Corporate training programs are great – but does it really matter if they aren’t working? 

It’s estimated that ineffective training costs companies roughly $13.5 million per 1,000 employees annually. Additionally, only about 12% of employees claim they use the knowledge acquired during training to do their jobs. 

If you want to ensure your education training program is cost-effective and successful, you need to understand what’s actually working – and what’s not. After all, you can’t improve what you can’t measure. 

That’s why we want to talk about how you can accurately assess your training program’s effectiveness. We also want to share some of the red flags associated with irrelevant or outdated training strategies. 

Using Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Training Evaluation Model

The Kirkpatrick Model is an internationally recognized method for evaluating and analyzing the results of learning courses, including corporate education programs. It looks at four levels of evaluation tailored to precisely measure the effectiveness of the training. 

1. Reaction 

The first element of a winning training program is how it makes employees feel. You want trainees to walk away with a sense of accomplishment and the belief that the training was valuable to their development and job. 

During this part of the Kirkpatrick Evaluation, trainers will need to ask for verbal feedback and survey employees’ satisfaction. The sentiments, opinions, and body language of different trainees can tell you a great deal about the program’s effectiveness. 

2. Learning 

Level 2 of the Kirkpatrick Evaluation focuses on measuring what trainees have and have not learned during their training experience. You’ve already assessed how they felt about the training. Now, it’s time to understand how it has developed their skills, attitudes, and knowledge. 

To assess the learning effectiveness of your training program, start by identifying your key learning objectives. If you don’t have clearly delineated goals and ways to measure them, how can you tell if your training is actually working? 

3. Behavior  

Next, the Kirkpatrick Model encourages users to consider the trainees’ behavior. After training, do you see behavioral changes? Do they seem inspired and confident – or just the opposite? 

Research indicates that up to 65% of employees feel overwhelmed by the amount of information included in traditional training courses. If your trainees leave the program feeling confused, stressed, or disheartened, it’s difficult to consider it a “winning” program. 

Furthermore, you’ll need to assess how trainees proceed to apply their newly-obtained knowledge to their job. Behavioral change may take weeks or months to manifest, but it’s important to continuously evaluate the change to determine effectiveness. 

One of the best ways to measure changed behavior is to conduct observations and interviews. Trainers can also integrate opportunities for people to demonstrate their new skills and what they have learned. 

4. Results  

Lastly, it’s time to measure the real outcomes of your training. How has it impacted your business, and has it proven to be a good return on your investment? 

This is arguably the most challenging and time-consuming part of the evaluation. As a leader or trainer, it will be your responsibility to identify which outcomes (and benefits) are actually linked to the training. You’ll also need to determine ways to measure these results in the long run, not just in the immediate weeks or months after training. 

Instituting Real Behavioral Change

At Code of Talent, this is our bread and butter. We focus predominantly on helping modern learners embrace personalized microlearning that results in real, measurable behavioral changes. 

Over the years, many training companies and SMBs have used our platform to create winning education and training programs that actually reap powerful benefits. Most of these successful programs start with microlearning, which acts as a catalyst for tiny changes that then escalate into large-scale behavioral changes. 

How does microlearning contribute to a winning training program? Well, it’s estimated that the retention rate from microlearning is 70 to 90%, compared to an average of 15% with traditional learning. That’s huge for most businesses, both from a financial standpoint and an employee’s perspective.

If you want to see a behavioral change in your trainees, you need to make it easy and measurable for everyone involved. That’s where evaluation and microlearning come into play. 

Signs That You’re Wasting Your Time

Employee training should deliver critical benefits to both employees and the company as a whole. If you’re not seeing these benefits, then it’s likely time to take a hard look at your corporate education programs. 

Ineffective training is typically marked by: 

• Low engagement or trainee morale 
• Low productivity
• High employee turnover
• Decreased customer satisfaction
• Minimal or no behavioral changes

If you’ve been using the same training program for months (or even years) without seeing significant benefits, you might want to reconsider your evaluation methods and go back to the drawing board. A winning corporate education program extracts visible, measurable change – and it’s what every employee and employer wants. 

Need Help Measuring Your Training Results? 

Any trainer must be able to measure the effectiveness of their program to determine if it works. If you’re not sure where to start with these measurements, we’re here to help. 

Code of Talent’s technology makes it easier (and more accurate) to measure the impact of training on your organization. Our platform makes it easy to integrate training into the flow of employees’ lives, but it also makes it simple to deliver real-time results, assessments, and feedback. 

To learn more about our training program tools, contact our team today. We’ll happily schedule a tour of our platform and discuss your organization’s needs.