Dive Brief:
- There is a better way to measure the value of workplace training programs, writes the Harvard Business Review. Employers may want to consider the 'cost per employed day' metric as it relates employee learning.
- Employers spend nearly $300 billion annually for workforce training, according to a Georgetown University study. Despite this, the World Bank reports that only around one-third of youth employment programs are providing even marginal benefits for companies.
- The way that most companies measure the success of workforce training isn't accurate, HBR says. Instead, a 'cost per employed day' measures the added productivity and profitability of employees once they have completed their training. This provides a long-term metric on how the company gets a solid return on investment in each worker.
Dive Insight:
Measuring the success of corporate learning has long been a troubling aspect of business. This may be why less than 10% of CEOs see any real impact of corporate learning.
It can be difficult to place a statistic on how much more productive or knowledgeable employees are once they have completed training. Most of this has to do with what they can immediately put to work in their daily roles to become more productive and serve customers better.
But there are other aspects to consider, such as knowledge transfer to other employees, new concepts learned on-the-job and employees researching and learning on their own time. How can an employer accurately measure this ROI?
When one looks at the short term and long term aspects of learning, this brings the full picture of training into greater focus. Performance goals are met, new goals are set and employers benefit from increased retention of knowledge.
