Looking for some benchmarking information related to testing your trainees knowledge. Our business is the Health Insurance Industry and our technical training consists of Claims, Customer Service and Enrollment functions.

How often do you test the trainees? After you complete a section or unit? On a specific day of the week?
Do you inpose a time limit on your tests?
How many questions are included in your tests? What type of questions do you utilize.

Thank you.

I worked with HealthNet for some time - they utilized a number of different assessment tools, depending on the subject matter.

The end goal of the call center operator was to handle 5 simulated calls. These were scored on a sheet, which measured15 catagories including:
1) the accuracy of the information retrieved
2) phone manner
3) clarity of explanation

The testing that occured up until that moment was focused on making sure that each trainee was succesful with their "final."

Assessments were given at the end of each section that included anything from multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank tests, to jeopardy games and peer-to-peer simulations. Each assessment was appropirate to the material and geared towards that final simulation.

The same with Coding - an assessment after each coding section (HealthNet's is broken down by a letter, driven by the type of code) usually made up of a practical assessment and something written.

The written portions of the coding usually had to do with linking information to other coding sections and was a fill in the blank chart. The practical was done off of a dummy database and each new section built on what was learned. The final exam was a practical, much like the call center, with a series of claims that popped up with some defect or other.

P.S - Enrollment was part of the call center training.

You had to complete Call Center before you could go on to coding.

Michelle

We are a bank, We run knowledge tests for all our tellers, CSRs, Call Centre Agents as well as processing staff in operations.

We test once every two months
twenty-five questions each time
tests are for thirty minutes each

the nature of questions are what we call "why" questions as well as "what" questions if they fall in the top of mind category i.e. when a customer asks such a question they expect an immediate answer not a looked up answer.

hope this helps

p.s. The once every two months is done on a specific day of the month. for us its the 14th day or if thats a holiday then the next working day.

We also run post program assessments for product/technical programs.