HRM textbook

272 PART 3 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
EVALUATING THE TRAINING EFFORT
With today s emphasis on measuring results, it is crucial that the manager evaluate
the training program. There are several things you can measure: participants
reactions to the program, what (if anything) the trainees learned from the program,
and to what extent their on-the-job behavior or results changed as a result of the program.
In one survey of about 500 U.S. organizations, 77% evaluated their training
programs by eliciting reactions, 36% evaluated learning, and about 10% to 15%
assessed the program s behavior and/or results. 137 Computerization facilitates evaluation.
For example, Bovis Lend Lease uses learning management system software to
monitor which employees are taking which courses, and the extent to which they re
improving their skills. 138
There are two basic issues to address when evaluating training programs. The first
is the design of the evaluation study and, in particular, whether to use controlled
experimentation. The second issue is, What should we measure?
Designing the Study
In evaluating the training program, the first question should be how to design the
evaluation study. Your basic concern here is this: How can we be sure that the training
caused the results? The time series design is one option. Here, as in Figure 8-3, you take
a series of performance measures before and after the training program. This can
provide at least an initial reading on the program s effectiveness. 139 However, you
can t be sure from this analysis that the training (rather than, say, a new pay plan)
caused any change.
Controlled experimentation is therefore the evaluation process of choice.
A controlled experiment uses both a training group, and a control group that receives
no training. Data (for instance, on quantity of sales or quality of service) are obtained
both before and after the group is exposed to training and before and after a corresponding
work period in the control group. This makes it possible to determine the extent
to which any change in the training group s performance resulted from the training,
rather than from some organization-wide change like a raise in pay. (The pay raise
should have affected employees in both groups equally.) 140
This controlled approach is feasible, but again, relatively few firms use it. Most
simply measure trainees reactions to the program; some also measure the trainees job
performance before and after training. 141
FIGURE 8-3 Using a Time
Series Graph to Assess a
Training Program s Effects
Performance (quality of items)
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