Last month our CEO, Nick Richards, was asked to present his thoughts on the ROI of e-learning to an audience of HR professionals at the CIPD Learning and Development Show.

Understanding and ensuring a Return on Investment is crucial for any organisation. What value does this bring to the organisation, is the impact measurable, can I justify this above other costs?
Getting ROI on training is no different to any other business activity. In fact, the knock-on effect of training on employee productivity means it should, arguably, be prioritised as one of the more vital things to measure ROI for.
Greater skills – personnel ROI

Ten years ago classroom training was the norm, e-learning was a new, developing alternative, and those pushing e-learning often met organisational resistance, both in the public and private sectors. Common doubts surfaced time and time again.

“How can it replace classroom training?” “Surely it’s too expensive to set up?” “What if my staff can’t use it?” The list goes on.
This is 2017, though, and the days of resistance to e-learning are long gone. Time after time, e-learning value has been proven, and the effectiveness of such training is no longer in doubt.
What’s more, e-learning helps to maintain a supportive organisational culture that facilitates training that is accessible, as needed, for the wider workforce. This is particularly useful for charities or other NGO’s that have volunteers spread across large geographical areas, especially where it’s inconvenient to bring hundreds of people into centralised classroom sessions.
The big one – commercial ROI

Transferring teaching from the classroom to the personal control of the learner can have financial rewards too.

An example we’ve looked at relates to safeguarding training at a large Local Authority. Traditionally staff were trained in a small number of classroom based sessions over the course of 12 months. Based on 18 students a day, over five sessions, a total of 108 staff were trained at a cost of £49 each. It’s worth noting that the wider workforce weren’t included in this training scheme.
Fast forward five years and a single safeguarding e-learning course, covering similar content to that of a classroom based session, reached 743 of the workforce at a cost of £2.69 per learner. It also reached those members of the workforce who typically wouldn’t have been on the list of staff in line for one of the traditional classroom sessions.
Return on Investment can come in many shapes and sizes. We’ve explored just two, but below are a number of additional benefits of e-learning that can further demonstrate ROI in your organisation.

LEARNER BENEFITS
  • Knowledge learned
  • Skills developed/enhanced
  • Felt valued by the organisation
  • Positive view of employer
  • Optimistic behaviour at work
  • Clear and confident about local practice guidelines
SERVICE BENEFITS
  • Service efficiency and effectiveness – achieved KPIs; filled gaps; delivered within budget cuts; streamlined customer service
  • Broadened reach and take up – new learners
  • Created a blended learning offer (bespoke and off-the-shelf)
  • Released officer time
  • Straight forward procurement
ORGANISATION BENEFITS

Contributed to improved:

  • Workforce productivity
  • Achievement of organisational objectives
  • Employee satisfaction and morale
  • Recruitment and retention
  • Customer/service user satisfaction

Still looking for an e-learning partner? Award winning Me Learning offers a range of e-learning courses and solutions for all kinds of organisation. Contact us today to see how we can help

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