In the second of this three part series, Krystyna Gadd carries on her practical look at ROI for trainers and training departments.
Defining ROE and how it relates to ROI
If you can calculate ROI and demonstrate to stakeholders that their investment has been worthwhile, then your perceived value to the organisation, as an L&D professional will increase.
On some occasions, though, the stakeholders are looking for something a little less tangible. They may be looking for something, which may be a little harder for them to quantify, in monetary terms. In cases such as these, it may be better for the L&D professional to be given some measure which is not quantifiable in money but can be measured in other ways.
For example, when working with a training team from ATOS, the L&D Manager, Debbie Meddins, wanted their team to 'get their spark back' and be excited about training. Undoubtedly, this would have a knock-on effect on their performance and maybe that would lead to a more efficient team, but this sort of expectation from a stakeholder is more difficult to quantify in money terms. It can however be quantified by surveying the team, before and after the event.
Going back to the example, with the trainers, carefully chosen questions in a survey could illicit, from those surveyed, how they felt before the training and then after. Let’s have a look at some examples:
In terms of your own motivation and enthusiasm, how would you rate yourself at the moment? (circle one)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0=no interest and 10=hugely interested, grade the following aspects of your current role:
Needs Analysis ____
Designing programmes ____
Designing L&D activities ____
Delivering short workshops ____
Delivering long programmes ____
Evaluating L&D activities ____
From the list below circle the words that describe well mostly how you feel in your role at the moment:
To put it simply, ROI is what the stakeholders want in terms of a monetary return on their investment which they can measure and ROE is what stakeholders want which cannot be measured easily in money. Here are some more examples:
Employee engagement
Morale
Improvements in customer satisfaction
Greater attendance on certain key events
Greater number of respondents
Smaller waiting list
Krystyna Gadd Assoc CIPD is founder of How to Accelerate Learning and creator of the Learning Loop. For more info watch this short video and contact her to find out more and book a no-fee consultation.
