So you’ve decided that you’re going to do a training evaluation, and, yikes, it is your first one!

First, answer these questions:

• Will the evaluation be used in deciding whether or not to move forward with training?
• Why is the evaluation being done; that is, what decisions does the company want to make during the evaluation?
• Who are the key stakeholders who should receive evaluation reports? What do they want from the evaluation?
• What elements of a evaluation will provide the data to aid in the decisions that you and/or stakeholders want to make?
• When is the information needed?
• What resources are available to conduct the evaluation? Can a Steering Committee be formed to aid with the evaluation? Will internal resources be used or will you employ external evaluation resources?
• Is funding available? What projects will be delayed or not done if the evaluation is implemented?
• What existing evaluation practices are in place? Can they be leveraged and used in the evaluation? Will this evaluation replace some of these practices?

The answers to the questions attempt to get at the purpose of the evaluation and what is prompting it. Implementing your first training evaluation can be a bit intimidating, but, as with any effort, it gets easier and quicker as you do it. First, you need a plan of action—the Evaluation Plan . The key to a successful training evaluation is in the planning. Often, evaluation planning is ignored in favor of getting on with the evaluation work. However, many people fail to realize the value of an evaluation plan in saving time and money and preventing problems.

Coming up in this series of posts:

• Questions training evaluation answer
• Elements in an Evaluation Plan
• Evaluation deliverables
• Evaluation schedule
• Performing the evaluation
• Training evaluation and continuous improvement
• Training evaluation organizational readiness

As always, I would enjoy hearing your thoughts on this topic.