Training Evaluation at Ryan Door

Training Evaluation at Ryan Door Gary Kuczynski and Darrius Handy Webster University

Scott T. McClure Ph.D.

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Scott T. McClure Ph.D.: Well done.  First team to mention Kirkpatrick!

Abstract

Training is vital to any business. A lack of training, or substandard training or no training at all, will adversely affect an organization. Ryan Door lacked an effective training program - most importantly, an effective onboarding process - to train new employees. Employee training was essentially left to the design team and their established group norms. Using Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation Outcomes (Four Levels), training can be improvements can be made incrementally.

Utilization of a Pretest/Posttest with Comparison Group evaluation design can determine a baseline of training, evaluate a newly integrated employee orientation program via post-training testing, and further see if training was effective with a second post-training test.[pic 3]

Scott T. McClure Ph.D.

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Scott T. McClure Ph.D.: Nice addition.

Training Evaluation at Ryan Door

Training is vital to any business.  For employees, training must start at their introduction to the company and continue throughout their tenure. “Employees are more loyal to companies that value their growth and want to cultivate it, and thusly provide a better performance and decrease the rollover rate at any company, no matter how small or large,” says robertr in his dalecarnegie.com blog titled, Why is Training Important to a Business? He continues to say, “If an employee thinks a company values him or her that sentiment will go into whatever the employee is designing, selling, manufacturing, etc.”

In the aforementioned author’s blog, he points to a crucial element regarding training. Training is absolutely necessary and important, “however, the kind of training an employee receives is very important. Allowing an employee to simply pass through a sort of substandard “101” training course does not ensure improvement.”[pic 4]

Training Process Improvement at Ryan Door

Ryan Door can improve their training process for the design group in numerous ways.

First, Jack Ryan, the CEO, needs to develop a solid mission statement, goals and strategy for the organization. (Werner, J. and DeSimone, R., 2012, p. 272) It’s critical for the organization to understand this, inculcate it, and ensure quality products are made. It’s an azimuth for the organization. It starts the process and provides a guideline for training. Second, an onboarding process has to be established for new employees. The establishment of this process will help the employee with organizational socialization. (Werner, J. and DeSimone, R., 2012, p. 256) Incorporated into the onboarding program is an employee orientation program. Werner and DeSimone define state that “employee orientation programs are designed to introduce new employees to a job, supervisor, coworkers, and organization.  Orientation programs typically

Scott T. McClure Ph.D.

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Scott T. McClure Ph.D.: This section includes a broader view of the organizational problem, which is noteworthy on your part. Including Mission & on-boarding is a smart strategy to get everyone aligned!

begin after a newcomer has agreed to join an organization, frequently on the individual’s first day at work.” (Werner, J. and DeSimone, R., 2012, p. 271)[pic 5]

Ryan Door doesn’t have any training manuals or job descriptions that can assist a new employee with their onboarding process. The process is left to outgoing employees if they are still on the job. If a onboarding process, primarily an employee orientation program is developed, then part of that process would be introduction to the job and what it entails, some training about the process of making doors, introductions to the members of the team, and perhaps a training manual that outlines duties, responsibilities, policies, procedures, and other facets of the organization that assist the new employee in understanding the organization, their job, and how to do their job.

Employee orientation at Ryan Door is nonexistent and allows for new employees to only inculcate the group norms of the current member of the design team. If the current viewpoint of the design team is to “do it their way,” then new employees getting trained by employees leaving the organization will only learn how to do things via the group norm. Unwritten rules and processes will have to be adhered to since there are no formal guidelines or policies that may be outlined in a training manual.  (Werner, J. and DeSimone, 2012, p. 259)

Types of Outcomes Used in the Improved Training Process

The evaluation design that would suit Ryan Door Company in the most effective manner would be the Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation Framework. This is the most popular and influential framework for training evaluation (Werner, 2011). There are four parts to the Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation Model. They are Reaction Level, Learning Level, Behavior Level and Results Level. This evaluation will address and identify the areas where improvements and growth can be gained.

The Ryan Door Company is having problems with the CEO, supervisors and employee’s having disagreements and employee’s doing the job “the way they want”. With the implementation of the first level of the Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation they will be able to measure how the trainees reacted to the training. It's important to measure reaction; because it helps you understand how well the training was received by your audience. It also helps you improve the training for future trainees, including identifying important areas or topics that are missing from the training ("Kirkpatrick's four-level training," 1996).

The second issue that will be addressed is the lack of uniformity and a Standard Operating Procedure. With Level Two of the Kirkpatrick Model we will measure what the trainees have learned and how much their knowledge increased as a result of the training. Measuring what the trainees are learning and what they are not will help improve future training. This should identify the disconnect with the previous training and focus on what the expectations are for the job. The learning Metric should remove variance and unite the organization in doing a job by a (SOP) Standard Operating Procedure.