After spending time finding the perfect training materials, how can you be sure that they are working? One of the most important tasks in training is evaluating the impact of your current training materials. Thankfully, there are lots of ways to tell if current training materials are effectively teaching employees new skills. So how can you tell if your training materials are effective?
Employee Engagement
One way to evaluate the impact of your training materials is to watch your employees. See if your employees actively engage in the material, or if they are just completing the course. Employees actively participating in the course material will learn and retain more. Employee engagement survey scores can show how involved an employee was. These scores show if an employee was engaged, or just watched the material to complete it. Check them!
Low employee engagement scores do not always mean that an employee does not care about or is not learning the material. Different courses cater to different learning preferences. A company using materials catering to auditory learners could result in visual learners who would obviously be less engaged. It is important to remember this so you can find materials that meet the needs of all employees.
Behavioral Changes
After completing a training course, employees should complete tasks the way they were trained. Let this expectation be known so employees pay attention to the training material to complete tasks effectively. This expectation gives us another way to discover the impact of training.
It is important to understand the number of online courses an employee has completed. The number of courses completed shows if employees are only looking at materials as required, or if they are also interested in other information. Additionally, after seeing how many courses an employee has taken, it will allow you to see what topic these courses cover. Take note of where the employee’s interests lie and where they feel they need help.
Team / Business Metrics
Finally, compare their work from before they complete the course to after. Some key things to focus on are the time it takes to complete a task and the overall productivity of the employees and the general team. If they are still asking basic questions, requesting more assistance, or not completing tasks, it may be the materials, not the employee.
Normally, if an employee completes a course on productivity, one expects them to carry those tips over to their tasks. In general, are they implementing the tips and procedures they should have learned?
Additionally, if an employee performs better immediately after completing the course, but productivity slowly fades after time, the courses might not be beneficial in the long term. You may need to think about boosters, like Bigger Brains BrainBot, which help employees retain the knowledge they’ve gained.
Good training materials should result in greater performance from employees. Overall, there are ways to discover the impact of your training materials. Mainly, be observant and listen to employee comments and concerns.
