Measuring Training Program ROI

By: Justin Ferriman • August 4, 2015
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dollar-billsWhen it comes to training and elearning, one of the biggest concerns for organizations is if they will realize a return on their investment.

In the United States, roughly $164.2 billion is spent per year on employee training and learning programs. Per employee, around $1500 is spent on annual training and learning initiatives.

These are very large numbers. It makes sense that a company would want to see positive results.

However, that’s not always the case.

At McKinsey & Company, only 25% of managers surveyed believed that the training programs measurably improved business results. One study supports this belief, indicating that only 10-20% of what employees learn from training is actually implemented.

Facilitate Behavioral Change

The only way for a learning program to be successful is if it can result in genuine behavioral change.

This means that simply training employees is not enough. There has to be a plan in place that reinforces the key concepts and effectively measures how well these concepts are being adhered to.

Your ROI is tied to the measurements you put in place for the evaluation of your training program. Associating these metrics to key business outcomes allows you to better measure the true impact of a training.

This is why the evaluation stage of a training program is arguably the most important. It’s the only way that the organization can truly know if there is a positive ROI on any training that is put in place.

The problem is that not everyone is prepared to effectively measure training. At the very least, a robust evaluation system like the Kirkpatrick model should be used.

Take the time to create an evaluation strategy using a proven model with relevant metrics and your organization will be in a better position to measure training program ROI.

Reference:
Transfer of Learning

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter