Assessing the impact of training on staff performance.

Abstract

This pretested document was prepared as a management and reference tool for a world-wide audience of family planning (FP) policy-makers, program managers, service managers, and trainers. The report describes a training impact evaluation (TIE) process that helps managers identify and strengthen the links between training and staff performance. Introductory information deals with understanding training evaluation, the various types of training evaluation, and conducting a TIE. The following steps of the TIE process are then described: 1) identifying job performance issues (defining key job-related tasks and choosing indicators/setting standards); 2) collecting data (evaluation techniques and instruments, how to design an effective evaluation instrument, sample definition, and how to plan and organize the data collection process); 3) analyzing the data (tabulation, aggregation, cross-tabulation, and disaggregation); 4) interpreting the data (using a decision-tree); 5) reporting the findings (developing a written report and making an oral presentation); and 6) making changes (responsibilities for acting on recommendations, handling resistance to change, agreeing on a new or revised training course and/or changing organizational procedures or systems, and clarifying expectations for a training event). An example is provided of the process and results of a TIE conducted in the Central Asian Republics. The report ends with a discussion of ways to continue the TIE process, the comments of reviewers about various aspects of the process, and a checklist to use when making a TIE.