General Feedback from Participants

Sunday, September 01, 2002

We are giving below some comments of participants on our in-house programs as part of the feedback from the fresh trainees of a large IT and a US MNC based in Chennai, TN, India. We like constructive criticism to improve ourselves. We also give our feedback to the sponsor. However, we often face problems with many clients on some issues which are given below:

The clients want us to cover a large number of subjects in a short time. Sometimes, they are unrelated and the focus is lost.
The clients do not want to spend a larger sum because of budgetary constraints.
We always inform clients that more than 20-25 participants makes it unwieldy and personal attention becomes difficult. The clients always sponsor large numbers to save on costs. "The more the merrier" concept does not apply to training and ODI workshops. They need to be focused and homogeneity of population is required as far as possible.
The HRD does not brief the participants in advance on the purpose of the workshop. They also do not give a correct profile of the participants to us. Younger and less experienced the participants, the expectations are more because they know less. Senior and experienced people will not participate, if their interests are not taken care of.
The biggest problem we face is that participants behave in an entirely different manner from what was briefed and the topics chosen are not based on a thorough need analysis. Sometimes. it would appear as if the training is being done by the HR department to meet their targets. Some topics covered are not suitable for freshers but the clients insist we carry them out.
Finally, there will be always a few participants with wrong attitudes and who will throw spanner in the works. If we get excellent ratings from 80% of the people or more, the job is well done and we are satisfied. None of our programs has fallen below 90% satisfaction level and the participants have rated them as excellent or very good. We are proud about it. When you try to satisfy everybody, you end up satisfying nobody.

Kudos & Accolades - repetition avoided as all participants give feedback and reproduced verbatim

" He has good command on the concept; He is very good at query handling; Has excellent communication skills. The interaction with the class was very good. The program should have been for more time"

"Very much focused. Concepts are clearly explained"

"Simple games to illustrate the very basic values of life; Individual attention delivered"

"Good communication and commitment towards program ( standing for 7 hours continuously)"

"Interesting, Informative and Interactive"

"Key points were explained clearly. Very good in explaining difficult concepts. Games, exercises were interesting and helpful.. made us all participate and use our thinking capsule"

"Slides were well prepared"

" Encouragement and the patience in handling the queries"

"More innovative, interesting and informative"

"He has made the dry subject of inter personal skills as lively subject"

"Very good motivator"

"We learn from his experience"

"The course content was excellent. The faculty is very good in handling the subject"

"Well researched and prepared"

"The session is an eye opener to the various facets of good and effective communication. More detail sessions on specific subjects will be helpful to us"

"The faculty was dedicated and tried his best to illustrate the concepts. Nothing was missed out.."

"Ability to draw participation and solving the practical problems"

The workshop is too good and useful"

"Focus on freshers - an appreciable attempt"

"He is stuffy" - ( This comment has been given under strong points and we are not clear on what the participant has meant)

"Excellent way of making the participants collaborate and interact in the program"

"An eye opener "

"A very good explanation on all topics"

"The duration of course is very short. This course is recommended to others and it should be extended to another day to cover communications along with IP skills"

"Can be of slightly longer duration"

"Certain topics like Listening and Questioning were dealt with in detail. It was good"

Brickbats & Areas for Improvement- repetition avoided and reproduced verbatim. Our comments in color

"More visuals and examples can be provided" - adds to costs and time. People cannot expect a Rolls Royce at the price of a Suzuki.

"Need more practical and lab sessions among the participants" - We need more time

"Should take time to constrain and cover the slide rather than skipping for finish" - The client wanted to cover too many subjects and material referred in the slides were self explanatory and hence they were skipped. It was also mentioned as to why they were being skipped. The problem was time was too short.

"Rushed through the content in the last moment" - Same as above

"He should have maintained eye contact with every member of the class" - There were nearly 40 Participants to save on costs. We do not recommend more than 20-25 participants in each session. It is not possible to maintain eye contact with such a large audience when there is lack of time.

"Towards the end there was a bit of rushing up -- Could have done better" - yes we agree but it happened only in one workshop.

"More individual attention required" - Possible with more time

"Any audio visual presentation may add value to the program" - Adds to costs