Find out the definition of employee training, examples, and formula for its effectiveness.

Employee training definition, formula and examples

Every organization requires employees who are highly productive. Employee training is imparting of skills and knowledge to the staff so that they can improve their job skills, have better performance and be more efficient. Also, research has it that training employees help to reduce turnover and increase employee engagement.


Both new and existing employees require training. The training equips new hires with the required skills to perform their duties while existing employees can improve the skills and knowledge related to their job.

Other than imparting knowledge and skills to employees to improve productivity, training can also be used to change employees’ attitude towards colleagues, management and the organization, to improve safety in the workplace, to improve quality and update employees on technology use.

How can you know whether the employee training is effective?

Employee training formula and effectiveness

Employee training formula can help to measure the effectiveness of the training. One formula is the return on investment. This measures the monetary gains that result from the training.

ROI = {(Monetary gain-Training cost)/ Training cost} x 100

The training costs should be less than the monetary benefits that accrue to the organization.

The cost of training consist of cost of training materials and facilities, the cost of delivering, administration costs, evaluation costs and wages paid to trainees. Benefits from the training include savings on labor, reduced costs of turnover, an increase in productivity and reduction in off days.

Training effectiveness can also be measured by:

Evaluating performance. Employee performance can be evaluated after the training to see if there is any improvement and if it meets the set target. For instance, if there are errors in the use of a certain software before training and the errors reduce to the set target after training, then it can be considered effective.

Evaluating employee behavior. If training is set to improve certain undesirable behavior, the improvement on such behavior can signify training success.

Evaluating knowledge. Tests can be assigned on the subject matter after training to assess if the employees have understood. If the training is effective, the employees should pass the tests.

Employee training examples

Training can be in areas such as skill sets, company policies, internal knowledge and attitude.

Employees are trained on skill sets to improve their job performance. Some of the areas trained include interviewing skills, technology, how to perform certain tasks and other skills that an employee needs in performing duties.

Employees need to be trained on company policies to ensure that their actions are legal and to the best interest of the company.

Internal knowledge training can be in areas such as how to use company facilities, for instance, the time clock software.

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