Mapping RoI of eLearning

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“Money, money, money…” is a popular hit song by the music group ABBA. Well you may wonder why does a technology and learning blog talk about music. In this blog post, you will learn why ‘Mapping RoI of eLearning’ impacts both eLearning Development companies and organizations that buy these learning solutions.

Mapping RoI of eLearning

Justifying Training Needs

In mid-size to large organizations, there’s an annual exercise wherein the top-leaders from different departments, meet and brainstorm to list out ideas to generate more revenue in the next financial year. Decisions are taken in an informal setting, usually in a resort or wellness retreat, away from the busy schedules of daily office-life. A key challenge that decision-makers in organizations need to address is the viability of workplace training programs. Questions are asked when L&D and Training Heads ask for bigger budgets. Popular arguments put forth are:

  • How is this relevant to our line of work?
  • If our employees aren’t trained enough, why are we hiring them?
  • Will this technology go obsolete soon?
  • Can you give us an estimate of RoI on deploying this training?
  • Can’t this eLearning be created internally?
  • Why should we hire an external agency to do this?

Defining RoI in eLearning

It is always the most attractive projects that receive the most funding. Not all organizations will have business leaders who will have the foresight to invest in creating a strong learning culture. L&D managers have a tough time convincing ‘Finance’ to ease their purse strings to deploy new learning programs for employees.

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A formulaic representation to determine RoI of Learning is:

Return on Investment = Expected Value / Funds Invested

Defining ‘Value’

Defining ‘value’ in this context assumes multiple shades. It could be the deployment of a training program that helps employees complete their tasks faster, it could be competency training on a new software/product, which will be instrumental in the completion of an upcoming project, or a direct monetary benefit.

The Quality of eLearning

It is pointless to allocate a budget to develop eLearning / training content, hire an inexperienced team to save money, and then ask them to develop and deploy a sub-standard learning program, which does not offer desired learning outcomes. If the organization has resources to develop the training internally, it would be the best way to go forward as the L&D team would have full freedom to structure the program as per their requirements. Organizations which do not have the luxury of an internal team should hire a reputed or proven eLearning firm to create the training / eLearning program. Unless the learning content that’s created doesn’t meet the learning outcomes mapped at the beginning; the whole exercise is a failure!

ID Strategies and Bite-Sized Learning

Devising eLearning content in a hurry just to meet a specific upcoming project requirement or to train a new batch of employees won’t work. Careful planning and strategizing needs to go into the creation of the content. One also needs to ensure that the training is easily accessible and understood. It is here that the expertise of instructional designers and learning experience specialists comes into play. By adopting a model that is in tune with the requirements of the learners, training content is designed with a relevant narrative to engage the learners.

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Modern learning specialists recommend that training content is structured into bite-sized capsules in the form of videos to enhance the effectiveness of learning. By offering training content in the form of bite-sized videos that can be easily accessed on smartphones; organizations facilitate ‘anytime anywhere learning’ that helps learners learn at their convenience. This is a trend that has completely revolutionized modern workplace training. One can expect this to continue, as learning practically shifts altogether onto the smartphone, via dedicated mobile learning apps, instead of just a responsively designed website.

Are You Deriving RoI from your eLearning?

This is a question that you need to ask yourself and see if the eLearning that’s been deployed in your organization is bringing in the changes that you expected. If there’s no tangible evidence of improvement, then the employee training program that you have deployed is not a success. You will have to revisit your training content and start afresh.

Examples of Efficient Training

One of our most successful projects was for a global luxury travel goods retailer. We deployed an integrated web-based learning platform that could be accessed by employees spread across the world. On successful deployment of the learning platform, the client reported a significant improvement in the time taken for completion of the online induction training program. You can download and read the detailed case study.

There was another occasion when we partnered with a leading CRM company to help them fulfil an ambitious plan of certifying administrators using their CRM solution. We designed a structured learner journey that helped learners achieve the Administrator Certification by completing the ‘online interactive certification’ program. A couple of key highlights of this project, were the device-agnostic learning solution and the virtual lab that gave learners an immersive hands-on experience of using the actual CRM solution. The client reported significant progress towards achieving its target of certifying more administrators of its CRM solution. You can learn more about this interesting project.

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These are just two examples of effective employee and product training solutions that help organizations leverage the power of eLearning effectively. A properly structured employee training program helps organizations derive value from it, when:

  • Workflow becomes smoother and routine work is done faster
  • In a manufacturing setup, the number of logged defects reduce
  • More employees voluntarily seek to sign up for the training program
  • Significant time, effort, and money is saved in routine operating costs
  • The employees and the employers are equally happy with the outcome of the program

At Origin, we specialize in creating customized digital learning experiences that offer RoI on your employee training plans. Write to us at info@originlearning.com and we will help you craft a learning experience that gives you ‘true value’ for your investment.


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