How Organizations Evaluate the Training Transfer and the Technologies They Use to Do It

Organizations invest substantial resources in training, yet determining whether learning transfers to workplace performance remains challenging. Although transfer and evaluation models provide frameworks for examining training outcomes, less is known about how organizations operationalize transfer evaluation and the technologies they use to support it. This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study examined how organizations evaluate training transfer and the technologies they use to collect, store, and analyze transfer-related information. Survey data were collected from 135 respondents, followed by semi-structured interviews with nine participants. Quantitative findings showed that organizations evaluated transfer at different points in time and used multiple evaluation models and analytics levels. Technologies and methods also varied by evaluation level: learning management systems were most frequently reported for collecting Level 2 information, direct observation for Level 3, and business metrics for Level 4. Qualitative findings also identified multiple approaches to workplace performance evidence, including learning management, human resource, customer relationship management, survey, spreadsheet, collaboration, and other systems and methods. Taken together, the findings show that transfer evaluation involves multiple forms of evidence obtained through multiple workplace processes and organizational sources. Evaluating transfer therefore requires attention not only to what organizations intend to evaluate, but also to the evidence needed to determine whether transfer occurred, where that evidence resides, and the methods or technologies needed to obtain and use it.