Assessing the Impact of Training on Staff Performance

Throughout the world, family planning organizations devote a significant portion of their funds and staff time to training, with the expectation of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their programs. But it is often not clear whether the training has made any difference, or whether specific performance problems can be solved through training.

Given the considerable allocation of scarce resources to training, family planning managers need to regularly ask their training efforts are giving them the results they want. Managers need to understand which parts of a training program are effective, which are ineffective or irrelevant, and how the training might be improved to help staff transfer their new skills from the classroom to the workplace.

This issue of The Family Planning Manager introduces Training Impact Evaluation (TIE), a process designed to help managers identify and strengthen the links between training and staff performance. The issue describes the benefits of conducting a Training Impact Evaluation using a team approach and takes you step-by-step through the TIE process. The issue also offers practical suggestions for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data on trainee performance in the workplace. It concludes with suggestions for ways that managers can use the information to make recommendations to decision makers, to improve training courses, or to seek management solutions to performance problems.