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E Learning Research
E Learning Can be the
Solution
E Learning Research
E
Learning ROI
Six Tips for Calculating ROI Calculating a return on investment (ROI) is often
a first step when considering adding online learning to your training program.
However your organization may not track training costs as a separate line item,
making it difficult to calculate where the savings will come from. It's also
difficult to assign a dollar figure to e-learning's most important benefits. For
example, it's easy to calculate how much you save in mileage if your employees
can avoid a long drive for compliance training but can you calculate how much
more time your managers will spend on revenue -generating activities because
they aren't shuffling paper to get their staff to finish training assignments?
E-Learning's less tangible improvements are no
less valuable than the savings in travel expenses, but intangibles are more
difficult to document and justify to senior-level decision makers. With this
said, here are some areas to consider when making a case for E-Learning:
Paid Training Time -
Over forty independent studies have found that online training yielded time
savings of 35-45% over traditional classroom instruction while obtaining
equivalent or better gains in learning retention. Simply put, if you pay 30
employees to sit in a classroom for 1 hour and the average hourly rate of those
employees is $15 then that class will cost the organization $450 in paid
training time. If that class content can be shifted to an online format and it
takes these same employees 40% less time to complete the course you have reduced
your paid training time for this class to $270, saving the organization $180.
To calculate your savings in paid training time
you first have to consider how many courses that you are currently providing in
the classroom could be transferred to an online format. Be sure to consider all
of the training that you provide - orientation, annual mandatory training,
in-service, etc. Once you have a ballpark figure, calculate your savings as
follows:
Orientation Training -
Estimate the number of hours of orientation training that can be
presented online. Multiply it by the number of new hires you have times
the average hourly rate for new hires including benefits. Multiply this
amount by 35-45% (depending on how conservative you want to be). This is
a ballpark estimate of your orientation savings. Also factor in the time
savings for managers who present the orientation classes.
Annual Training - Take the number of hours of training that could be presented online. Multiply
it by your total number of employees. Multiply this number by your
employee's average salary plus benefits. Multiply this amount by 35-45%
(depending on how conservative you want to be). This is a ballpark
estimate of your annual training savings.
In-service - This is a little trickier - most in-service is done as part of staff meetings or
at the end of the day. There may be some savings and productivity
benefits if you have employees who are doing shift work who are paid
overtime to come in early or stay late for training classes. For
example, if you have a worker who is doing an overnight shift at a group
home and they could do their mandatories while on duty instead of
staying for a class in the morning - that will yield some paid training
savings.
Staff Coverage
- Do you
routinely have to cover units with paid staff to allow employees to
attend mandatory training classes? If so, you may realize savings for
training these essential employees if they could take some of the
classes online. You will save the cost of the replacement staff time
even if you have to pay the essential staff overtime.
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