How do you measure the success of your training partners?

1 Benefits of training partners

Training partners can help you gain access to specialized knowledge and skills, as well as enhance your learning culture and employee engagement. You can also save time and money by outsourcing some or all of your training functions. Additionally, they can help you adapt to changing business needs and learning preferences with different delivery modes and formats. Lastly, they can improve your training outcomes and impact by using proven methodologies and tools.

2 Challenges of training partners

Training partners can be beneficial, but they also present some challenges, such as aligning your training objectives with their offerings and capabilities, communicating and collaborating effectively throughout the process, and evaluating their performance and feedback. Additionally, you must manage the contractual and financial aspects of the partnership, making sure they abide by your policies and standards. Lastly, it is important to balance the use of training partners with your internal training resources and capabilities.

3 Criteria for measuring training partners

To measure the success of your training partners, you need to establish clear and relevant criteria that reflect your training goals and priorities. Quality, value, satisfaction, and relationship are all common criteria to consider. Quality involves assessing how well they design, deliver, and evaluate your training programs. Value looks at how much they contribute to your training outcomes and impact. Satisfaction examines how pleased you and your learners are with their services and support. Relationship considers how well they communicate and collaborate with you and your stakeholders. All of these criteria help ensure that your partners meet or exceed your expectations and requirements, provide a good return on investment, respond to feedback, understand needs, respect culture, and more.

4 Methods for measuring training partners

To measure the success of your training partners, you need to use reliable methods that collect and analyze relevant data and information. Surveys can be used to gather quantitative and qualitative feedback from learners, managers, and trainers. Interviews are great for obtaining more in-depth feedback from key stakeholders such as sponsors and decision-makers. Observations may be used to assess the training partner's performance during the design, delivery, and evaluation phases. Reports can review the training partner's performance based on their own data and documentation. All of these methods are essential for assessing the quality, value, satisfaction, and relationship of the training partner's performance.

5 Tips for measuring training partners

For successful measurement of your training partners, it is essential to employ some best practices. First, define criteria and methods prior to selecting and contracting your training partners, and ensure that they are clearly and consistently communicated. Additionally, involve your training partners in the measurement process and request their input and feedback. Gather multiple sources of data and information from different perspectives to measure your training partners. Furthermore, compare their performance with your internal benchmarks as well as external benchmarks from similar or comparable organizations. Finally, use the results of the measurement to recognize and reward achievements, strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?