Improve Future Training Sessions with Our Feedback Guide

There’s no doubt that accepting and collecting feedback is important when providing any product or service, and corporate training is no exception.

And while any feedback is crucial, being strategic with how you ask for it can allow you to get the most useful information you can from your participants.

Ask the right questions and get effective feedback from your trainees with our training workshop feedback survey guide below. Copy and paste the most relevant questions into an experience management software like Survey Monkey or simply incorporate it into a feedback request email. Get more email templates for your trainees from one of our recent blog posts.

Remember, research has shown that to get optimal data, you need to consider how long you make your survey. Studies have shown that the longer the survey, the less amount of time your participants spend on answering each individual question. This means it is important to balance your survey to make sure there is enough questions to get all the information you are looking for, while still ensuring that there is a good amount of thought going into how each question is answered. While there is no magic number for how many questions you include in your feedback survey, 5-10 questions is a good rule of thumb.

Feedback: Why your participants’ opinion matters

The opinion of your participants experience in your training programs is highly valuable. Feedback is great for learning purposes, for suggesting improvements, and for inspiring creativity in your training programs. It will also help to determine which ideas are most valued for the company. There are a few different levels of feedback you should be seeking post-training.

Level One: Reactions

The most basic level of evaluation is the participants’ reactions to the training. To gauge this, you should be asking questions such as the following:

• How did you like the training?
• How did you like the trainer?
• How did you feel about the training environment?
• Did you think the training was useful?
• Did you feel comfortable?
• Did you feel as though you had ample opportunities to participate?

Level one questions can be asked in post-training surveys or even in the form of verbal feedback before or after the training session.

Reaction feedback is fairly easy to gather and measure. It should be gathered as close as possible to the desired time period. (For example, if you wanted to measure reactions to the first day of a workshop, you should gather reactionary feedback at the end of the first day).

Level Two: Learning

The next level of evaluation assesses how much the participant actually learned in the training session. It looks at two basic areas which are if trainees learned what we (the trainer) wanted them to learn, and if the training session was the experience participants wanted it to be.

This level is typically measured via tests immediately before and immediately after the training. It is important that these assessments are tied closely to the learning objectives.

Note that this level can be measured on an individual or group level. For example, you could have a verbal group-style quiz, or you could have individual assessments. When assessing group performance, however, make sure that each individual can be evaluated.

Since this level of feedback is very specific to the topic you are training in, we can’t generally tell you what you need to ask. However, with our Soft Skills Library, we provide post tests for each of our 140 Soft Skills courses. This allows you to assess your trainees prior knowledge and what they have learned quickly and easily.

Level Three: Behavior

This level of question evaluates how trainees could see themselves applying the learning they took in and how it may have changed their behavior towards the training topic. Key questions for this level may include:

• How quickly do you feel you can put your knowledge from the training into effect when you go back on the job?
• Were the skills presented today relevant?
• How confident do you feel you could correctly implement the skills you learned in the training?
• Do you feel the training you received today will contribute to positive sustainable change in your workplace?
• Has your outlook on the training topics discussed today changed?
• Do you feel that you could confidently share the knowledge you learned in the training session with others?

It can be challenging to evaluate changes at this level, particularly with soft topics like communication and leadership. This is why it is important to develop a well-rounded, accurate evaluation system before training begins. This may need to be evaluated on an ongoing basis in a way that is not intrusive on their daily duties. It may take time for the skills learned in the training to be implemented and impacting their results.

Level Four: Results

The final level of evaluation is quantifiable results. This assesses the effect of the training on the person’s environment (their workplace, home, etc.). These questions (like the behaviour questions) may be better to ask a period of time after the training was conducted. Alternatively, you can ask questions that can help you gauge if the trainees can visualize themselves using what they learned in the training to help achieve quantifiable results in their organization.

Consider asking if your trainees can use what they learned to better their metrics in regards to:

• Number of sales
• Percentage of customer complaints
• Timeliness
• Absenteeism
• Quality ratings and failures
• Third-party inspection ratings (such as food and safety)

This is an important level of evaluation, as it is often what high-level executives look for when evaluating the training. They want to know numbers and figures, with proof to back the data up, also known as key performance indicators. This ensures that the goals of the business are being tied into the training.

These evaluation processes should tie in with day-to-day business procedures and not cause a lot of extra work. It is important, however, that the trainee knows what measurements are tied to the training before the training begins. This will help them apply context to the training and achieve better results.

As a final note, be careful of outside factors that can cloud ratings in your quantifiable data. For example, let’s say that you send your salespeople on training and you expect their sales to increase by 5% per month as a result. If the economy crashes two months after the training, your results will be clouded by outside circumstances.

Additional Questions to Consider:

Your goals as a trainer will impact the questions you will ask your trainees. This could be in regards to quantifying success, training logistics, knowledge retention or something completely different. Here are some other questions you may want to consider asking when gathering feedback on your training:

• What is your main goal for taking this training?
• What was the most useful part of the training?
• What was your least favorite part of the training? Why was it your least favorite?
• What are your biggest challenges in your role/organization?
• Where did you first hear about us?
• How would you rate the training space?
• How would you rate the trainer’s delivery of the session?
• How would you describe your experience of booking/registering for your training?
• Is there any way we can improve to make our future training sessions better?

Conclusion:

We hope that this blog post sparked some inspiration for your next training session. Don’t forget to check out our Soft Skills Library for post-test quizzes on 140 training topics, and let us know of any feedback questions we forgot in the comments below!

Posted by Katelyn Roy on September 9, 2021