Training is an integral part of success.  Just ask the gold medal winners at the Olympics. Unfortunately, many companies view training as a necessary evil. There’s always a reason for things, and my guess for their view is that they don’t know now to measure the value of their training.

It’s certainly do-able. Not as easy as counting widgets or computing time-to-market, but do-able nonetheless. .

To help these organizations out we need look no further than Donald Kirkpatrick or Jack Phillips. Both have a number of books out on the subject of measuring return on investment.

Problem? Companies don’t want to do it. (Remember, people don’t like to do things they don’t understand). 

LEVEL I

Evaluating training starts with what Kirkpatrick calls Level I — the basic reaction to the training. We often refer to these as ‘evaluation sheets’ or ‘smile sheets.’

But all they do is measure a person’s reaction to the training. Not much more.

LEVEL II

Kirkpatrick’s second level measures whether or not the learners actually acquired any knowledge, skill, or appropriate attitudes (often called KSA’s).  This level requires a pretest and a post test - which many companies don’t want to bother with.   … Which is why they don’t know whether or not their training is effective.

LEVEL III

Kirkpatrick’s level three measures behavior. In other words, did learners modify their behavior as a result of acquiring new KSA’s?  Problem for most employers?  Again - they’re often too reactionary to conduct the necessary pre-test so they have a baseline for later comparison.

LEVEL IV

Last is level four, which seeks to measure results. As Kirkpatrick says, level four is the most difficult to measure because of myriad factors that can affect results other than training.  And once again - a pre-training / post-training measurement process is involved.

Of course - all of this is possible.  And, if done correctly, companies would know whether or not their training was giving them a return on their training dollar investment.  Whey they won’t do it?  Best to go ask your employer . . . .