4 Metrics for Measuring Training ROI

You've implemented an online training program, well done! Now that you've designed the curriculum, produced the content, chosen a learning management system, and authored your courses, that's it, right? Not quite. When investing in a customer or partner education program, it’s important to define training success metrics for measuring the return on your training investment.In this blog post, we discuss the 4 most common metrics for measuring training ROI.

1. Number of Trainees

The number of trainees speaks to the total reach and scale of your program. Companies often invest in on-demand training in order to maximize potential customer engagement touchpoints.This metric is most effective when combined with another value that ties back to specific revenue or costs. In a recent article, eLearning veteran John Leh discusses the importance of comparing the performance of customers who have participated training to those who have not. Some examples include:

• Customers that take a training class are X% more likely to have success with the product, generate $Y in additional revenue, or reduce support costs by Z%.
• Customer leads are worth $X each to the sales and marketing team.
• Certified channel partners generate Y% more sales than non-certified partners.

2. Total Duration

Time spent by trainees with your education program is time spent engaging with your organization. It follows that the more time a customer or partner spends engaged in your training content, the more invested they are in optimizing their relationship with your company to continue to gain value from it. And, as they learn more about your company's products and services, they are in a much better position to be successful at that optimization.

3. Quiz Passing Score

If understanding material is the primary goal, then it's a good idea to include a comprehension quiz and determine the minimum passing score necessary to achieve your objectives. Assessment is a valuable way to confirm that trainees received and retained key messages and skills. When assessment is included in training, you can then clearly report on the percentage of trainees who passed the training quiz, as well as scores by trainee, or even by groups of trainees.

4. Revenue

Selling training courses can be a profitable new source of revenue for your organization. However, unless you are a pure-play training company, customer education is typically thought of as an enabling service and not as your company's core growth engine. Still, it's helpful that training can be profitable on a stand-alone basis, as well as enable other areas of the business.There are many positive results that will presumably come from implementing a customer or partner education program. Minimizing support costs, and increasing customer and partner success seem like likely outcomes. But tracking training ROI is crucial to sustaining and continuously improving your training program.