Advancements in the work environment are part of a company’s growth. You need to train your employees as part of the continuing education that will help them cope with modern advancements. You would have your employees attend training programs, after which you rate their performance using a training evaluation template. This is a tool used by human resources professionals and development managers to systematically gather feedback from trainees and trainers.
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Training Evaluation Forms
What is a training evaluation form?
A training feedback form is a document used to determine the comprehensiveness and quality of a training program from the trainee’s point of view. The most important aspect of a training program is the gathering of feedback which you can use to improve the entire process. The form is a simple document that allows for the accurate collection of responses from the attendees after they attend a training session.
You use the form to capture the negative and positive aspects of the training event so you can identify the elements to improve and how to do this. A well-written training evaluation form provides an opportunity to assess the different aspects of training.
What to include?
Before you start mapping together the different parts of a training survey template, you should first have a clear understanding of the most important aspects that you will look into. After this, you need to include the following elements:
Introduction
The form should start with a well-written introduction. This section provides a short outline of what the form is all about. It helps the reader quickly identify the purpose of the form resulting in an enhancement of the evaluation process.
Come up with the questions
You should consider this the most important element of the form as it involves the queries the readers will answer. Comprised of several questions, it’s an intuitive part that helps you understand the training from the participant’s point of view. It’s designed using a questionnaire format where you focus on crucial aspects like:
- The efficiency of the training. One of the most crucial parts of the evaluation of the training program is its efficiency. You should gather accurate opinions about the overall experience of the attendees.
- The satisfaction of the attendees. The aim of this part of the form is to help you understand the level of satisfaction of the participants who attended the training. Think of questions to help you evaluate the consciousness and seamlessness of the trainers along with the techniques they used to present the training program.
- The engagement of the participants. The engagement of the participants is also important for the objectives of the training program to become successful. To achieve this, focus on questions that will help you establish this crucial feature.
Create an effective rating system
After creating a comprehensive form, you should also develop a rating system. Having a well-designed score assessment system allows you to evaluate the quality of each aspect of your form. Although most businesses use numerical techniques for ranking, a typical evaluation form after evaluation could use descriptive approaches.
Suggestion section
It’s also a good idea to include a suggestion section where you request the participant to make general comments about the training exercise. You can also use this section to discover techniques on how to further improve the efficiency of your training programs.
Training Evaluation Templates
Why do you need this document?
There are several benefits to gain when holding training evaluations, the most common of which are:
- To improve the efficiency of your team. Effective training evaluations can help your employees understand their roles so they can perform well. Employees who participate in training programs can clarify any questions they might have, whether they’re executing or administering the training. The performance of your team after the training will demonstrate if there is a need to adjust your training programs.
- To increase employee retention. Attending training programs helps in the retention of employees because they know that they’re learning new skills on the job. Having your employees evaluate training programs gives them a sense of empowerment because they feel that they’re making a significant impact on your company. You should have employee engagement programs at the end to encourage your employees to evaluate these programs honestly.
- To improve sales. By having your employees evaluate your training programs, you may experience increases in your sales. When your company gains more clients, you can improve your training programs to account for the implementation and expansion of new procedures based on the evaluations.
- To increase overall company performance. Do this by aligning the success of your training programs to your company’s Key Performance Indications (KPIs). This helps you keep track of performance measurements, which you can compare with your competitors. This KPI comparison results will show you which programs you need to improve on to outperform your competitors.
- To promote better customer satisfaction. You can use the feedback provided by your employees to improve your training programs and your overall company performance. Training programs can focus more on the employees who need to improve specific skills to improve how they deal with customers.
Training Feedback Forms
How do you write a training evaluation form?
Training evaluation focuses on the efficiency of a trainer in their delivery and design of the training program. Keep this in mind when creating a workshop evaluation form. To make things easier, here are some basic principles to guide you as you create this form:
- Keep it short. The form should be just 1 to 2 pages long and would only take about 5 minutes to accomplish.
- Think of questions that align with the objectives of the training program. Ask the participants if they understood the training and if they can apply what they have learned in their work.
- Ask about the things that you can change in the program. For example, you can ask about the sequencing of the materials presented, the duration of the program, the venue, and so on. If you won’t use the venue for other training sessions, there would be no point wasting your employees’ time asking about this aspect.
- Focus on “close-ended” questions. These refer to questions where the trainees would choose from different response choices. It’s the quickest and easiest way to complete an evaluation form.
- Have at least 3 and at most, 5 response choices if you will have “close-ended” questions. Questions with only 2 response choices might trigger a judgmental mindset instead of a more evaluative one. Offering more than 5 response choices can confuse or distract your employees because most people find it difficult to make differentiations. Therefore, it might lead to poor quality or inaccurate data.
- Include questions about any actions they’re willing to take. For example, will they recommend the training program to other employees? This is an excellent measure of a training program’s effectiveness.
- Include at least 1 “open-ended” question. This allows the trainees to provide you with specific feedback.
- Include the completion of the form as the last part of the training program. This gives the participants enough time to complete the form without having to use their own time to help you.
- When distributing the forms, emphasize that you want their honest feedback. This helps you determine what to maintain and what to modify to provide better training.
- Make the evaluation forms anonymous so the participants feel like they can answer honestly.
Training Survey Templates
How do you evaluate training?
You want to know how effective a training program is after presenting it to your employees. You can do this using an evaluation form and by following a specific evaluation program. Use the program to analyze the effect of the training objectively, determine how much your employees learned, and improve the learning experience in the future. Here are the four phases of training evaluation for you to follow:
- Reaction
You want your employees to feel that the training provided great value to them. To help you understand how well they received the training program, you need to measure their level of engagement, how actively they participated, and how they reacted to the program.
Having this information allows you to make improvements to programs in the future. You need to specify how you will measure the reactions of the participants. Many use employee satisfaction surveys to measure this but you can also observe their body language during the training, or ask them for verbal feedback. Analyze their feedback and consider the changes to make in response.
- Learning
Focus on measuring what the participants learned and what they didn’t. You can also ask what the participants think they can do differently as a result of the training, how much confidence they have gained, and how motivated they feel after the program. This demonstrates how the training has developed their attitudes, knowledge, skills, commitment, and confidence.
Before you can measure how much the participants have learned, you must first identify what you plan to evaluate. Also, remember that training programs must have specific learning objectives. Use these as your starting point. You can measure learning in various ways depending on your objectives. It’s a good idea to measure the different areas before and after the training.
Before the training starts, test the participants to determine their current skill levels, attitudes, and knowledge. After completing the training, test them again to measure what they learned. You can do this through verbal assessments, interviews, and evaluation forms.
- Behavior
Observing the behaviors of the participants will help you understand how well they can apply what they have learned. You can also use these insights to reveal where your employees may require assistance. Just remember that behavior can only change under favorable conditions.
For example, imagine yourself evaluating your employees after a training program. You may observe that nothing has changed and conclude that they learned nothing and the training wasn’t effective. But it’s also possible that your employees learned a lot and that your company or team culture are factors that hinder positive behavioral change. This means that the existing processes in your company don’t provide an opportunity to apply what your employees have learned.
As a consequence of this example, the participants might not feel confident in applying their new knowledge since they don’t see any opportunities to do so. Also, they might not have enough time to apply what they learned. Therefore, you may have to develop new processes that will reinforce, reward, and encourage positive changes in behavior.
For example, if an employee successfully used a newly acquired skill effectively, you can highlight this and praise them for it. To measure a behavior effectively, you have to create a long-term process that spans weeks or months after the completion of the training program. Conducting interviews and observations or having your employees complete evaluation forms are great ways to measure behavior. You can also integrate the use of new skills into the tasks that were part of the training to give your employees the chance to demonstrate what they learned.
- Results
Finally, you need to analyze the results of your training and evaluation forms. This includes the outcomes that you and your company have decided are good for your employees and your business. You should also focus on aspects that offer a good Return on Investment (ROI).
Many consider this step the most time-consuming and costly. The biggest challenge you might encounter is to identify which benefits, final results or outcomes are closely linked to the training program so you can come up with a proper way to measure the outcomes in the long term.
There are some modern trainers today who use different evaluation methods. Some start with the results that they want to see and, from there, develop a training program that will deliver those results. Using this method can prioritize the goals of your training program to make it more effective.
Try making a series of short-term measurements and observations to determine if the behavioral changes brought about by training make a valuable difference to the performance of your employees. You can use the evaluation form for this purpose but you would have to rethink how you will present the questions.
