A huge amount of corporate training budget is spent on programs that were never designed against an actual identified need and are never evaluated for whether they changed anything. HRM5070 teaches the discipline that prevents both failures.
Training needs analysis and instructional design
HRM5070 begins with a three-level training needs analysis: organizational analysis (does this training align with business goals), task analysis (what specific skills/knowledge does the job require), and person analysis (who actually has the gap, and is training the right solution at all, versus a process or tooling fix). Once a genuine training need is confirmed, students apply the ADDIE instructional design model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) to build a structured learning intervention.
Evaluating training effectiveness with Kirkpatrick's model
The course's central evaluation framework is Kirkpatrick's four levels: Reaction (did learners find the training engaging and relevant), Learning (did they actually gain the intended knowledge/skill, measured via pre/post assessment), Behavior (did they apply it back on the job), and Results (did it move a genuine business metric, like error rates or sales performance). Students learn that most organizations stop at Level 1 (a satisfaction survey) and mistake it for proof the training worked, when only Levels 3 and 4 actually demonstrate business impact.
Key topics in HRM5070
- Three-level training needs analysis: organizational, task, and person analysis
- The ADDIE instructional design model: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation
- Adult learning principles applied to workplace training design
- Kirkpatrick's four levels of training evaluation: Reaction, Learning, Behavior, Results
- Choosing training modalities: instructor-led, e-learning, blended, and on-the-job training
- Calculating return on investment (ROI) for training programs
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Worked example: applying Kirkpatrick's four levels to a sales training program
- Level 1 (Reaction): Post-training survey shows 85% of sales reps found the training engaging
- Level 2 (Learning): Pre/post knowledge test shows a 30-point average improvement in product knowledge
- Level 3 (Behavior): Manager observation three months later shows reps consistently using the new consultative-selling technique in real calls
- Level 4 (Results): Quarterly sales data shows a measurable increase in average deal size for trained reps versus a control group
- Lesson: Only reaching Level 4 actually proves the training paid for itself
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Training-needs analyses, instructional-design plans, Kirkpatrick evaluation assignments.
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Frequently asked questions
Without a training needs analysis, organizations frequently design and deliver training that doesn't actually address the real problem — for example, running a communication skills workshop when the underlying performance issue is actually caused by unclear role expectations or a broken process, not a skill gap at all. A proper needs analysis operates at three levels: organizational analysis confirms the training aligns with a genuine business priority, task analysis identifies exactly what knowledge or skill the job requires, and person analysis determines who has the gap and whether training (versus a non-training solution like better tools or clearer job aids) is actually the right intervention. HRM5070 teaches that skipping this analysis is one of the most common reasons corporate training fails to produce results — the training may be well-designed and well-received, but if it wasn't targeting a real, training-solvable gap, it was never going to change performance.
Level 1 (Reaction) — typically a satisfaction survey asking whether learners enjoyed the training — is by far the easiest and cheapest level to measure, requiring only a short survey distributed immediately after a session. Levels 2 through 4 require progressively more effort: Level 2 (Learning) needs a validated pre/post assessment, Level 3 (Behavior) requires observing or measuring actual on-the-job application weeks or months later, and Level 4 (Results) requires connecting training to a genuine business metric, often requiring a control group for a fair comparison. HRM5070 teaches that Level 1 data only tells you whether people liked the training, which is only weakly correlated with whether they learned anything or changed their behavior — a training program can have excellent satisfaction scores and zero measurable impact on job performance, which is exactly the gap that Levels 3 and 4 are designed to catch, and why HR professionals are pushed to design evaluation plans that go beyond a satisfaction survey whenever the training investment is significant.