Use these example training survey questions and design tips to create impactful and transformative surveys.
The world is changing rapidly with new technologies and globalization, making learning and development a higher priority than ever.
Most people have taken some form of knowledge and skills training in their lifetimes. New employees attend new hire training to acquire the skills they need to navigate their new workplace. A job function may require extra training to develop new skills or refresh existing ones for certification.
Training differs significantly from traditional courses, with participants expecting immediate improvements in their abilities after sessions. Surveys are essential tools for measuring training effectiveness and participant engagement. With the right training survey questions, you can assess your training effectiveness and where adjustments are needed.
Training surveys collect feedback from participants before and after sessions, allowing you to assess effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. You can also use the data to improve future training.
Training surveys for organizations and employees offer a host of benefits. They allow organizations to improve their training programs and retain effective employees. The reality is that your employees want quality training.
According to a SurveyMonkey Audience survey, roughly 86% of employees say that job training is important to them. Most employees are even willing to spend out-of-office time on training. Your programming needs to be incredibly effective to properly take advantage of this training opportunity.
These surveys help you gather feedback, measure effectiveness, and shape future training initiatives. Training surveys:
Identifying what questions to ask in a training survey is challenging. These questions must be tuned to your audience and deliver actionable data. Use the following example questions to create effective surveys.
Pre-training survey questions assist you in gathering information on running successful training sessions. You’ll find out:
Demographics help you understand your audience, their available time commitment, and their place in your organization. It is unnecessary to ask intrusive demographic questions such as ethnicity, gender identification, or age unless they are relevant to the training subject.
With this information, you can structure your training appropriately to effectively meet the needs of your group.
Post-training surveys measure the outcomes of your training sessions. You can determine if you fulfilled your training goals and use the data to inform your next training. Analyzing your post-survey data will offer valuable insights into planning future training sessions.
With a post-training survey, you’ll discover:
If a particular training is well-attended or positively rated by attendees, evaluate whether it is a necessary part of your training schedule. Popular training can be updated and offered more regularly. For this, simply ask:
This is a good indicator of the most informative and effective trainers. This should be your impetus to find out what they do differently than other instructors so you can offer feedback and improvement opportunities to all trainers. Ask questions like:
Was there anything that prevented the group from fully engaging in the training? Identify barriers and strategies to overcome them. Ask questions like:
Analyzing your data should reveal what improvements you can make to your future training sessions to make them more informative, effective, and attractive to attendees. Ask questions like:
Ask post-training knowledge questions to assess whether participants acquired the knowledge or skills identified in your training goals. Ask questions like:
The purpose of training feedback survey questions is to gather specific feedback about the session. These surveys cover:
This includes asking about the feelings associated with taking the training and how well the employee felt the training went.
These surveys measure whether the training achieved its intended outcomes and had a lasting impact. A training effectiveness survey should be administered a few weeks or months after completion. This gives participants time to apply the training in their daily work.
This survey will assess changes in participants' knowledge, skills, or behavior over time, the applicability of training to job performance, and the training program's ROI (return on investment).
These surveys explore what training to offer, the effectiveness of the training you’re delivering, and whether students feel they are acquiring the skills they desire. Use the following six tips to craft effective feedback questions that ensure actionable insights.
Pre-training skills assessments should be run before training sessions. This will establish what your participants already know, their expectations for the training, and any learning needs and preferences. This information can be used to determine how you run the training, information delivery methods, and content.
Pre-training skills assessments should determine participants' prior knowledge, training expectations, and learning preferences. The data from this survey can be used to find learner satisfaction and experience with the training. Our training course evaluation template is a great place to start.
Compare data from pre- and post-training skills assessments to assess learning gains from your training.
Poll individuals at the outset of a longer training program to baseline where they are to their goals. Throughout training, ask students to assess their progress. Deliver your survey on mobile devices in the training environment for near real-time feedback or on social media to broadcast their achievements to their network.
Find out if the training you’re delivering is engaging and effective. Are you meeting the expectations of participants? Are they getting the instruction or information they thought they would? Use this feedback for continuous improvement.
Two trainers might deliver the same course material quite differently—and that diversity allows you to attract more students. Still, you want to know that all trainers can deliver training. Use surveys to gather students’ opinions of teacher effectiveness.
Get a start on your instructor evaluations with our course evaluation survey template and our University Instructor Evaluation Survey Template. Take a look at our education surveys for other ways to lead assessments.
What do students or employees think of your organization’s job training and development programs? Do offerings support their career goals and ambitions? What education programs do they need to meet their objectives?
Find out if your company is providing ample training for employees to learn and grow on the job. Use our career development survey template as a starting point to determine whether you are helping employees reach their full potential.
Could seniors in your community use a hands-on technology course? Are newbie parents interested in parenting classes? Utilize surveys in your community, workplace, or fitness organization to inform classes and training for your residents, employees, patients, or clients.
Test potential offerings using SurveyMonkey Audience, which gives you access to millions of respondents similar to your target audiences.
Use this step-by-step guide to create and implement training surveys.
First, you must identify what you want to evaluate. Say you’ve started a new process for employee onboarding training and need to determine how effective your new program is.
Your goals may be to:
Achieving these goals requires crafting the entire survey and delivery process with the result in mind.
Use online tools like SurveyMonkey or similar platforms. With SurveyMonkey, you have access to various tools that help you retain and nurture top talent, boost employee satisfaction, and implement impactful training programs.
Explore employee and customer satisfaction surveys, learning support surveys, and department support surveys.
Tailor your questions to your training objectives. Use the example questions above and the questions referenced in any applicable template to help you design questions.
Be sure to craft effective survey questions that incorporate neutral answer options, ask one thing at a time, and are mostly closed-ended.
You may share the survey via email, QR codes, or training portals. We recommend preparing participants to receive the survey and reminding them to complete it.
It sometimes helps to include the survey in the training coursework (if possible) or provide incentives for filling out the survey.
Now, you can customize employee training with a data-driven training needs assessment. Use responses to refine future training.
Here are a few other suggestions for getting people to complete your surveys.
The list of potential training topics is endless. SurveyMonkey offers many surveys that can be used or customized to cover many training areas. You might use a few templates with individuals, community residents, students and their parents, and employees.
The Training Course Evaluation Template helps you pinpoint what's working and what isn’t and ensures your efforts truly support employee growth and success.
Effective training starts with understanding your audience. Pre-training survey questions help assess attendees’ knowledge and expectations, enabling you to create impactful sessions.
Reinforce onboarding by giving new hires a simple quiz to assess their understanding and identify areas for improvement. Use this sample quiz to structure your survey and ensure your key messages stick.
Use these templates to create optimized onboarding and training programs that push employee productivity and result in greater business impact.
Asking the right questions with the right templates measures training success. These surveys can improve training outcomes, engage employees, and provide measurable value for organizations.
SurveyMonkey has 150+ survey templates written by experts to help you with your survey needs. See how SurveyMonkey can power your curiosity.
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