Post-training surveys have become standard practice for most organizations. You know the drill: After a training session that lasts several hours, you give your learners five minutes at the very end to rate the training in terms of whether they enjoyed it, whether they found it helpful, and what they thought of the instructor(s).
These surveys may not be the best indicator of how effective training was. The clearest indicator is how and whether employees implement what they learned. These after the fact surveys can be a good indicator of how engaged the participants were in the process (Hurix), if the employees take the survey seriously and tell the truth.
How many of you have been in such a hurry to get out of a training session and back to work that you gave every category a perfect score just to be done with it or because you knew and liked the instructor? Or, how many of you have been so irritated at having to participate in a training session that you gave it a low score out of spite? Believe it or not, these reactions are both very common (Management Library).
The best way to get the truth out of respondents when you ask them to rate a training meeting is to make the training so engaging and pertinent that they’re just as invested in the feedback as they were in the process. If they take the training seriously, they’re far more likely to take the survey seriously.
Better yet, having actual engagement analytics to compare with the training survey gives you a solid and more objective picture of each participant.
How would your employees rate your training?
Did You Tailor the Training to Your Audience’s Needs and Skills?
Training engagement starts before the training itself (goFLUENT). Nobody is interested in taking training they feel is useless. If you want to engage your audience, you need to do research prior to the training. Who is your audience? What roles do they play in the organization? What is their experience and knowledge level? What is the planned training about and how does that fit within their scope of business? What are their media and technology preferences? How does this training impact their productivity and opportunity for advancement in the company?
Was Your Training Immersive and Interactive?
Matt Archer, of Positive Results Custom Business Solutions, says, “Interactive training can help increase a learner’s […] involvement or commitment with the material and help them become more invested in the end result.” Hours of lectures and slide shows never hold anybody’s interest, but the more learners invest themselves in the processandthe more they’re actually involved in their own learning via mental and physical activity, the more they care about what they learn (Positive Results).
To create and maintain active engagement, it’s vitally important to adopt a learner-centered mindset when fashioning employee training. Higher learning engagement translates to (Design Digitally):
- Higher success rates
- Better knowledge retention
- Increased performance/productivity
- Higher employee engagement
- Higher employee retention
If you’re looking to see these outcomes but aren’t sure how to increase engagement in your virtual training, visit Jigsaw Interactive and take advantage of their state-of-the-art virtual training tools and expert advice.
