As a learning professional it is imperative to keep a track of the outcomes of the training programs and eventually to measure ROI of the training programs. Following are the essential pointers which will help you measure the ROI of training programs:-
Involving learners in the Instruction Design – Instruction Design is one of the vital steps to a learning and development program. Usually a manager or an executive from a relevant department takes charge of the content design when it comes to staff training but since this type of training is imparted to adult learners therefore involving them in the instruction design goes a long way. It is not about reading their thoughts but capturing their mind, body and soul by acknowledging their motivations and expectations and then incorporating those into the training makes a deep impact.
Measuring demonstrated engagement of participants – It is absolutely vital to measure the demonstrated engagement of the learners that is what they are really implementing and not just what they are saying. This can be easily done by creating a poll or a question-answer session where the participants respond on their phones or some interesting group activities which will test their knowledge. The results thereafter can be shared with the participants and it will actually be the yardstick to measure the scale of learner participation.
Asking the right questions – As a learning professional you need to stop dilly dallying with irrelevant questions and start asking the right questions. Start integrating some deep learning questions into your sessions like the following:-
Situations – You can discuss a situation and ask for suggestions from the group on what next can be done.
Best Answer - Participants can be asked to pick the best answer amongst the bunch of correct ones provided which can further be facilitated into a debate which will promote further discussion and active thinking.
Peer Review – The participants can be asked to frame a work sample or a particular campaign and then you can engage the group to make suggestions for further improvements.
Asking to make a commitment – You can round off the session by asking the participants to make a commitment before they return to their work. This is a potent technique as this will actually help them to implement their learning and also getting to know how they are going to bring about change in the organization.
Extending the learning into day jobs – Following up a training session is of utmost importance but this needs to be done in a personalized manner by using an affordable, web-based ARS system during the training, where each participant can get a copy of their responses. You can send a survey of what they wanted from the session, rather than generic questions. With some systems, you can also text reminder messages of what they learned. In this way, the learning can be extended into their day jobs.
Last but not the least, you must find out that how much the learners, whatever they have learnt, are putting into practice. This helps in the initial calculation of the ROI of training.