Many training professionals have a love/hate relationship with evaluation sheets, or what is sometimes referred to as smile sheets. Oftentimes it seems the only thing that matters is if the participants in the class “liked” the trainer and the training location, without consideration to whether they learned something or not. This doesn’t have to be the case. Great value can be gleaned from a simple post-training evaluation smile sheet. A few tweaks to the questions asked, and you have real actionable data.
Ask about relevance, not satisfaction.
The term smile sheet came about when the most common question was, “How satisfied were you with the training?” Training professionals don’t want a dissatisfied participant, but what do you really do with this information? If you are satisfied, but didn’t learn anything, is that good?
A more valuable question is, “Was the content relevant to your job?” This provides feedback to understand 1) the right pre-training communication is being done that highlights the need for this training (to emphasis relevance) and, 2) the right people are being invited to the training. Once you confirm you are communicating appropriately, low scores to this question highlight a problem with the matching of the training with the audience.
Ask about method, not quality of information.
Another common question is, “How would you rate the quality of the information presented?” And again, good information to know, but the drawback is you don’t know if the way the material was delivered actually helped the individual learn.
An alternative is to highlight the training methods and ask if the appropriate balance was achieved between these methods, such as, “Was there a good balance of group discussion, simulation, role play and feedback?” Coupled with another question, “Did the discussions, simulation, role plays, and feedback enhance your knowledge and skills?” These questions are tailored to new generations coming into the workforce and the overall shifts in how people want to receive learning and development. The younger generation wants “bite-size” learning, the ability to access information online, more collaboration and peer learning, as well as the use of technology to make training interactive and experiential. By adjusting your question here, you get feedback if your methods are hitting the mark with the audience.
Ask about learning, not objectives.
Another question to adjust is, “Did the learning meet its stated learning objectives?” This question is valuable when the training focuses on a single objective, but that is not always the case. And furthermore, meeting an objective doesn’t necessarily equate to an increase in knowledge, skills or ability. You can get more insight if you identify the key learning points of the training, have participants rate their skill level coming in and then leaving the training. For example, “Read and understand financial statements” or “Understand different personality styles and how to adapt my communication.”
These questions give you an idea of how much, or how little participants learned. Calculate the change by learning point and you know where the most, and the least learning took place. This information provides insight into how to adjust and improve your agenda in the future.
Focus on action, not intent.
In 2015, Bersin by Deloitte published a graph that mapped metrics that organizations measure vs. metrics that organizations consider valuable. The most valuable was “Impact on behavior / job performance.” Unfortunately only a little over 50 percent of organizations consistently track and measure impact. It’s difficult to identify impact, so a common question is, “Do you intend to apply what you learned back on the job?” The problem is, intentions don’t always equal actual application or business impact. So let’s skip “intent” and go directly to actions. Have participants identify what they will do – actions they will take – to apply what they learned. This is not necessarily impact, but by reviewing participants’ planned actions you are much closer to understanding the impact the training will have on behavior and/or performance.
If you implement all or just some of these simple changes, you will quickly create a data set from which you can act upon. And you are much closer to linking learning and development to actual job performance and business results.
Amy Happ is a Performance Consultant with Advantexe Learning Solutions.
