Introduction

Is your current training strategy meeting the needs of your workforce? A recent Training Industry article reports that, “Not only has there been a shortage of training provided to employees, but the training given is often not thorough enough or is not hands on.” A comprehensive Learning Assessment is a tool to carefully consider both the strengths and the content gaps in your existing training. You may wonder whether your organization is maximizing training effectiveness with your learners to optimize your training investment. We’re here to help you answer that question. Effective training promotes employee performance and retention.

The Case for Learning Assessment

The 5th annual LinkedIn Learning Report claims that, “L&D [is] in the strategic driver’s seat as change makers.” More than two thirds of Learning and Development professionals surveyed for the report agree that they are focused on rebuilding or reshaping their organizations. Effective training is intimately linked to employee performance and retention. The Association of Talent Development (ATD) writes, “Proper training influences employee retention by instilling a sense of belonging and worth in team members, as well as imbuing them with the confidence to do their jobs.” 

Seeing training beyond simple onboarding and recognizing its role in employee performance, confidence, and retention explains why it is so important that Learning leaders find themselves at the strategy table. Valerie Junger, chief people officer at Quantcast, explains, “It’s vital to a company’s leadership to take a high-level view of what type of organization it wants to build in the years to come and understand how that ties back to hiring, training and retaining employees today.” 

Despite the evidence that ties training to employee performance and retention, when it comes to investing the time and resources in completing a Learning Assessment to ensure these benefits are achieved, leaders often lack the tools, stakeholder buy-in, or simply the time to conduct a thorough review. 

A comprehensive assessment of the current state of your learning organization and the content it provides can help ensure that the next training decisions you make are the right ones.

A properly completed Learning Assessment of the current state of your learning organization and the content it provides can help ensure that the next training decisions you make are the right ones. Not only does an organization stand to realize time and resource savings by offloading the Assessment to experienced learning consultants, the fresh look from an outside group also brings ideas and best practices from organizations across the country. 

What Makes a Good Learning Assessment?

A learning assessment begins with a simple question: What training is needed, and how well are you delivering it? At Briljent, we review existing learning materials and become familiar with your current learning strategy. We identify content that can continue to be leveraged, content that may be made more effective with enhancement, and areas where added content may be needed to fill gaps. Learning assessments are most valuable when they are: 

• Focused: A focused analysis ensures your critical priorities are addressed. We’ve noticed a few trends that organizations tell us are their most critical learning priorities, including increasing learner engagement with materials, decreasing leaner time to proficiency, updating content to match realignment in organizational and team structure, supporting and enhancing shifts toward remote learning technologies, and evaluating learning materials against changes in state and federal policies 
• Minimally disruptive: In an evolving workplace environment, leaders may be managing an office-based, remote, or hybrid workforce, and time for “nice-to-haves” may be limited as leaders define new norms and strategies. A Learning Assessment should be designed for your unique environment. Our learning consultants have expertise facilitating both in-person and remote engagement 
• Actionable: We present an assessment report to highlight any exceptional training outcomes (either positive or negative) that could relate to or affect your learning approach. Our report includes key insights and a balanced scorecard that summarizes what we have learned, based on your weighted priorities. 

From kickoff to independent analysis through collaboration, we partner with you to engage key stakeholders, streamline communication, and prepare easy–to–understand findings. Two key phases of the Assessment ensures that we are conscientious stewards of your time. 

• Independent Research and Analysis: We verify that training is organized in a logical progression that ensures learners understand why, what, and how to do their jobs. We evaluate relevant materials that you provide for clarity, effectiveness of learning formats, accessibility, and ease of maintenance 

• Collaborative Research and Analysis: Following independent research, key stakeholders are engaged in one-on-one and small group interviews to validate, correct, and supplement what was learned in the independent review. By completing our independent research first, then leveraging a focused group of key stakeholders, we minimize organizational disruption 

Whether your organization’s learning strategy needs a refresher, or you envision the need for a reimagined approach to training, our team has the tools, experience, and best practices to dive in! Plus, when your internal resources are pressed for time to meet existing demands, we have the capacity to complete the Assessment, as an extension of your training team. 

Interested in discussing how our Learning Assessment tool will maximize your training investment and promote employee performance and retention? We look forward to hearing from you! 

About Briljent

For more than 23 years, Briljent has been committed specifically to developing and delivering exceptional adult learning solutions, becoming a highly acclaimed presence in the training and instructional design industry. We have delivered over 3 million hours of training to tens of thousands of learners. Our decades of experience in adult learning and customized training solutions, paired with our expertise in Organizational Change Management, positions Briljent as the perfect partner to complete a Learning Assessment and prepare your organization for the future.