Measuring the Effectiveness of Training

Hi,

After examining Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation, I'm wondering how we can put all the four levels together in a valid way to measure the training effectiveness. Is there any universal calculation to do this?

The thing that came to my mind is to prepare an excel sheet that has four cells :

Cell One: will show the overall reaction of a participant during the training program. This is usually done through the evaulation form that is given to the participants at the end of the program. This will be given 20%

Cell Two: Will Measure Level 2 Learning. This could be done by finding the learning gain ( Post test - Pre test / 100 - pre test) This will be given 20%

Cell Three: Will measure behaviour. Through job observation and interviewing the participants and his supervisor( Though I am not sure if there are standard list of questions and checklist to follow to measure this). This will be given 30%

Cell Four: Will Measure Results. This is to be done through interviews with the direct supervisors and co-workers of the participants ( though I am not really sure if their feedback will be objective). This will be given 30%

Your ideas are of great value and assistance.

How would you develop a comprehensive evaluation tool in your workplace to measure the training effectiveness?

18 Comments

Wendy Kirkpatrick

February 12, 2019 03:45 PM

Hi Ibrahim,
I'm pleased to hear that you wish to evaluate your training at all four levels. This article is a quick read on a great approach:
https://www.td.org/magazines/td-magazine/creating-roe-the-end-is-the-beginning
For more guidance, templates and tools, get our latest book:
https://www.td.org/books/kirkpatricks-four-levels-of-training-evaluation-new
There is a wealth of free resources on our website too: https://kirkpatrickpartners.com/Resources

Ibrahim Tawalbeh

March 14, 2019 01:33 AM

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for sharing the articles here. They are of great value and support.

The thing that stimulated my curiosity and interest to see the possible implementation of the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model is the levels 3 & 4 of evaluation. In some cases, this may not be possible and evaluation is mostly based on people's feedback.

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Toni Shelton

February 04, 2019 09:51 AM

Thank you for starting this conversation Ibrahim. Measuring behavior and results is challenging because you have to rely on the feedback of others. Because many training programs and organizations are different, some measures require a unique approach. Within my organization, we don't always have the luxury of 'observation' by the manager. For one of our groups of employees, they work the night shift and Managers work the day shift; so even the managers depend on feedback from the night lead.

Mohamed Ezzat, APTD

January 31, 2019 11:56 AM

Hi Ibrahim appreciate your post, but why you not consider ROI as 4th degree in Kirkpatrick evaluation, like increase sales, less mistakes in manufacturing which decrease cost. i think financial benefits is very impotent to be considered even with its challenges like isolation of training from other factors

February 03, 2019 02:49 AM

I do agree with you with the idea of factoring the ROI into the measuring the effectiveness of the training program. However, tracking the ROI won't be possible until 3-6 months after the program finishes. Training sequesters usually want to see the immediate results of the training. That's why, my focus in the first three levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model.