Blog post -
How to measure training courses to ensure you get value for money
We are building out the metrics of our media and communication coaching courses with the addition of a new way to track feedback and efficacy.
Spokespeople are often judged qualitatively by whether they can present well in the media, so media training is inherently difficult to measure quantitatively. Participants have an inherent bias when rating a workshop. Some always give high scores, even if they did not think the training course met all their needs, while others give consistently low scores, even if they see no specific area for improvement.
Sometimes even excellent spokespeople have bad days, when their media appearances don’t go as well as they had planned.
We are tackling this in five ways:
- Quantitative rating: We give ratings on level 1, 2 and 3.
- Qualitative rating: We assign "suited best for" ratings, including on-stage panel discussions, in-studio TV or radio interviews, telephone interviews and on-camera social video recordings.
- Improvement scores: To ensure our participants reach their objected outcomes, we now gather feedback during our workshops which asks participants to self-rate their media or communications skills before and after the workshop. This tends to adjust for feedback bias.
- Clearer goals: We have clarified the "why" of each activity.
- Three-month video review – We encourage all our training participants to send us videos of themselves within three months of the workshop so I can offer a written assessment.
There is no additional fee for this last one, but it’s essential that you – our clients – encourage your participants to send these videos to us. A study by Harvard Business School shows the importance for participants to reflect on what they have learned. This can increase performance by 23%.
Tangible evidence of progress is also a powerful motivator. Visual representation provides a clear picture of where you started and how much you have improved. This clarity can help you understand the effectiveness of your effort and identify areas that need further improvement.
As we take a coaching approach our focus is anyway on sustainable change over time. By adding quantitative metrics, we are able to demonstrate this and ensure you get your money’s worth.
