Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2018 - 49

BUILD FORMATIVE EVALUATION INTO
YOUR TRAINING MODULES

this information, such as a dashboard,
to create friendly competition.

An easy and low-resource way to
gather evaluation data is to build
formative evaluation into your training
modules. Formative evaluation is that
which occurs during the training itself.
Examples of this include:

2. Reinforcing:
What
can
you,
along with the supervisors and
stakeholders, do to send the message
that the outcome of this program is
important? Can you get a message
into the company newsletter, on
a bulletin board or in an intranet
message? Are you able to launch
reminders via email? Is the content
complicated, such that refresher
courses or roundtables would be
beneficial?

* An instructor asking during the
program how things are going
for participants
* A question in an asynchronous
online module asking participants
to document if they are grasping the
content
* A "ticket out" system, in which
participants are asked to comment on
an aspect of the program as they leave
the room for a break
Gathering formative information is
beneficial because it does not take
additional time and resources, and
it provides data that instructors
of live programs can react to on
the spot, enhancing the experience
for participants.
FOCUS RESOURCES ON SUPPORTING
ON-THE-JOB PERFORMANCE AFTER
TRAINING
Most of your training evaluation
resources should be focused on what
happens after the training, when your
training graduates are attempting
to apply what they learned in their
real work. For important initiatives,
ensure that all four areas of required
drivers are supported:
1. Monitoring: How will you know
that training graduates are doing
what they learned? Find out if their
supervisors have the time and are
willing to monitor and report on their
performance. Or, consider if a peerto-peer or a self-monitoring and
reporting system should be put into
place. Think about a fun way to share

3. Encouraging: Who might be able
to help training graduates and
keep them going if they get stuck?
Would a buddy system assigned

FORMATIVE
EVALUATION
IS THAT WHICH
OCCURS DURING
THE TRAINING
ITSELF.
during training be appropriate? Are
supervisors willing to add this topic
to their team meetings and during
employee touch bases? Do you have
a mentoring culture that would make
it comfortable to set up mentor/
mentee pairs after training?
4. Rewarding: If this is a major
initiative, can you check to ensure
that formal reward systems are in
line with what training graduates
are being asked to do on the job?
For example, if they do what they
are supposed to do, will they get a
good performance appraisal, and
perhaps an annual pay increase? Also
consider small, informal methods

of reward, such as a pizza lunch or
bonus jeans day for the department
with the highest compliance scores
after training. A note or word of
praise from an executive can also be
very meaningful.
PUTTING YOUR EVALUATION PLAN
TOGETHER
The key to all of these ideas is that they
are set up prior to the training, during
the planning phase. If you wait until after
training, you might be too busy, and it
may be difficult to gain the support you
will need from others.
During the planning process, you will
not only create your evaluation plan,
but also build the simple tools you
need to gather the data and set up
the systems required. You will have
conversations with stakeholders to
determine how much support you can
expect, which, when done early, will
also give you some time to gather more
support, if needed. Such conversations
will also clarify what you may need to
accomplish on your own.
If you are still intimidated, just pick one
program and give it a try. Incorporate
this discipline of addressing evaluation
during the design process, and you
will have a strong start to creating
an evaluation methodology in your
organization. Each time you use it,
you can develop and expand it. Before
you know it, you will be systematically
evaluating
programs,
improving
outcomes and reporting results to your
key stakeholders.
Jim Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick are
co-authors of the book, "Kirkpatrick's Four
Levels of Training Evaluation." Together
they run Kirkpatrick Partners. Email Jim and
Wendy.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - LEAD THE CHANGE 20 18 I WWW. T RAININGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

| 49

https://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/ https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2018