How to Demonstrate Training Effectiveness to an Auditor

Training effectiveness has been a much debated subject for quite some time, mostly because it’s very challenging to come up with an accurate way to measure effectiveness.  For example, you attend training that’s supposed to teach you how to write better nonconformance reports….how do you measure that?  An improvement is noticed, but how do you quantify that improvement?  Can you see how subjective the answers to these questions could be?

To satisfy an auditors inquiry, there are three possible strategies that you can implement that will give you documented evidence that you measured the effectiveness of your training.

1. Administer a quiz after training.   Once training is completed, administer a quiz to test trainees on their knowledge of the subject.  In order for this to work, the quiz must be mandatory and a predetermined passing grade must be met for the trainee to receive credit.  I just have two cautions….Make sure the questions aren’t so easy that the quiz becomes a joke; and set the passing grade high enough so that an auditor doesn’t question the intent. For example, if you set the passing grade at 60% for your GMP training, then it looks like you’ve set your bar low so that everyone passes therefore, you’re not really testing someone’s knowledge.
2. Administer a  quiz before AND after training. This strategy will measure someone’s knowledge on the subject before they received training and then afterwards to see if the training has been effective….you should see a definite improvement on the post training quiz grades, unless the person was already an expert on the subject.
3. Create an on-the-job training program.  This approach will take the longest to implement, but can really provide a lot of value to a company.  The purpose of the program is to provide on-the-job training for a period of time before a person is deemed an ‘expert’.  You would need to make sure that at the end of the program there’s documented evidence that the trainee was able to demonstrate proficiency in performing their job functions.