E-learning programs have huge potential when it comes to empowering employees with a sense of purpose and opening up new possibilities for personal and professional growth. However, when the corporate world usually measures success with numbers, how can you implement training evaluation and prove that your e-learning program is a success and generates a satisfying ROI? Here are some of the ways you can assess the impact of an L&D program and demonstrate its value.

Training Evaluation: Using the Kirkpatrick Model

The Kirkpatrick model uses four levels to evaluate an educational program:

• Level 1 assesses the initial reaction to the program by evaluating how satisfied learners are.

• Level 2 looks at how well students are learning. Test scores, course completion rates, and feedback from supervisors are used.

• Level 3 focuses on behavior. It can include productivity and quality KPIs, focus groups, and feedback from learners and their supervisors.

• Level 4 is about finding tangible results for the training program. It looks at how the program impacts the business as a whole regarding quality, productivity, employee retention, morale, customer satisfaction, and more.

Evaluating Employee Satisfaction in the Long-Term

From the Kirkpatrick model, level four should be the focus on assessing long-term satisfaction. A job satisfaction survey can help you evaluate the long-term value of a training program. Employees who don't receive adequate training and support are more likely to experience dissatisfaction with their job and result in low engagement.

If your company deals with customers, then your assessment of satisfaction should include customers and how they feel about their interactions with your employees. For example, compare the average satisfaction rate of customers who interacted with employees who received training with the satisfaction rate of customers who interacted with a different group of employees.

Measuring Sales, Productivity, and Quality

Productivity and quality KPIs should be measured and included in a comprehensive report that assesses the results of your e-learning program. These KPIs will be particularly useful when presented in the context of comparing productivity and quality performance among employees who completed an e-learning program and a control group who didn't have access to training.

Because other factors can impact productivity and quality KPIs, individual performance reviews can be added as part of the measurement, such as implementing monthly personal reviews for employees. These reviews could assess productivity for each employee, their strengths and weaknesses, and look at individual performance such as sales numbers; any skill that is relevant to the tasks could be reviewed on these performance reports.

Assessing the Costs and ROI

Showing the ROI of an e-learning program is a great way to demonstrate to management the value of the program. You should start by assessing the total cost of the e-learning program, such as the cost of implementing an LMS, cost of hiring a trainer, and so forth.

Quantifying the benefits of an e-learning program can be challenging. Monthly performance reviews can help you get a better idea of how training helps improve quality and productivity on an individual level. You can then calculate an average ROI for each employee who completed the e-learning program. You can also use LMS reporting features to track how well each learner performed in course activities completions and compare these results with their monthly performance reviews to assess the long-term benefits of the program.

It isn't possible to prove the efficiency of an e-learning program with a single number. Instead, you can find many data points that reflect the tangible results of a program. Having access to detailed analytics for your training program will also be beneficial.