Chapter 3: How to complete the WESLAT Assessment

The WESLAT is designed to be user friendly. These directions will give the assessor a step by step guide through the process. If there are any problems along the way feel free to call the Centre for Education and Work at (204)885-2957. The technical support team is available to answer your questions.

We value your feedback. If you have any suggestions on how we can make this learning tool or the WESLAT assessment better please let us know.

The Centre for Education and Work connects adults to learning in the workplace. The CEW website www.cewca.org has a library of resources, materials and tools to enrich workplace learning. Browse through the website and let us know if you want further information on any of our products and services.  The CEW will custom design programs to meet  workplace needs.  

Organizations interested in participating in the WESLAT will want to know specific information about the learning assessment tool. This is often best handled over the phone or in person. Establishing a rapport with the employer is a critical first step in the assessment process.

Organizations who are interested or on the road to becoming a learning organization, will be most receptive to the WESLAT. Organizations who are not, will tend to be less open to changing their exisitng procedures and processes.

Let the employer know the WESLAT is a tool to assess workplace learning. The assessment will identify organizational strengths and gaps in learning. When the assessments are complete, the organization will be best suited to determine how to use the information provided.  

Give the employer access to the WESLAT tool in advance. This will allow them an opportunity to read the case studies and try the assessment for themselves. Familiarity with the tool with give them a better understanding of the time commitment and content of the tool. They will then be in a better position to decide if this tool is a good match for their workplace needs. It will also help them to determine which employees would be best sutied to complete the assessment.

1. Assign an assessor to complete the WELAT with employees. The assessor needs to be in a neutral position that would not influence the response of the participants. For example, an employee may not answer honestly in the assessment if a supervisor was overseeing their assessment. Internally, an HR manager may be more suitable if their role is to provide support to employees.  The assessor may be internal or external to the organization.

2. The assessor will recruit 15-20 employees to complete the WESLAT.
The employees selected to complete the WESLAT need to:

• Represent a cross section of the departments, job classifications and positions within the organization.
• Be comfortable with the roles and responsibilities of their position. New hires would not feel comfortable assessing learning within the first 6 months of employment.
• Represent not only the leaders of the organization but also those whose voice is seldom heard. By selecting employees who are often not heard, the organization will reveal authentic learning practices.
• Be fluent readers of the English language. If not fluent in written English, the assessor will need to read each factor to the employee. Assessors need to know the literacy level of employees in advance so as not to set them up for failure. 

 Send a letter to confirm their participation. (See attached letter)

3. Assessor Advance Preparation

• Arrange a date and book times one hour apart for each assessment.  Book a quiet room on site with one or more computers away from the work station. Confirm each employee scheduled prior to the interview.

• Ask participants to sign a consent form. See attached. Workplace may have their own consent form they prefer to use. Attach consent form

• Assessors may interview one employee at a time to ensure confidentiality, accurate responses and a comfort level asking questions. Employees assessed individually tend to expand on responses given and give specific examples of when they have witnessed learning in their workplace.  Researchers need to record the anecdotal evidence to enrich the data in the final report.

• Confirm the appointment with each employee scheduled prior to the interview on the day of the assessment. Group assessments will allow for larger sampling in a shorter time. If assessments are completed in groups, give each participant a pen and paper to record their comments and examples of learning to ensure confidentiality.

• Send a letter outlining the assessment expectations in advance but do not supply participants with a copy of the assessment. If the participants have a copy of the assessment in advance, they may discuss responses with others in advance. 

• Be prepared to do the assessment by completing the tool yourself. This will ensure you are familiar with the language used in each factor.

We are asking for your assistance to assess the learning that happens in your workplace.  The assessment is completed individually on line and will take approximately 20-40 minutes to complete. All responses will be confidential. Data from the completed assessments will be averaged and compiled in a summary report for management review. This will assist us to identify the learning strengths and gaps in your organization.
Keep in mind that your responses indicate your personal views of learning within your organization not the view of others. Upon completion of the assessment, a copy of the final report will be available to you.

Thank you in advance for your participation. Feel free to call or email with additional questions.

Once you are registered your company name and welcome will be displayed on the assessor page with 5 categories to choose from.  A sample page is displayed below. 

Before you Begin:
This category will give you step by step directions to set up your assessments.

Manage Employee Logins: This category will allow you to pre-register employees. Enter the employee email address, first and last names, position, group (optional) and assessment type. The assessor can choose to use the full or streamlined assessment.  When the assessments are complete you have the option of editing or removing the data from your account.

Employee Summary: This category lists the employee name, position, status (% of assessment competed), date and action. This gives the assessor access to the employee data when they click on the summary. The assessor can also remove the data from the account.

Average Summary of Employees: This category provides the assessor with the average score of assessments completed.  The assessor has the opportunity to group individuals together by clicking in the boxes of the names of the employees to be compared. This is particularly useful if the assessor wants to compare results from different departments or wants to compare responses of entry, middle and upper management levels. A complete review of how to analyze the results of the assessments will follow.

Employee Comparison Charts: This allows the assessor to chart the results of the employees on a line graph for each matrix. Click the boxes of the employees to be compared.  

Prior to administering the assessments, become familiar with the administration of the tool. Try the assessment out on family or friends to address any kinks that may arise in advance.  

Remember to login under a new email address to complete the assessment as an employee. You cannot do the assessment logged in as an assessor. (You can make up an employee email address)

Remember the CEW is only a call away!

When the employee has been logged into the system, their assessment is ready for them to complete. Only the assessor willl have access to their responses.

The employee will see the same login page as the assessor. They will enter their email, name and password. when they have entered this information their name and 'welcome' will appear. The employee will click begin assessment.

The assessor will be available to answer questions such as words they may not understand. They may also ask for examples of when a specific factor may occur in the workplace.

Whenever possible, ask employees to give specific examples either in writing, (a note beside the computer) or orally to the assessor. This will enrich the final report and give the employer specific evidence of learning.  

Send a thank you letter to the participants and to others who coordinate the logistics of the assessment. Provide a date when the report of the findings will be complete.

With the assessments complete, the assessor will have an opportunity to experiment with the data!

Look at the employee summary to review the results. If the employee left out any questions, the summary will give a percentage of the questions completed. It may be that the question asked did not apply to the person or it may be they skipped the question by accident.

The average summary of employees will average the scores of the employees the assessor groups together. Look at different combinations. Group together employees in the same job, at different seniority levels etc. The results will tell you about the learning in the workplace from many different perspectives. Is the message consistent or do responses vary according to their position in the organization?

The employee comparison charts will give the assessor a comparison of responses using a line graph.

This takes us to the next phase of the WESLAT assessment-the analysis of the data. In the next chapter we will walk through the nalaysis process.  The data will give the assessor a picture of workplace learning! This is where the research really begins to take shape!