Companies are generally not obtaining the benefits they expect or need from the money they invest annually in training their workers, this premise has motivated many researchers and professionals to seek methods or techniques that can relate spending on that is incurred in training workers with the results that they and their units obtainsome time after completion of the actions, and most importantly, how to demonstrate or verify to what extent the training received is positively influencing the generation of value and therefore the level of customer satisfaction. Otherwise, it is necessary to know how the training actions are influencing the performance of the workers and therefore of the organizations, in short, in the quality of the services they provide to their clients.
So the challenge for organizations is to find a tool that allows them to measure to what extent training actions impact on individual and organizational performance manifested, such as better services and customer satisfaction.
Obtaining this tool led us to seek a definition of the type of training that companies should practice in the current economic, social, political and technological context in which companies operate. This is how we define this type of training as Effective Training.
"Process by which each worker is given training based on the skills required for their job position, at the lowest cost and according to their personal development needs and the quality of services that the company must provide, designed in in such a way that it allows evaluating its impact on the performance of the participants once they have been incorporated into their areas ”.
Assuming this definition implied a review of the “how” training programs are designed, planned and implemented, and therefore actions, which made it necessary to use the process approach to training, but also based on the competencies required by each position involved in the process.
Training must therefore be a process that provides participants with the skills they require to guarantee successful performance once they have been incorporated into their jobs. On the other hand, these competences or needs for knowledge, skills and values are generated or demanded by the strategies that companies must undertake for periods of time to guarantee the creation of high value products and services that satisfy the expectations and demands of their audiences.
With these elements it is necessary to introduce the concept of " Training by Projects "
"It is the design, implementation and evaluation of a training program that responds to the objectives of an action or strategy of the Company or Organizational Unit and is aimed at ensuring that the people involved receive the knowledge and skills that allow them to materialize the organizational or technological changes that the action or strategy will produce in the Company or Organizational Unit ”.
Thus, effective training designed with a process approach and responding to business projects should be the premise to be able to design a tool that allows us in a systemic and systematic way to measure the impact of these actions on the performance of the participants, the latter understood not only as people but also as the company or units they represent, from which superior performance is expected to justify the investment made.
If we list the sub-processes or steps of this new conception of designing and launching the training, we highlight:
- Definition of the business strategy, expectations and new competencies for the workers linked to it and the name of the Training Project Definition of the workers associated with the strategies with training needs Define the training objectives according to the segments of needs Creation of the teaching design group Preparation of study plans, programs, class systems and teaching materials for actions that satisfy the needs Select and train the Instructors who will undertake the actions defined for each segment Define and Ensure the logistics needs for the Training Project. Launch of training actions for each segment. Evaluation of the result of the planned actions in quantity and quality.Certification of the participating workers for the levels that the competencies require. Evaluation of the impact of the actions on the performance of the participants and their units based on the quality of the services and the economic results after a time after the training actions have been concluded.
Between the 1950s and 1960s, Donald Kirkpatrick, American psychologist, provided a methodology to measure the effect of training using four stages: Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results. MIDAC recognizes the contributions of Kirkpatrick, in relation to the levels of evaluation of the training that he defined, but MIDAC as a methodology presents another point of view, that is, it starts from considering the impact as a systematic and systemic process that is present in the four moments through which the training transits: at the beginning of the action, during the action, at the exit of the action and after a time of completion of the action and this impact is associated with the expected changes in the performance of the participants (individuals and organization) based on a “desired profile”. Otherwise,measure the impact of the action on organizational and individual performance, understanding performance by: How it is done, and what is obtained. In summary, we measure what was achieved based on the objectives set for the action and how it was achieved based on the incorporation of the basic competencies for the position.
“MIDAC, It is a methodology that, based on the recognition of a deficiency, problem or gap between the desired performance and the actual performance of a job or an organization, allows evaluating the impact produced by a training action previously designed as satisfactory to that deficiency. Each of its steps from the definition of the Desired Profile, guarantees a system of indicators and instruments that provide relevant information on the quality or effectiveness of the training process and therefore on the eradication of the initial problem ”.
This methodology is structured in six stages:
I. Design of the job profile and its competencies.
II. Performance evaluation.
III. Definition and design of the training action.
IV. Launch of the action.
V. Impact evaluation.
SAW. Analysis and feedback.
To produce the impact measurement in each of the phases of the training process, four indicators were defined:
- Quality of the training action (CA). Level of incorporation of competences (NIC). Degree of solution of the problem (GSP). Cost-Benefit Ratio (RCB).
These general indicators are made up of an internal system of sub-indicators and measurement criteria that are adapted to the demands of the environment (type of organization, type of training project, etc.)
In summary, the Methodology to Measure the Impact of the Training Actions on the Performance of the Participants. (MIDAC), has its foundations in the synergy obtained by integrating the concepts as a system:
- Desired profile for the position (system of competencies, objectives, functions and values) Results of the performance evaluation Training needs (problem or gap created by new business demands) Training by projects Technology for design and implementation progress of training actions satisfying the needs detected.
We hope that these reflections and ideas that have been put into practice in some training actions associated with the preparation of managers and specialists can be a starting point for the exchange of experiences among those of us who are dedicated in one way or another to managing knowledge in organizations.
Bibliography consulted
- Antonio Ramírez del Río. Training assessment. Griker y Asociados, Madrid, 1997.Cuesta Santos Armando, Knowledge Management, Academia, 2002 Donald L. Kirkpatrick. Evaluation of training actions. Management 2000, Barcelona, 1999. Guy Le Boterf. Engineering and evaluation of training plans. Ed. Deusto, 1991.Leslie Rae. How to Measure Training Effectiveness. Gower, 1992, Levy-Leboyer Claude, Competency Management, Ediciones Gestión 2000, SA, 1997.
