Why Your Organization May Be Looking at L&D ROI the Wrong Way
The Pressure for Proving ROI
Many organizations are data driven, and rightly so! We want to know that what we are doing is helping the business be successful. However, sometimes there is pressure on the L&D team to prove ROI for a project or even for the existence of the team itself. I feel this is short-sighted and I will share with you why.
A New Way of Looking at Things
You’ve probably heard the phrase: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” This is generally used to describe the economy - when the economic situation is improving, it benefits everyone.
The same could be said about lifting the collective knowledge and skillset of the company as a whole. If a company is good at something (communication, customer service, sales), the people at that company become better at that skill as well. The same is true in reverse - if a person is good at a particular skill, it lifts up the company’s collective ability.
Example for Sales Skills
Let’s think about an example. Say that Jodi is a new hire in the sales team. She has some experience. As she starts at her new company, she receives training, learns from the other people in her team, learns new workflows, and even new software that helps her be more efficient. As her skills grow, so does the company’s skill base as a whole. In addition, she brings new ideas from her background and experience that lifts up her fellow sales team members.
Example for Products
Here’s another example. A new product is coming out. The L&D team creates a company-wide training to familiarize everyone with the new product. Each person uses that knowledge in their roles. Maybe a customer service representative suggests it to a current customer to help solve a problem. Maybe a sales rep includes it in a pitch to a new client. A marketing person may make a piece of content that is related and include a mention of the product. All these little pieces add up to more success for that product, even if it can not be directly tied to the training itself.
Evaluating Projects
So, when we are talking about if a training program is “worth it” - there is much more to it than if you can show an immediate sales increase or other metric. It is a long term investment in the company as a whole. Think of it more like SEO than advertising - it takes some time for the changes to have an effect.
This does not mean that we should not measure the effectiveness of a training or project, but we should look at it through the lens of long-term thinking. What opportunities are there for learning that can lift up the skills and knowledge of the company as a whole? That is an investment worth making.