Resources on the ROI of Training

Karyn Romeis quoted a piece I wrote recently on the value of learning and the question of whether it is practicable to measure the ROI of training.

I thought it would be worthwhile to throw up some other resources around the area of tracking the value of learning. And I should point out that David Wilson and Chris Ainsworth will presenting on demonstrating and measuring value at the Learning Technologies conference in January.

Here are some great resources that I must thank Jay Cross for (Jay, of course, will be providing the opening key note at Learning Technologies).

Jay Cross, The Big Picture on ROI
Hal Richman, Optimizing Learning Value for Capital Effects by Jeff Kelley
Jay Cross, Making the Business Case for Informal Learning
Tony Karrer, ROI and Metrics in eLearning
Dennis Howlett, ROI is so Business 1.0 Not
Elsua, Making the Business Case for ROI

My take on the matter is this. It’s crucial to assess the impact that learning has on the key metrics of the business. That doesn’t mean it is necessary to carry out a strict Return on Investment study.

Instead, it’s important to understand the aims of the business and demonstrate how learning supports them.

And here a couple of articles of mine on the subject:

What ROI actually is (Inside Learning Technologies Magazine, Dec 2006)

The Value of Learning (Training Zone, Nov 2007)