Program Evaluation

Historically, program evaluation has been used as a tool for assessing the merits of educational and governmental programs, where public funding demands a demonstration of accountability. The basic tenet underlying program evaluation that makes it so useful in this context is its reliance on methods that integrate science and practice to produce reliable and actionable information for decision makers. During the past decade, program evaluation has also become increasingly recognized as a useful tool for helping for-profit organizations implement and enhance human resource (HR) programs to achieve key business outcomes. Successful companies understand that survival and growth in the marketplace cannot occur without programs that are designed to improve competitive performance and productivity, engage employees in the organization's mission, and create an environment where people want to work. Recognizing the impact that HR programs have on employees and the company's bottom line, organizations need practical tools to accurately and efficiently evaluate program quality, so they can take the necessary actions to either improve or replace them.

The field of program evaluation is based on the commonsense notion that programs should produce demonstrable benefits. Evaluation is a discipline of study that concentrates on determining the value or merit of an object. The term program in this article refers to the object of the evaluation and includes such organizational functions as recruitment and staffing, compensation, performance management, succession planning, training, team building, organizational communications, and health and work–life balance.

Evaluations can help organizations identify how a program can be improved on an ongoing basis or examine its overall worth. The first approach, called formative evaluation, is usually conducted while the program is being formed or implemented and will generally lead to recommendations that focus on program adjustments. The specific findings might be used to identify program challenges and opportunities and provide strategies for continuous improvement. Formative evaluations seek to improve efficiency and ensure that the program is responsive to changing organizational needs.

An evaluation that is conducted to examine a program's overall worth is called a summative evaluation and will generally be performed when an organization is attempting to determine if the program should be replaced, rather than modified. This approach focuses on the program's outcomes and their value to the organization. The specific findings are used to address accountability or the overall merits of the program. Some decisions to replace a program or major parts of the program are easy because of major program deficiencies. However, most such decisions will be more difficult because of the need to weigh multiple strengths and weakness of the program as well as other considerations such as resource constraints such as budget, staff, and time.

A SIX-PHASE APPROACH TO PROGRAM EVALUATION

There are a variety of approaches for conducting an evaluation, but most proceed through a similar sequence of steps and decision points. We have grouped these steps and decision points into a six-phase approach for executing a successful evaluation:

• 1.
  Identifying stakeholders, evaluators, and evaluation questions
• 2.
  Planning the evaluation
• 3.
  Collecting data
• 4.
  Analyzing and interpreting the data
• 5.
  Communicating findings and insights
• 6.
  Using the results

Although other approaches and actual HR program evaluations may over- or underemphasize some steps within these phases or accomplish a step in an earlier or later phase, any evaluation will need to address the activities covered within each of the six phases. [Page 639]Deviations from these six phases may be related to the nature of the specific HR program being evaluated, characteristics of the organization, composition of the evaluation team, or a variety of resource considerations.

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