Employee Training & Development:

Identifying Your Goals & Measurements

Investing in employee training and development can have a positive impact on staff retention, employee engagement, and job performance.

Implementing training and development programmes allows management to identify and groom potential leaders within the organisation. This cultivates a talent pool for future leadership roles, reducing the need for external recruitment. Fostering a culture of internal growth motivates employees and boosts staff retention rates.

But before you commence your employee training sessions, let’s take a look at some ways you can tailor your training to be beneficial to all.

Define Your Training and Development Goals

What do you hope your employee training will accomplish? Is the training aimed at enhancing leadership skills, promoting effective communication, improving collaboration, or other gap-filling purposes? Consider questions like these to define your training goals. Doing so will help you measure the training’s success at a later stage.

You could also set individual employee goals with them ‒ or for them ‒ to track their progress throughout their employment. What would you like them to achieve in their role? What would they like to achieve? Have they made progress thanks to the training you provided? Keeping notes on individual goals can assist in training selection going forward.

Ask for Your Employees’ Feedback

Do you know what your employees would like to learn? Are you aware of their strengths and weaknesses? When you ask your staff directly what training they’d like for personal development, it will help you identify whether you’ve provided training on that topic previously and evaluate its effectiveness. Armed with their feedback, you can select the training that meets the majority’s needs.

Measuring the Success of Employee Training and Development

Once you’ve provided training, the next step is to evaluate the success of training programmes to gauge their impact and make informed decisions. Here are some ways to measure your initiatives’ success:

Pre- and Post-Training Assessments

Assess employees' knowledge and skills before and after the training programme. Comparing the results can determine the programme's effectiveness and guide future decisions.

Measure Employee Productivity Impacts

Assess productivity levels before and after the training programme to identify any noticeable increase, indicating a successful training programme.

Evaluate Employee Satisfaction Levels

Conduct subjective surveys to gauge employees' attitudes towards the company and their roles. By assessing the level of employee satisfaction before and after the programme, you can determine its success.

Training Completion Rates

Track the number of employees who successfully complete the training programme. A low completion rate may indicate issues with the program's design, delivery, or relevance.

Cost-to-benefit Analysis

Quantitatively assess the benefits of the training programme by comparing the associated costs with improvements in productivity, turnover costs, and customer satisfaction. This analysis helps determine the return on investment for the training.