Breaking Down Training Metrics

Aug 24
14:31

2008

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

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Training metrics are very necessary to have when ensuring the effectiveness of training. Employing the right metrics can guide your training program onto the right path.

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If there is one particular investment that no company should hesitate to shell out for,Breaking Down Training Metrics Articles then it should be training. This is because employees would certainly need to undergo training sessions, since there will certainly be updates that would take place over time. And who's to say all employees, even the ones who have been in the company the longest, would know each and every update that takes place over the years? Technology is certainly moving at quite the fast pace so you can never really say that all of your employees would be able to keep up with all technological innovations. Thus, training becomes a must, and to ensure the efficiency of these sessions, then training metrics should be in order as well.

But what exactly are training metrics? These are actually quantifiable aspects that your company can use to measure the efficiency of training sessions that takes place during the course of operations. The aspects to be used here should be quantifiable, of course, for how else can you measure something if it is not quantifiable in the first place? Metrics should then be used so that the effectiveness of training can then be measured in a more systematic manner.

What metrics should you then use? The important thing in choosing which metrics to use is that you should just choose a few relevant ones so that interpretation and analysis of the data at hand would not be all too confusing. When you use a whole lot of metrics, you might end up misinterpreting one of the figures, and this is quite common. Thus, just pick out a few relative ones since these would just be used to guide your training accordingly.

One of the metrics that you should include, of course, concerns overall performance of the trainees. In relation to this, the overall performance of the trainer should also be measured. If your trainees perform well after training, then it should follow that the trainer is effective in his or her training methods, in getting the message across the floor. Of course, you can do this by assessing the performance of the trainers before and after the training sessions. Check for improvement in between these tests.

Apart from these, you should also include a performance alignment program, with intent to measure the effectiveness of this as well. Before you start the training session, ask your trainees to share their expectations about the training they are about to undergo. In particular, ask the trainees how they expect to be assessed or measured. In precedence, this would actually check how vague or clear the ideas that the employees have regarding the training sessions and the purpose behind them.

Training metrics are indeed a must-have in any company. And these are just some of the aspects that you can include in your own set of metrics. Do not be alarmed if you see that the metrics that your company is using differ from that of another company. Even if both your companies belong in the same industry, you can never say that the metrics you use are the same inside out. This is because your companies do have individual needs to fulfill, and these can very well differ nonetheless.