You’ve worked hard to put together a great, impactful training. You’ve got everything set up and you’re ready to go! Now, how will you know if your hard work pays off? You can always administer the ubiquitous feedback quiz after training is over. While it’s a good practice, it’s not enough. Why?
- Employee responses may not be honest.
- Learning that your employees weren’t engaged in the training after the fact isn’t overly helpful. In this article, we’ll explore how you can (and why you should) know whether your employees are truly engaged in their training.
Engagement Analytics are Key
With in-person training, facilitators have the ability to “read the room.” They can see whether attendees are hanging on every word or surreptitiously using their phones. In a virtual setting, the possibility for direct observation is limited. Relying other methods to understand engagement is critical. If you can get engagement data in real time, using a platform like Jigsaw Interactive, you’ll have key indicators that are objective and user driven.
The Kirkpatrick Model
The four-tiered Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation is a popular method to evaluate training engagement and effectiveness. The first three tiers refer to signs of employee engagement before and during training, and the last tier describes how you can tell whether they were engaged once training is over.
Reaction
You can gauge your employees’ reaction, in terms of their enthusiasm for the opportunity, by measuring the number of people who sign up and the rapidity of their engagement (edyoucated.org). In other words, did they sign up as soon as they saw the offer, or did they wait until the very last minute because they knew it was mandatory?
Learning
Engaged learners are invested in their own learning, so if your participants demonstrate that they’re catching on, that’s a good indication they’re finding the training valuable. Hands-on activities, in-class quizzes, and games are a great way to measure learning, and when you can see the results immediately, you can determine whether learners need more instruction or are ready to move on.
Behavior
In the Kirkpatrick Model, “behavior” refers to whether the employees behaviors change after training, as a result of what they learned (eLearning Industry). However, in terms of measuring engagement in real time, the term works just as well. With the right data analytics, you can see how often users engage with the material, answer questions, participate in breakout discussions, etc. It’s the next best thing to watching them either yawn and stare out the window or eagerly raise their hands to answer a question.
We’ll discuss the last tier, results, in the final article about employee training engagement.
“Committed learners do not learn only because they are forced to do so […] they do so because they enjoy the process and the results” (Shift eLearning). The reason it’s so important to measure engagement is, it’s the primary indicator of training value and outcomes.
