Is it time to measure the effectiveness of your training programs? If you’re not sure where to start, these Top Ten Training Metrics can help.

Measuring the effectiveness of training is a very difficult task for stakeholders, training departments and end users. If you’re a training manager or company stakeholder looking for ways to measure the effectiveness of your programs, these ten metrics are a great place to start.

One: Higher retention. Most HR departments measure retention rate across all or multiple positions. Often times, front-line, high-turnover jobs are the ones that get the most attention. If newly trained employees feel ill-equipped for the job, they are more likely to leave within the first 90 days. When you measure training success in this way, higher retention points to a successful training program.

Two: Increased sales. Many organizations can track efficiency based on sales. If the training is heavily geared towards a sales or customer service force, an effective program will eventually increase the number of sales. You can also measure product knowledge training as part of a sales number – poorly educated salespeople usually don’t make the sale. Dollar figures and unit sales are good metrics, but be sure to balance any metrics with other factors that may influence sales figures.

Three: Greater operational efficiency. In highly regulated or production-oriented businesses, managers seek more efficiency, which raises the bottom line. If your training programs teach skills, look at management efficiency metrics, for reference, before and after the training intervention. If you are creating a new program or product, look at the efficiency numbers for instructions on the content of the training course.

Four: Customer service results. Any organization can link training to customer service, which can be both internal and external. Customer service is also one of the easiest places to start: a well-written survey can identify a host of customer-related issues that can be addressed through training programs. Remember that training may not be the only solution to these problems. If your organization already has a customer survey, use those metrics to benchmark your programs. When your programs affect survey items, you can correlate an increase in customer satisfaction with training.

Five: company-defined dashboards. Training subcontractors tend to use client-defined criteria to determine the effectiveness of training. If your organization has a wide variety of possible measures, sit down with management and stakeholders to create a customized scorecard based on expectations and training programs that need to be in place.

Six: Cost of training. This is an internal measure of the training department. In high turnover organizations, the reduction in cost per student can be used as a measure of effectiveness. The cost of training could also be directly related to retention: if you spend less on training new hires, your retention may be higher. Work with your stakeholders and human resources department to determine training costs and where you want those numbers to be.

Seven: Return on Investment. ROI has long been a “catch all” metric. In some cases it is easy to define ROI, but in most cases it is getting harder. If you provide soft skills training, it’s hard to put a dollar figure on the return. There are numerous ROI calculations available, so if you’re thinking of using an ROI metric, look up the formulas and enter what you can. If you’re part of an organization driven by numbers, you’ll be able to build friendships with stakeholders by defining and measuring concrete ROI.

Eight: Income generation. This metric seems most likely to be a combination of sales numbers, operational efficiency, and customer service. If an organization shows increased revenue, a strong training program can be part of that increase. If your organization is implementing a new revenue driver, such as a product or service, that’s generally the best time to use revenue generation as a training metric.

Nine: Instructor performance. Instructor evaluation is an important internal measure. Results can come from student and manager evaluations, and should take into account the instructor’s presentation skills, subject knowledge, projection of organizational values, and adherence to instructional guidelines. The beauty of instructor performance as a metric is that it can also be used as an external measure. When it comes to training, training managers should be the first to praise their instructors for providing quality instruction in every course, and instructor evaluations provide the supporting evidence.

Ten: End user satisfaction. Your audience can measure effectiveness faster than anyone else, both immediately after training and after a set period of time, such as 30 or 60 days. The immediate results, sometimes called “smile sheets,” can give you insight into what happened in the classroom. Delayed results can tell you whether or not the material is useful. Additionally, end-user surveys are great tools for demonstrating management effectiveness.

Remember that training metrics can take time to implement and show results. It is also important to gain buy-in from stakeholders as you determine how to measure results. Use these metrics to get started, and use them every time you’re developing or revamping training programs. Once you can demonstrate the effectiveness of the bottom line, your credibility will go a long way.