If you’re a business owner, C-suite manager, HR department or Learning & Development organizer/Trainer.. you might know the answer to this question.
According to the 2014 ATD State of Industry Report, the average spending on training in 2013 was over $1200 per employee.
But what does this mean to your bottom line?
No matter how to spend the money (traditional classroom, digital or micro-learning), your current and future investment in your employees’ training hangs on the RETURN on that investment. Meaning that your learning method must produce measurable KPI’s.
Without having measurable objectives and outcomes to the training that analyze the benefits of the training in question, it’s nearly impossible to justify spending the same amount (or more) in the following year – no matter how important “training” is according to research.
Short-term costs, for long-term benefits
The short-term costs for training your employees are undeniable. Employees with be out of commission for the time they are training, which will reduce your productivity and profitability, additionally, each hour of training costs (on average) double their hourly wage. However, the benefits can have a great impact on your long-term business profitability. Employees will have an increased utilization of the tools and softwares, there will be a further understanding of business processes, and increased employee morale, all leading to increased productivity.
The way to get these benefits and reap the rewards of invested training lies in the KPI’s that you set in the beginning.
The Best KPI’s for your Training Investment are:
- Measurable: Do you see the utilization, engagement and attendance of your employees with the training program?
- Realistic: Are your expectations of the (learning) outcomes realistic and within a “retention”, “utilization” and “engagement” framework?
- Understandable: Are your expectations clear to both your employees and the training provider? Are the topics and key learnings understandable for the learners?
When looking for a training provider or investment, making sure they help you to track, measure and manage your investment is key. Without a way to track utilization, engagement and information retention, you won’t know the ROI of your training investment.
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