Insights / Business
How to measure whether it worked
Smile sheets measure whether people enjoyed an hour. No budget has ever been saved by an average of 4.6.
By McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM. Published September 6, 2026.
What should I measure?
One behavior that should be different, chosen before you build the session. Time to complete an onboarding task, number of one on ones actually held, policy questions arriving at HR, complaints resolved at the manager level.
Pick the one that somebody outside the training function already cares about.
When do I measure it?
30 days for behavior, 90 for outcomes, with the date on the calendar before the session runs.
A measurement scheduled in advance is evidence. A number produced after somebody questions the budget reads as a defense, no matter how good it is.
What does the report look like?
Five lines: the behavior, the number before, the number after, the cost, and what you would change. No deck.
Report the misses. A report with a flat result in it gets believed. A report with three wins gets filed.
What if the number did not move?
Then you learned something worth more than the session cost. Usually it is one of three things: the behavior was not actually within the learner's control, the manager did not reinforce it, or the session taught awareness instead of practice.
The third one is the most common, and the most fixable.
Keep going
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