Getting a Return on Your Training Budget

We all know that it is important to invest in staff development. In fact, many organisations publicly state that their employees are their greatest asset. Most organisations have a training and education budget for staff development, but few track the return on this investment—the value the organisation receives for investing in its people.

Much has been written recently about this investment, about the amount of money spent on training and education and the return that organisations receive. While it may be difficult to measure this return, either directly or indirectly, there are some simple steps that your organisation can take to boost the return.

When you send an employee for training—either internal or external—tell her prior to the course that she will be required to submit a report after the course indicating:

1. What she learned that was applicable to her current or future role.
2. How she intends to apply what she learned, meaning what changes she intends to make as a result of having had the training. If it turns out that the training was not particularly useful, then the organisation should learn not to send employees for that particular training again.
3. How other roles in the organisation might benefit from what she learned. Note that this third component is icing on the cake. The critical report-back must be on the impact of the course on the employee herself.

After the course, the manager must hold the employee accountable for the report and must do so within a small number of days (i.e., less than five days). If what she learned is applicable to other people in the organisation, it may be appropriate to have her give a brief presentation at the next team meeting so that others may benefit.

By holding an employee accountable for learning something in the course and for thinking about it enough to identify changes that he will make as a result of the course, you engage the employee more in the course than he might otherwise have been, and you increase the likelihood that the organisation will actually achieve value from the training. These steps will not make it any easier to measure or otherwise quantify the benefit, but they should increase the benefit in an absolute sense. You may also find that your employees learn more and retain what they have learned longer when they follow these steps.