Workplace learning and development (L&D) teams curate and deliver employee training programs, ensuring the continual growth of the entire employee base. This process, in turn, ensures the growth and overall success of the organization.
However, to build an effective L&D strategy, teams must assess their training effectiveness and demonstrate their impact and ROI to leaders. To do this, L&D teams must extract data from participant experiences and detailed performance data related to training programs’ format, content, and environment.
In this article, we’ll discuss how L&D leaders can create forms to evaluate the effectiveness of training programs. We’ll break down key components of L&D evaluation forms and provide you with a training evaluation form template to help you get started.
What Is a Training Evaluation Form?
A training evaluation form is a tool L&D teams use to collect data and post-training feedback from learners who participated in a particular lesson or other learning activity. This form is often a survey that asks participants to reflect on their experience with that activity. Survey questions can be related to lesson content, instructor methods, and even course materials – anything that might help L&D teams better understand the effectiveness of their initiatives.
Training evaluation forms can be delivered in different formats, such as paper-based, email, or in-app surveys embedded within your organization’s learning management system or digital workplace apps. Verbal feedback can also be obtained through informal conversations or formal activities like interviews and focus groups. The structure of training evaluation forms and the questions they include vary depending on the nature of learning activities and the targeted information.
Key Components of a Training Evaluation Form
Specific components are included in post-training evaluation forms, regardless of training type, method, or program. These components may be separated into distinct sections or combined into a more uniform list and include:
Participant information
This section gathers personal details, including the participant’s name, role, department, and activity. This information is critical for L&D recordkeeping and program performance analytics.
This area may also include questions aimed at understanding individual learners’ pre-training familiarity with training content to better calibrate performance data.
Evaluation of training content
This component includes questions intended to assess the quality and relevance of training material. This information can help L&D teams improve training programs and ensure learners receive accurate and engaging content that can be directly applied to their roles.
Example
Was the content relevant to your job?
Rating Scale: Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree
How well did the training material cover the topics necessary for your role?
Open-Ended: Please provide specific feedback on any missing topics or need more detail.
Evaluation of training delivery
This category includes prompts that target participants’ experiences during training activities. This information is useful for improving the quality of program structures and instruction styles, as well as the training delivery method.
Example:
How effective was the trainer in delivering the content?
Rating Scale: Very Ineffective | Ineffective | Neutral | Effective | Very Effective
Was the trainer engaging, and did they encourage participation?
Yes/No/Not Applicable: Follow-up: Please explain your response.
Learning environment
This section includes questions to assess participant experiences related to the training environment and course resources, whether programming is delivered virtually or in person. This information helps L&D teams set learners up for success when they begin engaging with training activities.
Examples:
Was the learning environment (physical or virtual) conducive to your learning?
Rating Scale: Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree
Did you have access to the necessary resources (e.g., technology, materials) during the training?
Yes/No/Not Applicable: If no, what resources were lacking?
Participant engagement and interaction
These questions are intended to determine participant motivation and engagement throughout training activities. Responses to these questions help L&D teams adapt training to employee learning preferences and deliver content that holds learners’ attention.
Examples:
How engaged did you feel during the training sessions?
Rating Scale: Not Engaged | Slightly Engaged | Neutral | Engaged | Highly Engaged
Did the training encourage interaction and participation among the group?
Yes/No/Not Applicable: Follow-up: How could the training improve in this area?
Achievement of learning objectives
This component includes prompts that assess how participants interpret their performance and how the course itself aligns with its intended purposes. These insights are critical for ensuring training outcomes align with individual, department, and organizational goals.
Examples:
To what extent did the training meet the stated learning objectives?
Rating Scale: Not At All | Slightly | Moderately | Very Much | Completely
Do you feel confident in applying what you learned in your job?
Rating Scale: Not Confident | Slightly Confident | Neutral | Confident | Very Confident
Overall satisfaction
This category includes questions that assess participant satisfaction with the training activity. This information gives L&D teams a better understanding of the high-level response to their efforts, which they can use to improve programming and justify their efforts to organizational leaders.
Examples:
How satisfied were you with the overall training experience?
Rating Scale: Very Dissatisfied | Dissatisfied | Neutral | Satisfied | Very Satisfied
Would you recommend this training to others?
Yes/No/Not Applicable: Follow-up: Please explain why or why not.
Open-ended feedback
Finally, training evaluation forms should prompt learners to provide additional comments and suggestions they may have. This leaves necessary room for employees to provide context for their responses and introduce concerns that the L&D team may not have anticipated.
Examples:
What was the most valuable part of the training?
Open-Ended: Please describe the aspect of the training you found most beneficial.
What improvements would you suggest for future training sessions?
Open-Ended: Provide any specific suggestions you have for enhancing the training.
Training Evaluation Form Template
Download a customizable copy of our free training evaluation form template.
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How to Implement Training Evaluation Forms
Creating, delivering, and documenting training evaluation forms and their feedback can be administratively complicated. Here are seven best practices for effectively implementing training evaluation forms across your organization.
1. Define the outcomes you’re evaluating
As you set out to develop your training evaluation form, identify clear objectives for your assessment. Is your team interested in employee satisfaction with your training programs or perceived training outcomes? Both?
Once you’ve established goals for your training evaluation, associate them with existing benchmarks and KPIs to ensure that your efforts align with the core objectives of your L&D program and overarching organizational goals.
2. Design the evaluation form
Once these objectives are in place, it’s time to design your form. Choose a format that complements the modality of your training program. For instance, it makes more sense to distribute paper surveys after an in-person training session, while an in-app survey works better for evaluating eLearning activities.
Next, you can outline the form to cover all the necessary topics and begin writing the evaluation questions. For each one, you must decide whether responses should be qualitative or quantitative. For qualitative responses, you can write open-ended questions like:
- Which topics covered in this activity were most relevant to your job?
- What could be improved about the training format or resources?
For quantitative responses, you can ask respondents to use Likert scales to rate the effectiveness of different aspects of training. For example:
- On a scale of 1-5, how engaging was the instructor’s delivery?
- On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the overall effectiveness of this training program?
3. Determine the best timing for distribution
For most training activities, it is ideal to distribute training feedback forms immediately after they are finished. This ensures that the experience is fresh in the participants’ minds as they respond.
Of course, this isn’t the only option. Depending on your program, it may be more effective to break your training evaluation survey into smaller components at checkpoints throughout more extensive training courses. It also may be helpful to solicit feedback after participants have had a chance to practice their new skills or knowledge.
4. Provide tips to encourage completion
As you distribute your training evaluation form, include detailed instructions and a clear deadline to ensure your employees can complete it correctly and promptly.
Depending on the format of your training evaluation form, you can schedule nudges or reminders to encourage employees to complete feedback forms on time. You can even incentivize completion with a small reward.
5. Collect and analyze data
Once you have collected participant responses, it is time to analyze trainee feedback.
If your forms are on physical paper, categorize feedback by themes, review respondents’ answers, and feed quantitative data from rating scales into data analytics programs for insights.
Compare insights against established benchmarks and KPIs to pull out actionable insights that will help your L&D team continually improve training programming. Pull insights together into clear, concise reports that demonstrate your findings to key stakeholders
6. Use feedback to improve future training
Use key takeaways to identify areas of your training program that could be improved. This may require changing your course’s format, content, or even training materials. As your team continues to deliver training, it is critical to continue soliciting feedback and using insights to shape the trajectory of your training initiatives.
7. Consider legal and ethical standards
Depending on your organization’s industry or the nature of training, training evaluations may include sensitive company data or personal information. Consider these factors when compiling data into reports or presentations, take all necessary measures to ensure your analyses respect employee privacy, and adhere to any regulatory or legal requirements associated with training content.
Empowering employees with the right training at the right time is critical for effective learning and development, and Whatfix makes it seamless with its Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) and advanced features like Whatfix Mirror.
Whatfix offers in-app training and just-in-time support, ensuring employees receive contextual guidance right within their workflow, exactly when they need it. Additionally, Whatfix Mirror allows employees to experience simulation training in a real-time, IT sandbox environment, helping them gain hands-on experience without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Also, with built-in surveys and feedback loops, Whatfix enables organizations to assess the effectiveness of their employee training programs to continuously refine their strategies. By integrating Whatfix into your L&D efforts, you can create a more efficient, adaptive, and results-driven employee development experience that drives long-term success.
To learn more about Whatfix, schedule a free demo with us today!
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