“There is no way to measure training!” were the famous words said to me by a human resources (HR) professional as I entered the world of corporate training 15 years ago. Yet, in today’s fast-paced corporate landscape, we know this to be highly untrue — especially when you consider effective sales teams. Sales teams are given targets, key performance indicators (KPIs) and weekly check ins to track and measure their employees’ success in meeting business goals. In the same way, other business functions can use the same methodologies to measure the success of their training programs.

Don’t get me wrong: Measuring training is not for the faint of heart. This is because the main metric is your learners’ feedback on your training design, delivery and content. And applying feedback can be challenging, especially when you aren’t sure if it’s worth doing so. Metrics like objective and key results (OKRs), net promoter score (NPS), customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and KPIs can help provide data-driven proof of training’s success by evaluating goal achievement. Let’s take a look at each measurement and how it can evaluate training efficacy.

1. OKRs

A OKR is a goal-setting framework used to set stretch goals with measurable results. They help track progress in meeting those goals, align the goals with business needs and motivate employees to achieve measurable results. OKRs are written out as objectives to be achieved along with a set of metrics to support the achievement of that objective called key results.

OKRs should be used to achieve the challenges set by the employee and manager and to determine how training can help. They should also be future focused and ambitious with a set time period. Here’s an example:

Objective:

• Improve the effectiveness of training.

Key results:

• Decrease the time taken to complete a training program from 30 to 15 days.
• Improve average training score from 65%-80%

2. KPIs

A KPI is a quantifiable measure that evaluates the performance of an individual or business over a set period. KPIs are a performance measurement that show the efficacy of knowledge transfer and whether employees can apply the skills and capabilities learned during training on the job.

Before setting KPIs, the desired goals and objectives should be made clear to both employees and management. That way employees know what kind of performance the business expects, and leadership is on the same page of what skills and behaviors to measure. Meet with company leaders to set key ways to track learners’ knowledge transfer and application of skills. For example, if you’re in a sales environment, you can measure the amount of leads brought in at least three months post training. You can take it a step further and review the last three years of sales and match it back to your current figures to see if there was an improvement from training.

3. CSAT

CSAT is a customer experience metric that measures happiness with a product, service or customer support interaction through a customer satisfaction survey. The survey allows you to measure your training or even your delivery style by simply asking, “How satisfied were you with X.” CSAT can be especially helpful in sales organizations and in front-facing roles. Evaluating these scores can help sales reps and customer services reps sharpen their interpersonal skills and create more personalized customer experiences.

4. NPS

NPS is simply the percentage of attendees who would recommend your training program to others. This type of measurement can provide the training manager with direct feedback on how impactful the training was to learners. A huge part of training effectiveness is whether or not it resonated with the learners and motivated them in their role.

The question of whether or not attendees would recommend the training program to others should be accompanied by “Why did you choose that score?” This kind of feedback can provide more clarity to the rating and give you direction on how to improve the program moving forward.

Looking Ahead

As a training manager, your main goal is to design and deliver impactful training programs and just as importantly, evaluate and prove its success to stakeholders. To do this effectively, you must understand how to use these metrics to consistently improve your training. So have no fear: There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of your training and improve it — you just have to just decide which type of measurement to use and when.