rewrite

The learning process causes a change in our behavior as a result of “interactions with people, events, or objects in the environment” (Huffman, Vernoy, & Vernoy, 1997). Learning is an important facet of job performance because it is the cornerstone of adding knowledge, skills, and abilities to an employee’s repertoire of competencies. Adding to an employee’s knowledge base has been shown to increase a company’s profitability. “Studies of workplace productivity show that generally” those employees that had superior General Mental Abilities (GMA) “can provide productivity boosts of almost 40%” (ebilities, 2013).

Corporations build training programs to “improve performance” of individuals, groups, or the entire corporation (Cascio, 2013). For training to be successful, there must be a “measurable change in” (Cascio, 2013) employee, group, or organizational behavior, in a positive direction. Training effectiveness must be evaluated and, in order to do that, there must be an evaluation strategy. The strategy for evaluating the training should consider the organizational mission and goals, and determine if the training program is effective in causing, or enhancing, behaviors that contribute to mission and goal accomplishment. According to the Office of Personnel Management, “[i]dentifying the most appropriate assessment tool requires careful consideration of the costs and benefits associated with each option” (OPM, 2013). A strategy that considers all of these aspects is the Kirkpatrick model (Kirkpatrick, 1996).

“The choice of evaluation criteria…is a primary decision that must be made when evaluating the effectiveness of training” (Arthur, Winston, Edens, &Bell, 2003). Criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the training program must be measurable, standardized (in order to test all candidates for the position equally and avoid litigation), and must be flexible to allow for changing labor market, in order that standards may be relaxed or tightened as required. Arthur, et al. agreed with using the Kirkpatrick model’s criteria: reaction, learning, behavior, and results (Kirkpatrick, 1996). The reaction of the trainee is a measure of whether the students want to learn the material and/or, if it was presented in the correct manner. The “learning” aspect is a measure of what, within the trainee, is improved (i.e. knowledge, skills, and/or abilities). Behavior is a way of gauging the “transfer of training” (Kirkpatrick, 1996), which relates to a measure of the “before” and “after” actions on the job. And the “results” measure the effects of the training on external things, such as productivity, increased profit, or quality increases.

Criteria allow the feedback received from the analysis process to be acted upon by giving a standard to measure to. Training that is found ineffective can be analyzed using the data from the evaluation process to determine how changes should be made. Based on the results of the evaluation, training can be changed in order to make it more effective. As part of the Kirkpatrick strategy, pre-tests will have to be developed with consideration to isolating the cause of the desired behavior and connecting the desired behavior to the training (Cascio, 2013). I believe pre-testing can also determine where to invest in training by showing where knowledge is lacking; no sense in providing training in a subject already learned. Testing will also have to occur during training (to gauge how well students understand the material) and post-testing (to measure how well students retain the material). OPM recommends that organizations consider: the “critical competencies” that will be tested; “reliability and validity of the assessment tools,” in this case, the knowledge tests; and cost factors associated with the testing (OPM, 2013). Additionally, OPM points out that, organizations are responsible for making sure testing meets compliance with applicable laws (2013).

Once feedback is gathered, the feedback must be analyzed, organized, prioritized, cost of implementation must be determined, and then feedback must be implemented. This process should be ongoing and receive constant feedback to improve the training process (see Figure 1.). Controls can be developed for making curricula changes using the feedback. The controls can be administrative, in the form of doctrinal changes that effect content, or operational controls, that effect the actions of instructor staff. These controls, in turn, get monitored in the feedback loop and checked for accuracy and effectiveness.

Figure 1. Graphic depiction of Kirkpatrick’s Model as a constant feedback loop.