Effective Ways to Track Employee Training

Providing development programs and training for employees is one of the most effective ways to enhance their individual performance and motivation, which translates to success in an organizational setting. Training employees can equip new, as well as seasoned workers with the necessary skills to complete more complex responsibilities and job duties. But, the HR department has some extra tasks aside from providing the actual development and job training, that is, keeping better track of employees in training.

Why Is It Important to Track Employee Training?

Keeping track of employee training is vital in any organization. Almost 40 percent of employees within a year leave their new jobs when they receive insufficient training. Losing an employee, because you could not provide adequate training far outweighs getting a new employee on board.

Tracking employee training is also essential, especially in industries where heavy regulations require certifications and compliance, or your business ends up getting padlocked. Tracking the training of employees, especially in this kind of industry also ensures that everyone on the site is competent to operate machines, and do their jobs legally and safely. This is crucial in healthcare and construction agencies, or in any field that functions within a contract with the government.

Moreover, it helps you better understand your employees if you have knowledge about who has received training, and who has not. For example, if one area in your business consistently shows an error, you can easily review the training of the employees in that department, and provide the needed training if necessary. This way, you can avoid misunderstandings, increase their productivity, and eventually develop a collaborative and healthy work environment.

How to Keep Track of Employee Training:

Develop a Paper Trail

While it may sound too classic and too outdated, the best way to start tracking employee training is by creating a paper trail. Each employee should have a file from the time he is hired. Each employee file must contain the employee’s resume, degrees, and certificates before he was hired by the company, and a log sheet to keep tabs of the extra training sessions. Employee time tracking could also be included in the file. The record that consists of the paper trail can be a good visual aid that can be used in appraising employee’s performance. Additionally, this can be utilized in gap analyses to personalize and update employee training.

Observation

Another way to keep track of employee training is through observation of their performance, especially when the training is a live classroom session. During the training session, the gaps in the previous training sessions become more apparent as the training advances. These gaps could be easily addressed during, or in future training sessions.

When tracking employees’ training through observation, facilitators can track the interaction of the employee through role plays simulating OTJ settings. Facilitators, as the training progresses, can monitor the engagement and participation of the employee. Employees’ observation must be ongoing to make sure that the training is effective.

Signs of effective training include notable changes in the behavior and performance of the employee like increase in sales. In the case of compliance training, employee manifests positive interaction. Another sign of effective training is the increase in retention of employees over time.

Administration of Tests

In addition to observation, another effective way to track employee training is by administering tests. There are three types of testing that can be given. This includes diagnostic testing that occurs before a training session to measure the knowledge of employees. Another is by formative testing, which is typically administered during the training to aid employees’ engagement.

The third type is the summative testing, which usually occurs after training to gather data about employee understanding. Testing questions could be in true or false form, multiple choice, matching, fill in the blanks, and short answer. Moreover, alternate questions and tasks must be a built-in part of the testing period to give chance to wrong answers.

Use A Training Software

All of the procedures mentioned earlier could be aggregated if the company opts to use training course software. This way, employee training tracking could be done in a personalized way. By using an authoring tool, businesses can create training modules with video lectures, simulated interactions and conversations, static graphics, and texts.

It also allows businesses to check to make sure that the training is understood, issues are addressed, and goals are achieved. There is software that allows employees to be tested before, during, and at the end of each of the modules through a wide range of methods like short answer, true or false, matching type, fill in the blanks, and multiple choice questions.