Evaluating performance means taking your training beyond the classroom. You’ve already taken a training class and confirmed you learned what you were supposed to. Now ask yourself, have you taken your new knowledge or skill back to the workplace?
Performance looks at how we transfer and use the learning that we do in a formal learning setting. Here, we are looking at the practical effects of training.
Why Performance Doesn’t Always Change after Training
Just because you have learned something new doesn’t mean your performance will change. Sometimes, we go back to work and keep on doing things the same way we did before training. Why? There can be a number of factors at play.
Sometimes, we are resistant to change. Just because you can do something in a new way doesn’t mean you want to. Without support and supervision from management, change isn’t likely to happen. This may also be a sign that training didn’t do a good job of explaining how this new method will benefit you and other employees.
Changing habits also takes focus and time until new skills become ingrained. If you feel rushed or unsupported, you may not be able to apply your learning. For example, if you learned how to write business documents using plain language, but have a manager who still insists you write using business jargon, you aren’t likely to change the way you write.
The Bottom Line
If you want to know how effective your training was, your performance back on the job needs to be examined by you and management. To help ensure success, management also needs to look at ways to support you while you are changing your behaviour.
