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Avoid And Correct Employee Evaluation Pitfalls

Avoid And Correct Employee Evaluation Pitfalls
by Wendy K. Kirkpatrick & James D. Kirkpatrick

Too often, our approach to learning evaluation breaks down due to predictable mistakes. But with a few tips, we can get back on the road to high-performance learning.

When an organization entrusts a learning and development department with a budget, the expectation is the investment will yield increased organizational performance and documented results. So why does the approach often look like the following example?

Alan, the learning leader for a large corporation, was asked to revamp the sales onboarding program. Sales executives said the current program wasn’t holding the attention of new sales reps. Alan worked with a contract instructional designer and incorporated some gaming and new features into the program.

After the first training cohort, Alan was asked for a progress report as to the success of the new program. He shared positive comments from participants. However, company executives were hoping to see faster time to proficiency in the field, higher sales from first-year reps and lower turnover. Unfortunately, Alan didn’t have data to link the revamped training program to those key sales metrics. Alan experienced the first and perhaps greatest training evaluation pitfall: failing to identify and address evaluation requirements while the program is being designed.

Address Evaluation While Designing

Many learning professionals make the same mistake as Alan. They design, develop and deliver a program and only then start to think about how they will evaluate its effectiveness. The traditional ADDIE (analyze, design, develop, implement, evaluate) model of instructional design reinforces this damaging belief. Using this approach nearly guarantees that there will be little or no value to report.

Read full article on Chief Learning Officer.