Each year Canadian businesses spend on average $18 billion on various training programmes. But what is the long term ROI ? How much of the skills development is actually translated into enhanced performance and thus a higher ROI? And what can be done to maintain the highest possible rate of ROI from investment in training?
Investing in the continued learning of employees is an integral part of ensuring the success of a business.
Many businesses understand the need to improve the technical skills of their staff, i.e. the skills necessary to perform the daily tasks of the business. In many instances, this training is performed in mentor like settings, where an established employee trains newer employees. This is an excellent example of on-the-job training that yields a very high return on investment.
When it comes to professional development, it is not always feasible to opt for in-house development, More often than not, this kind of learning is sought from outside sources in the form of workshops, seminars, e-learning programmes etc. When it comes to this kind of learning – the learning of widely applicable skills which, generally speaking, improve the employability of the employees, both for the current employer and future ones – estimating the value to the company is not always straightforward. Professional development programmes are not only more costly than skills training, but also more difficult to gauge the ROI. Nevertheless, one very important step to take in order to maintain the highest possible ROI form staff development is to ensure the impact of learning.
“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”Aristotle
Aristotle wants us to practice knowledge, not just know it. If we want to be better builders, we should build more houses; if we want to be better at using Excel Worksheets, we need to create more worksheets and practice using them. The old expression of Use it or lose it rings so true when it comes to employee development programmes. If a company has decided to spend $$ on improving the skills base of their staff, then they must ensure that the skills Can and Will be applied upon the return of the employees to their jobs. This is the concept of ensuring the impact of learning.
Learning is about understanding a certain idea or concept, committing it to memory, and most importantly, being able to perform it at a later point in time. When we attend a skills development programme, e.g. a workshop on improving communication, being able to change habits after attending the workshop in such a way that improves communication, and by doing so, creating a better team spirit, is what yields Return on Investment in training. If, on the other hand, the newly acquired skills are not performed in the workplace for various reasons, then the training expense has been a waste.
The waste occurs more often for professional development training than for skills training. Since the latter is about learning to do the job on the job, the level of waste is usually low, and mostly manifested in employees leaving for another job. Whilst for professional development training – leadership development programmes being a good example – the waste occurs when the employee returns to work after the successful training and is a) not encouraged to perform the newly acquired knowledge; b) not given the time necessary to initiate the improvement process; or worst of all, c) being met by the stuck-in-a-rut attitude of other staff who don’t see the necessity for change or for applying the new knowledge acquired at the workshop.
Training staff is an investment of great value to a company and to the community at large as long as the company carefully creates plans that ensure that the newly learned skills are maintained, practiced, applied and appreciated.