Criteria for Evaluating Training

Training program is really necessary for every organization, and its result can be shown and evaluated after training. There are three types of criteria for evaluating training, and these include: internal, external, and participant’s reaction (Ivancevich, 2010, pp. 422-423).

(1). Internal criteria: It is directly associated with the content of the program whether the employees learned the facts and guidelines covered in the program.

(2). External criteria: It is related more to the ultimate purpose of the program especially on improving the effectiveness of the employees, and these include job performance rating, the degree of learning transferred from training and development successions to on-the-job situation, and increase in sales or decreases in turnover.  

(3). Participant’s reaction criteria: It is related to how the subjects about the benefits of a specific of training or development experience that is commonly used as an internal criteria.

Relatively, Kirkpatrick on his view about multiple-criterion evaluation system suggests measuring the following:

            (1). Participant’s reaction: It concerns with the participants whether they like or dislike the program. The participants show their satisfaction about the training program.

            (2). Learning: It is related to the employees themselves whether they get score higher on the tests after training or more developed than before.

            (3). Behavior: It is about the external measure of changes or lack of changes in job behavior, and this can be evaluated by comparing the rates of results tested before and after training.

            (4). Result: It is about the effect of the program on organizational dimension such as employees’ turnover, productivity, volume of sales or error –free letters typed.

Sam Aun (Andy)