This will require consultation with line managers to establish these values. Since they are most likely to have labor and material cost data, they are the most knowledgeable about the desired behaviors and their dollar value. This assures tangible rationale for the established values, and also has the added advantage of investing the line manager in the training process. If the determination is made that it is absolutely essential to perform Level Four and Level Five evaluations, true experimental design and statistical analysis should be utilized to establish firm causal links between training and learning. If a company does not employ a full-time statistician, statistical analysis may require the use of outside talent.
Universities can provide a good source of statistical talent at a reasonable cost.
Conclusion To summarize, although Level Four and Level Five evaluations are revered in the training community as the most thorough and informative studies of training effectiveness, their use is not recommended in all cases. Due to the costs involved in upper level evaluations and the amount of time required to carry them out, it is advisable to look closely at their utility to the specific training program and company situation. If these types of evaluation are warranted, it is essential to carefully design the studies in partnership with line management, eliminating as many extraneous variables as possible and establishing clear dollar values to target behaviors. That Goes the Distance. T raining and development.