Directorate of distance education master of business administration

Methods Used for Evaluation of Training and Development Programs
 
An organization’s training head may employ several methods 
of evaluating the existing training programs. Some of the sources of 
information that could be obtained before commencing evaluation 

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process are as follows. Questionnaires and interviews carried out with 
the trainees after the programs, Tutor’s report on the trainees’ responses 
to the inputs, Project assignments based on the training inputs and direct 
observation or reviewing audiovisual recordings of the proceedings 
of a training program by the monitoring team, are the most common 
methods of evaluating the effectiveness of a training program.  
In recent times, benchmarking is also used to evaluate an 
organization’s training programs by comparing it with any exemplary 
training practices achieved by another unit or organization of comparable 
nature.  Several parameters would have to be kept in mind while analyzing 
and evaluating the effectiveness of the program. The extent of support 
from the top management towards training, the number of trainees 
covered, the time allotted to each module, the qualifications of trainers, 
the extent of participation of the trainees, the budgetary constraints faced 
by the organizers of the training program, the opportunity provided by 
the work atmosphere to implement the learning that was resulted from 
the training programs are to be considered while evaluating a training 
program. 
While systematic and concerted efforts to train employees are vital 
to an organization’s very existence and growth, they would not be the sole 
interventions to assure reliable Personnel Development. Motivation for