The famous Return on Investment (ROI) calculation can sometimes be seen as ONLY valuable or legitimate with efforts that directly inform top line growth. Using learning management software like PlaybookBuilder for sales training is a portrait of the obvious; “We invested X and expect to see an increase to sales of Y which spells a return of Z… and therefore it’s a Go”.
As attractive as that is however, when it comes to non-sales related training it’s not always that easy to correlate investment to return. Here are some other calculations that you can do to help justify the investment in a corporate learning initiative:
Speed to productivity:
The amount of time before a new hire is at 100% capacity is a factor that can result in real dollar savings. When a new hire is learning it is a drain on the team’s time – training them takes HR resources (not to mention that repeating themselves over and over makes them justifiably grouchy) and usually also pulls a top employee out of their routine in order to train them. Two salaries both at 50% productivity = a significant drain.
But what if that cost to train and onboard them was zero? What if their time to onboard was 1/10 of the time and they could self-manage 80-90% of their learning on their own…even before their first week of work? What’s that worth in real dollars?
Return on Retention:
Retention is a big topic for ROI analysis. What’s the cost of a recruiting, onboarding and then losing a new hire? For most organizations it’s a number they only have a general awareness of and don’t account for when their optimism is high. “We just hired this person and we expect them to love it here.”
But sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they fail to make it stick and they leave. And then you have to start all over again.
What’s the cost/benefit analysis of moving 12 month + retention numbers closer to 100%?
Performance Increase:
Most of the organizations we work with are highly experienced and veteran. Maybe that’s like your company. Getting the team all up to speed with the best practices in the organization is a simple and cost-effective way to drive better results in sales, operations, customer service…really anywhere in the organization.
What’s the return on investment for leveling up everyone’s skills in your organization?
Monetization of IP:
Ok, I’ll admit, this one might seem a bit far out but stay with me: Your training content (Intellectual Property) is your company wisdom right? Isn’t that one of the great value propositions for your company? How about using a knowledge management system to monetize that wisdom WITH YOUR CLIENTS/VENDORS/REFERRAL SOURCES and PARTNERS?
Examples here include charging a monthly fee for customers to access a Playbook that shares best practices, training, and “repeat conversations” they typically need your help with anyway. How about accelerating the impact with Centers of Influence (referral partners) so they can “share your story” easier and better? How about charging your vendors to be certified with your organization and measuring their effort? How about – wait for the crazy here – licensing out your IP to former competitors for a fee? We’ve helped several entrepreneurs to do that.
The ROI of you reading this Blog
The main ideas here are offered in a simple, and high-level version. But with a little ingenuity and some back-of-the-envelope math, the impact of leveraging your internal wisdom to onboard, train and impact the lives of your professional community is limited only by your own creativity.
Investing is a function of vision, and you need to have it to spend money on anything. Have a vision for your learning software and you’ll see the math jump right out at you.
Contact us at PlaybookBuilder to 10X your new hire onboarding speed and show you the ROI impact for your company. www.playbookbuilder.com