I had a conversation recently with a learning leader at an organization who was being pushed to show their ROI – return on investment.  Granted in the last couple of years they have brought a new LMS online and added designers to the team so management wanted to know if the expenses were paying off.   But our discussion started with how many clicks had been captured, the test scores of the online modules, and how many people had taken these modules and trying to divide these into the expenses… well you get the picture.  And that’s the point – that isn’t where you truly measure the ROI. You need to have a more strategic view of the organization to determine the ROL – the Return on Learning.

Measure what matters and focus on what matters to the organization.  Key business functions such as First call resolution, lower product defects, higher quality scores, upselling numbers – the point is what are you doing to impact the business?  To truly measure the ROI you need to focus on the ROL. Start by using my favorite 4 letter word to start with – PLAN: Prior (to) Learning, Assess Now.  Take ownership of the learning solution you are developing by first (prior to learning) gathering the current operational metrics (assess now) that you will be measuring against, so you can identify clearly to yourself and your client that the solution you put in place made a difference at the business level.

Want to learn how to measure the return on your learning efforts then check out this short video about Return on Learning!  If you would like to learn more about using learning as a strategic business tool let’s talk!