.

Tier 1 – Attendance.  Measure how many people (or percentage) attended the training session.

Tier 2 – Activity.  For example, how many people started the course, and how much of it did they complete?

Tier 3 – Learner Perceptions.  This part of the training evaluation template could be in the form of a survey about the course.  It could include feedback on a ranking scale about their perceptions.  It could consist of anecdotal feedback as well.  Questions can include how effective they think the training will be for them.  Or what they would do with this new insight after the training.

Tier 4 – Knowledge.  Testing for knowledge, understanding, and retention would take the form of a quiz.  They could take a test at the end of the course to test for learning.  Completing the test a few days after the course would assess for retention.  This tests factual knowledge and could take the form of multiple-choice questions.

Tier 5 – Decision Making Competence.  You can do this part of the training evaluation in many ways.  For example, if part of the training is an on-demand course, the learner could complete scenarios about diversity situations as part of the online course.  It could include selecting different options within the scenario and receiving appropriate feedback.

Tier 6 – Task Competence.  A great way in this type, of course, to test for decision-making competence during the session is to use role-playing scenarios.  For example, attendees could split into groups of 3. Two members of the group have a role-playing scenario to act out.  The third member observes the interactions and provides feedback using a job aide or reference sheet.  After the course, team meetings can include role-playing to evaluate training effectiveness further.

Tier 7 – Transfer.  An employee’s supervisor can do continued coaching and assessment as a formal part of the training evaluation.  There is also the option of completing an on-the-job employee 360 assessment.  This can provide a range of feedback on how the individual contributes to a positive work environment.

Tier 8 – Effects of Transfer.  Employee engagement and satisfaction surveys can assess the longer-term effects of knowledge transfer.  If there are control groups that did not take the training, a comparison can show the effectiveness of the training.

Thalheimer-based examples of training evaluations are more involved and take longer to plan and undertake.  But, they provide a lot more in-depth assessment of the impacts of training and knowledge transfer.

Download this LTEM training evaluation template and modify it to your specific circumstances.

3) Examples Of Training Evaluations in Regulatory Environments – Using the Behaviour Engineering Model

Thomas Gilbert (1927 – 1995) was a psychologist who used behavioral psychology to improve performance at work and school.  Gilbert identified six variables that he believed were necessary to improve human performance: information, resources, incentives, knowledge, capacity, and motives.  He called this his Behavioural Engineering Model (BEM).  Gilbert believed the absence of performance support at work was the most significant barrier to performance.  And not an individual’s lack of knowledge or skill.  So, he believed it necessary to focus on variables in the work environment before addressing them individually.

At the essence of the model, training is only one component needed to change behavior.  You must expand your training evaluation methods to include these extra components to assess the change’s success.

At Spark + Co., we have adapted Gilbert’s original model for specific situations.

 

For this example of a training evaluation, consider a situation in the Financial Services sector.  A bank with a regulatory compliance problem often wants a simple solution and requests a training session.  But we know that usually, this would very likely only make modest gains on its own.  For instance, let’s use the example of a bank that needs to increase its compliance with anti-money laundering procedures.

You must exert influence over more than just the training to use this method effectively.  Since you need to address other factors that impact the effectiveness of the process.  To use this method, you will

• Set clear performance expectations
• Streamline the process used, in this case, for the Anti-Money Laundering procedures
• Provide quality and accessible resources to all employees
• Create feedback channels for supervisors to provide performance feedback
• Train supervisors to provide high-quality feedback and coaching

All these factors contribute to an increase in performance.  And while it’s more involved and needs more time to design and measure performance, it leads to enhanced results and improvement.  And each of the five training evaluation examples we use contributes to the progress.  In comparison, training alone can only improve about 20% of performance on its own.

So, in examples of training evaluations of this kind, you need to expand the assessment outside of solely the training component.  And test all areas to measure effectiveness and make future improvements.

Download this training evaluation template based on the behavior engineering model and modify it to your specific circumstances.

4) Examples Of Training Evaluations For Selling An Instructional Product

Training evaluations for a course you sell directly to a consumer are often quite different from the previous examples of training evaluations we’ve covered.  And in many ways, they are much more straightforward.  Let’s take the example of a yoga instructor selling a course on yoga techniques and practice.  In addition to developing evaluations for the skill you want your learner to perform, the following are less apparent aspects to include.

Examples of Training Evaluations – Using Net Promoter Score

As with any course, you will want to assess the participants’ reactions and perceptions about the course.  However, the main question you need to answer is how likely the participant would recommend your yoga course to a friend or colleague.  This can determine your net promoter score (NPS).  NPS measures a consumer’s experience and helps predict your business growth.

These training evaluation methods take the form of a question on a scale of 0-10.  Those who score 9-10 are promoters.  They are loyal enthusiasts who will buy your products and refer others, thus increasing your growth.  Those who score 7-8 are Passives.  Although satisfied, they are unenthusiastic consumers.  And are likely to be tempted by your competitors’ courses.  People who score 0-6 are Detractors.  And often unhappy customers who might damage your brand and slow growth through negative word of mouth.

By subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, you get the net promoter score (NPS).  It ranges from 0-100.

Additional Components For Training Evaluations For Instructional Products

So, in this example, your training evaluation template could be one question.  But we wouldn’t recommend that since you have an opportunity to collect more valuable information besides your NPS.

For example, what about the price of your course?  During the course development, you’ll have done market research to identify a suitable selling price.  But are you leaving money on the table, or do your consumers feel your course is overpriced?  Adding a simple scaled survey question using these training evaluation examples can provide valuable insights.

You also have the opportunity to ask for a testimonial in your survey.  It is often an excellent way to get testimonials to advertise and market your course.  And if you have more classes, you can ask them about their interest in taking one of those.  Or, if you are considering creating new courses, you can provide them with a series of topics asking which they’d be most interested in—helping you gauge the market for your next course.

5) Training Evaluations For Customer Education

Customer Education is often much more challenging to complete training evaluations.  That’s because you are evaluating three different sets of training expectations.  Let’s take the situation where you provide training for a software product sold to enterprise customers.  Imagine you sell project management software to other businesses.  You want to sell the software but also want people to use and love your product.  And your customers want their employees to be able to use your product, and they want to justify spending money on the software and its training.  As a Customer Education manager, you are often juggling three stakeholders.

1. The learner – most people in instructional roles want their “learner” to receive a great training experience.
2. Your boss – you want to prove that investing in education is good for the business.
3. The enterprise customers for your product buy software on behalf of their employees and want a good training experience, ensuring they get value for money.

So, in customer education, examples of training evaluations of each perspective need to be included.

Learner Focused Training Evaluation

When creating the learner-focused part of training evaluations, you will want to assess their

• Reaction, or learner perceptions about the training
• Knowledge
• Decision-making competence

But that’s not all.  You also want to determine in the training evaluation template the impact of the training.  In this software training example, you want people to use the software.  And many people feel that measuring the completion of the course is a critical metric.  But that alone only has limited usefulness.  It’s not much more than a Level 1 evaluation mentioned in the first example of training evaluations earlier.

Christy Hollingsworth (Senior Director Customer Education) at Heap agrees. Christy had this to say about designing training evaluations in a recent podcast.

“Over the years, I’ve started to care less and less about completions. You know, if they’re dropping off right away, I think that’s a very different problem. But if they’re getting 80%, through the content, and they’re not finishing the last few things, often, what I find is … they want to start applying it.”

So, measure activity and completion, but don’t focus only on that.  Like with other examples of training evaluations, you want to understand the transfer of learning.  What would you see if your training was making an impact?  How would you know?  How would you measure that in your training evaluation methods?

Training Provider Evaluation

As the “training provider,” you are also under pressure to evaluate the impact of training on YOUR business.  For a Customer Education professional, when your boss asks, “is the training working?” you want to be able to determine:

1. Of the customers who use your software, how many take the training?
   This will give you insight into the overall usage of the training. You can then compare that to the training design.
2. Of those who take training, what does their product usage look like?

As Christy H puts it,

“My favorite report is simply taking a course engagement, and then looking at the learning objectives for that, and then tying that to product behavior. So very specifically,…, what behaviors am I trying to drive with a particular course? And did I influence that in the product? When you can see that somebody hasn’t engaged with a feature or certain part of your product. They take the course … and then are now engaging … with that. And that is, I think, at the end of the day really going to tell you is your content successful at driving value.”

So in types of examples of training evaluations such as this you need to determine what your boss deems essential to the business:

• Reducing support costs?
• Growth?
• Reduced churn?
• Customer Satisfaction?

Then based on what’s important at your company, you can establish the story that your training is trying to tell. For instance,

Our training offering will _________________________

So that ________________

Leading to ___________________________________

We will know we are successful when _______________________________

Then design training evaluation metrics to measure the level of success.

Enterprise Customer Training Evaluations

What does your customer care about when investing in your training?  Usually, they need to know that the time it takes for their employees to reach competency with the software has decreased.  And that they are receiving more excellent value because of the training.  Your training evaluation methods need to measure these.  This helps them know that they made a good purchase and that your training has a positive bottom-line impact.

Measuring this in your training evaluation template can often be the most challenging.  But if you can, measure account level “penetration” and active user data.  At the “account level,” are enough of the customer’s employees taking advantage of the training?  As discussed earlier, you might use a survey to measure the net promoter score as part of your training evaluation.

For your enterprise customer (and for your boss), the training improves adoption, product usage and adds value.  It also improves customer retention and benefits the bottom line.  So, the extra benefit of training evaluations is that they can show success to your customers and your boss!

Using Artificial Intelligence in Training Evaluations

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way organizations operate.  By leveraging AI, organizations can also gain deeper insights, streamline processes, and enhance the overall effectiveness of their training programs.  Below are examples of training evaluations that can be improved using AI:

1. Automated Data Collection and Analysis: AI can automatically collect and analyze vast amounts of data to increase the efficiency of your training evaluation methods.  This includes tracking attendance, participation levels, engagement metrics, and performance outcomes.  By processing this data, AI algorithms can identify patterns and trends that human evaluators might miss.
2. Personalized Feedback: AI can provide personalized feedback to learners based on their performance.  By analyzing individual learner data, AI systems can offer specific recommendations for improvement, highlight strengths, and suggest additional resources tailored to each learner’s needs.
3. Real-time Assessments: AI can conduct real-time assessments during training sessions.  For example, AI-driven quizzes and tests can adapt to the learner’s proficiency level, providing a dynamic and interactive evaluation experience.  This immediate feedback helps learners understand their progress and areas that require further attention.
4. Sentiment Analysis: AI can analyze learner feedback, comments, and discussions to gauge sentiment and satisfaction.  Sentiment analysis tools can assess the tone and context of the input, providing valuable insights into how learners perceive the training content and delivery.
5. Predictive Analytics: AI can predict future training outcomes by analyzing historical data.  Predictive analytics can identify which training programs are most likely to succeed, which learners may need additional support, and which training content areas might require revision.  This proactive approach helps organizations make data-driven decisions to enhance training evaluation methods.
6. Reducing Bias: Humans, through unconscious biases, can influence evaluations.  When properly designed, AI can offer a more objective assessment by focusing purely on data and performance metrics.  It helps ensure fair and equitable assessments for all learners.

By integrating AI into training evaluations, organizations can improve the accuracy and efficiency of their assessments and create a more engaging and personalized learning experience for their employees.  As AI technology advances, its role in developing training evaluation templates is expected to become more significant, helping to drive innovation and excellence in learning and development.

Additional Training Evaluation Tips And Resources

Although we’ve covered a lot in this article on examples of training evaluations, below are five extra tips and resources to help you create training evaluations.

1. Pre-Training Assessment
   Before a learner starts a course, have them complete a pre-training assessment. This is invaluable when it comes to your training evaluation methods.  A pre-training assessment provides a baseline of what the learner knows and doesn’t know.  Using this, you can compare what the participant knows before and after the training.
2. Identify Performance Indicators
   One of the first things to do when creating your training evaluation template is to identify your performance indicators. Select specific data points that are most important to your organization.  For example, product sales increases or improved employee engagement.  These are the primary indicators you’ll use to determine how effective your training is.
3. Use Proxies
   Often, in building training, we include a lot of content and then assess performance after the training. But it’s vital that you include evaluative elements during the training—or formative training evaluations.  Having opportunities to practice and get feedback is an essential evaluative tactic.  For example, a scenario during training is a proxy that you can use to determine “Can they do it during the training?” If they cannot do the task during the training, they are not likely to be able to do it after the training.  And your training evaluations will show a poor transfer of learning.  Patti Shanks’s book “Write Better Multiple-Choice Questions To Assess Learning” is a deceptively simple title for a very nuanced book about the power of questions to shape and measure our training—a must-read to help you enhance your training evaluations. 
   
4. Data-Driven Customer Education Training Evaluation
   Are data-driven training evaluation examples, particularly in customer education, intimidating? If so, you’re not alone, but you don’t need to be a data scientist to do this well.  Here’s a great resource outlining how you might do it well, simply by Bill Cushard.
5. Research on Learning Transfer Learning Transfer
   A large part of successful training evaluation examples is determining if people can “do something different” after the training.  If you’ve designed your training for optimal transfer, the assessment should confirm that you are on the right track. Two resources to start your research are Why is learning transfer so hard? by Connie Malamed and When and Where Do We Apply What We Learn? by Susan Barnett and Stephen Ceci from Cornel University.  The graphic below is a sample from the latter resource.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON TRAINING EVALUATIONS

Has the journey of understanding Training Evaluations piqued your interest?  We’ve navigated through the essentials and the vast benefits, provided templates, and even dove into the common pitfalls.  But, acknowledging the complex and crucial nature of using these examples of training evaluations is just the start.  Every organization’s needs are unique, as should be the solutions to meet those needs.  This is where Spark + Co. can make a significant difference.

Customized training solutions aren’t just a service we offer; they’re a commitment to elevating your organization’s training to its highest potential.  With Spark + Co., you’re not just accessing bespoke training programs; you’re unlocking a partnership dedicated to tangible impacts and measurable success.

Contact Spark + Co. today to discover how our customized training solutions can transform your organization’s performance.  Let’s pave the way to exceed your training objectives together.

Connect with us and take the first step toward transforming your organization with effective, practical, and impactful training solutions crafted just for you.