How does Performance-Based Evaluation work?

It's often difficult to measure value when you are doing soft skills training - but it's really the most important thing you can do. Working with our clients, we've developed an effective and reliable process to evlauate these types of training programs.

First, we review the content. We look at the objectives, but then we go a bit farther into the reasons for doing the training: what performance or behavior changes do you hope to see as a result of the training?

We examine the context for the training, and identify the desired behavior changes. Then, we implement a 3-step evaluation system, using on-line tools to run the surveys:

• A pre-workshop survey measures attitudes and opinions related to the topic.

• A post-workshop survey measures attitudes again, and also assesses content learning 1-2 days after the training concludes.

• Finally, we run a 30-45 day (or 60-90, depending on the topic) follow-up survey to measure the extent to which the trainees are using the new skills and how effective they have been.

When all is said and done, we submit a report identifying areas of effectiveness and topics that may need more emphasis to reach your training targets. It's an efficient way to measure how well your training dollars are being invested.