If you, as a company or organisation, want to train your employees through e-learning, you naturally want to make sure that this investment pays off. That is why it is important to determine the “Return On Investment” (ROI) for the e-learning.
By maximising the ROI on e-learning within your company or organisation, you not only get the most out of the training budget, but also out of your employees!
What is a Return on Investment?
”Return on investment, often abbreviated as ROI, literally means “return on investments”. People want to know what an investment brings. If the investment results in a loss, the ROI is a negative number; if the investment is profitable, the ROI is a positive number.” (source: https://www.investeerders.nl/return-on-investment-roi/)
If you want to make sure you get a positive ROI on your e-learning, it's important to keep this in mind before your employees start e-learning.
Step 1. First, ask yourself the following three questions:
- What are we trying to change in the company?
- Will investing in e-learning help our business move forward?
- Do we need to make changes to how we work now to make our company work even more effectively?
Step 2: Discover the benefits of e-learning
- E-learning is flexible: you can learn at any time and at any location. This means that no meeting room has to be booked, agendas do not have to be arranged side by side and catering is unnecessary.
- E-learning offers a variety of learning materials. Whether you prefer visual learning, reading a book, or listening to a podcast, e-learning offers a choice of materials that are accessible and interesting for everyone.
- Interactive. Connecting with others is seen as essential to the learning process. Although e-learning takes place via a device, the connection with others can still be clearly present through, for example, online discussions and contact with the lecturer.
- E-learning saves time and costs. Just think about teaching materials, catering and accommodation costs.
- E-learning offers insight through analytics.
- E-learning makes customised learning possible.
- The course material is always up to date, because it can be easily adjusted and updated at any time.
In this article, you can read more about the benefits of e-learning.
Step 3: Set Goals
If your answer to the questions in step 1 is “yes” and you are convinced of the benefits of e-learning (step 2), it's time for the next step: setting goals. After all, without goals, you cannot measure whether the goals have been achieved through the e-learning either, an important step!
Try to make the goals as practical and measurable as possible. For example:
- On 1 January 2023, all employees within the organisation will know how to work with our new software system.
- On June 15, 2022, we will save x Euro in training on location.
- We halve employee onboarding time by 50%
- Etc.
Step 4: When is the e-learning a success?
How will you then measure whether the e-learning has indeed brought what you as an organisation or company hoped for? To do this, you can ask yourself four questions:
- How is the response to the e-learning? It is important that the course material and way of learning appeal to students. L&D managers can measure this by using the Learning Management System statistics, surveys, and interviews.
- Has the knowledge of employees increased? Managers can evaluate employees on specific skills, attitudes and knowledge acquired through the e-learning.
- Has there been a change in behavior? Managers (and perhaps also employees among themselves, as “peers”) evaluate and observe whether employees actually apply the newly acquired skills and knowledge in their daily work practice.
- Learning outcome and impact: how is the learning outcome and the impact on the company as a whole? Do the statistics prove that the e-learning has brought the company or organisation closer to the previously set goals?
Step 5: Compare results to costs
In order to determine the ROI, it is then important to identify the costs incurred. You can consider the following costs when calculating:
- Salary: how many total hours did the employees invest in the e-learning? This includes setting up, keeping track, answering questions, evaluating, etc.
- E-learning costs: for example, the costs of the Learning Management System, the e-learning platform, the trainers/facilitators, etc.
After calculating the costs, you can “therefore compare the costs against the benefits”. If your e-learning is well and thoroughly put together, you will definitely get a positive ROI!
So, as you can see, there is quite a lot involved in determining the ROI on your e-learning. However, this is an essential step in being able to justify and secure a future training budget.
Are you curious about how e-learning can further help your organisation? Contact us and we'll be happy to help you get started!
