Shivani Dubey specializes in crafting engaging write-ups and exploring the intricacies of customer experience management. She covers vital topics such as customer feedback, voice of the customer (VoC), NPS, emerging UX and CX trends, and sentiment analysis.
Learn about Our Editorial Process Author & Editor at ProProfs Updated: 30 May, 2024
When it comes to corporate training and development, 49% of companies in the US increased their budget in 2022 compared to 41% in 2021.
While this data is enough to convince anyone about the importance of employee training programs, the question of ‘How to conduct effective training’ remains.
One possible answer to this is the training surveys.
These surveys not only help you evaluate the effectiveness of your current training endeavors but also prepare you better for future development programs.
In this article, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of training surveys, their benefits, pre- and post-training survey question examples, and tips for creating effective training feedback surveys.
A training survey is a structured set of questions designed to collect feedback and insights from individuals who will or have recently participated in a training program or course.
These surveys serve a dual purpose: first, they help trainers and organizations understand the effectiveness of their training initiatives, and second, they provide valuable feedback to ensure continuous improvement.
Employee training surveys typically include a mix of pre-training and post-training questions. Let’s have a look at each one and their question examples.
Before your training program begins, pre-training surveys are critical in understanding your participants’ expectations and needs. These feedback questions for training help you tailor your training content to meet those expectations.
Here are some sample pre-training survey questions you can use in your survey:
Post-training surveys, conducted after the training program, provide valuable feedback that can help you assess the effectiveness of your training. Below is a collection of post-training survey templates and questions you can use to measure the impact of your training:
Training Expectations and Learning Confidence:
Training Session Assessment:
Instructor Evaluation:
Training surveys guide you toward a well-trained, engaged, and productive workforce. But their benefits go beyond this. Here are some reasons why businesses leverage training surveys, and you should too:
Training surveys offer insights that help you continuously improve your training content and methods. They are your feedback mechanism to ensure your training and materials don’t have gaps and issues.
Also, employee growth and learning need to evolve. What was effective a year ago might not be as impactful today. It is where training surveys help you identify these changing needs, allowing you to shape training programs that are always in tune with your employees’ requirements.
It’s no secret that well-trained employees are more engaged, productive, and motivated. Pre-training surveys are a way to show employees that their opinions matter even before they start training. Post-training surveys help you improve and deliver more valuable training experiences.
By conducting these surveys, you’re telling your employees, “We care about your growth,” which, in turn, nurtures a culture of loyalty and commitment.
Surveys establish a direct line of communication between your organization and your employees. This open channel can help promptly address training issues and concerns, preventing minor problems from turning into significant challenges.
Training should not be a standalone activity but sync with your organizational goals. You can use training surveys as a lens into this alignment. So, when planning your training program, ask this question to the employees— Is the training program contributing to your KPIs?
If the responses aren’t what you want, you can plan better training programs that align with employees’ needs, KPIs, and business objectives.
The timing of your training survey is crucial. Ideally, you should conduct a pre-training survey a few hours before the training session and post-training surveys immediately after each training session or course, within 24 hours of completion. It ensures you gather feedback while the experience is fresh in participants’ minds.
If your training survey isn’t impeccable, your employees won’t engage, and you won’t get the insights you need. To avoid this situation, refer to these survey tips while creating and conducting training surveys.
Before creating your survey, decide what you want to achieve. For example, are you looking for feedback on a particular training program? Or assessing broader training needs? Or do you want a glimpse into the current skill set of your workforce for development?
Having a clear objective will guide the survey’s design and purpose. You can ask feedback questions for training based on the type of employee data you want to collect.
Asking too many feedback questions for training one after another can discourage and tire participants, while too few may not provide enough information.
Find the right balance to ensure participants are engaged but not overwhelmed. Create a list of questions and then gauge the kind of data they’ll get.
If the questions don’t bring the desired results, you can skip them. This way, you’ll only ask what needs to be asked and not what should be asked.
Long questions don’t do you any favors. If anything, they confuse respondents, skewing your feedback data. So, try asking one thing at a time and keep your questions concise and easy to understand. This way, the participants won’t abandon the survey.
The Wrong Way: “Do you think the instructor and the material provided in the training were effective?”
The Right Way: “Do you think the instructor was effective during the training session?”
If you want precise data and insights, you need to ask the right questions to the right people. It is where you can leverage Qualaroo, an online survey maker tool. It comes with its branching and skip logic that can make all the difference in making your training surveys more personalized and relevant.
You can tailor the questions based on participants’ previous responses to keep the survey relevant and engaging while allowing them to skip irrelevant questions.
Here’s how branching logic works:
Organize your questions in a logical sequence to get the most accurate data. Start with simple, non-intrusive inquiries and progress to more specific or sensitive ones. This logical order ensures a smoother participant experience.
Try to avoid leading questions or vocabulary, which could influence participants’ responses. The goal is to gather honest and accurate feedback.
The Wrong Way: “Did you find the training program highly informative and beneficial for your job?”
The Right Way: “How would you rate the informativeness and benefits of the training program for your job?”
If you want to know more about conducting effective training surveys, check out this guide on survey errors you should be aware of and avoid.
Employee training surveys serve as valuable tools for optimizing training programs. These feedback questions for training provide data to help refine your content, methods, and training strategy.
This continuous improvement approach fosters an engaged and open dialogue with employees, showcasing a commitment to their development.
So, if you want to retain your top talent, prioritize employee growth, and drive organizational success, start listening to what your employees think and use the feedback to create development programs employees want.
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