A best practice guide for Learning & Development teams
Evaluating training is essential for guiding improvements in learning and development programmes as well as demonstrating if the learning strategy is delivering on the overall business strategy. When designing a feedback form, it's always tempting to dive straight in and start writing questions. But if you first think about your objectives and what you really want to know, your feedback survey can extract specific and measurable insights from each learner.
It’s all in the planning
For the feedback you collect to be useful and actionable, the survey design needs to feature prominently in the planning phase of the overall learning programme.
For each learning programme, ask yourself “What is the end goal?” For example, it could be equipping learners with new skills to carry out their job more effectively or changing employee’s behaviours to meet a wider corporate goal. Whatever the objective, questions need to be carefully selected for both end-of-course and follow-up surveys to offer the insights you need.
End-of-course surveys
End-of-course feedback serves three main purposes:
- Health check - how the learner reacted to the training
- Impact - the likely impact of the training
- Improvement - insights focused on improving the training
A blend of reflective and forward-looking questions will offer different insights, but ultimately the aim is to measure the effectiveness of what has been delivered and drive improvement in future programmes.
Follow-up feedback surveys
End-of-course surveys can provide valuable feedback but there are extra insights that can be gained with follow-up surveys. If learners are asked to predict the impact of the training at the end of the course, it will inevitably result in subjective data. A follow-up survey sent 4-6 weeks after the training can capture whether the learner has been able to put their skills into practice, and the impact this has had.
Best practice guidance when designing feedback surveys
- Consider the purpose of each course. Ensure that each question can provide actionable insights that can be used to improve future iterations of the course.
- Prioritise multiple-choice questions over rating and LIKERT scale questions. Score-based questions are good for measuring learner reaction, but they don’t provide specific details on the improvements you could make or the likely impact of the training.
- Make questions easy to answer. For example, asking a learner at the end of a course how much time they expect to save as a result of the training will be a subjective guess. Better to ask this as part of a follow-up survey and get fact-based data.
- Ensure that questions don’t overlap. Every question should have its own distinct purpose. We recommend a maximum of ten questions, and less for shorter courses.
- Avoid mandatory questions. Give learners the freedom to provide input in the areas where they have something valuable to offer.
In conclusion, designing effective feedback surveys requires careful planning to ensure the data collected is both useful and actionable. Start with the end in mind and define the business questions you want to answer.
For more best practice tips, get your free copy of the Ultimate Guide to Training Evaluation.