Effect of training evaluation methods on employee performance at the ministry of transport and roads Nairobi-Kenya

Abstract

Employee performance is a key factor determining competitiveness; however, the public sector in Kenya is facing numerous challenges in terms of employee performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of training evaluation on employee performance at the Ministry Roads and Transport Nairobi-Kenya. The specific objectives were; to determine the effect of diagnostic, formative, summative and longitudinal training evaluation methods on employee performance. This study was grounded on Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation model and Task-contextual model. The study adopted explanatory research design and used questionnaires to collect data. The target population of this study was all the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, HR department staff at the Headquarters Nairobi working in top, middle and lower management levels (340) who deal directly with HR and personnel functions at the Ministry. To determine the sample size, the Krejcie and Morgan table (t table) was applied to give a sample size of 181 employees who were randomly selected to participate in the data collection exercise and to provide the necessary information for the study. A pilot study was conducted to reduce obscurity of questionnaire items and enhance data integrity. The findings revealed 8.1% of the variability in employee performance was accounted for by the combined effects of longitudinal training evaluation, summative training evaluation, formative training evaluation, and diagnostic training evaluation, which was a small portion of the variance. Coefficients of determination showed that a one-unit increase in diagnostic training evaluation was associated with an estimated increase of 32.0% (β=0.320, p=0.001) units in employee performance; a one-unit increase in formative training evaluation was associated with an estimated increase of 33.4%, (β=0.334, p=0.007) units in employee performance; a one-unit increase in summative training evaluation was associated with an estimated increase of 2.4%, (β=0.024, p=0.585) units in employee performance and finally, a one-unit increase in longitudinal training evaluation was associated with an estimated increase of only 2.0%, (β=0.002, p=0.977) units in employee performance, which is an almost negligible effect on employee performance. The study concluded that diagnostic evaluation and formative evaluation had significant positive effects on employee performance (p=0.001<0.05) and (p=0.001<0.05), respectively. However, there was no significant effect of summative evaluation and longitudinal evaluation on employee performance (p=0.585>0.05) and (p=0.977>0.05), respectively. The study recommended for the need to strengthen the diagnostic evaluation and enhance formative training evaluation practices; this would help reinforce learning and provide employees with valuable feedback to enhance their performance.