CompleteROI Business Impact and ROI Studies measure to what extent job performance improvements due to a training program have impacted business results and created a return on investment.

Corresponding to Level 4-5 of Kirkpatrick's and Phillips' ROI models, CompleteROI Business Impact and ROI Studies determine training programs' measurable contributions to business goals and measure their effectiveness as investments. Using underlying metrics and business drivers, Impact Evaluations tie the gains found in Complete ROI Performance Evaluations to business goals or actual monetary returns.

Potentially useful metrics include:

• Increases in output
• Decreases in defect rates
• Decreases in employee turnover
• Decreases in resource usage or material costs
• Training participants' own impressions, obtained through surveying, of contributions to business goals

These metrics can be used in isolation or tied via drivers to actual monetary values. For example, if an organization determines that a 10% decrease in employee turnover with no other effects is worth $600,000, then a training program determined to be 100% responsible for this 10% decrease (and no other effects) is worth that $600,000. Comparing a program's benefits to its costs results in an ROI measurement.

Costs of a typical training program include:

• Salaries of those who attend (typically the largest cost of a learning program)
• Development costs for the program
• Salaries of teachers/trainers
• Travel/booking/food expenses
• Costs of materials and licensing fees

For the purposes of ROI measurement, opportunity costs (costs of lost sales, for example) are normally not included, so that the ROI of the training program can be compared to the ROI of day-to-day business.

ROI is an aggressive calculation for training programs, so care must to be taken to ensure that the results are interpreted as conservatively as possible. Training programs do not operate in a vacuum, and outside events are likely to have at least as much effect on related business metrics. For this reason, it is important to select metrics that are as closely related and closely attributable to the benefits of the training program as possible. Establishing control groups is extremely helpful.

Using the Business Impact and ROI Studies component of the CompleteROI System, administrators can:

• Use costing tools to identify the true cost of training programs.
• Tie increases in key corporate metrics to financial drivers.
• View summary reports that display ROI associated with each class, instructor, or program.
• Import data into Microsoft Excel or databases for further processing.
• Display a list of best and worst course performers in measured ROI.

CompleteROI Business Impact and ROI Studies are a component of the CompleteROI System. Business Impact and ROI Studies can be bought separately without purchasing an entire suite of measurements. Pricing depends on desired components and usage. Please contact an account representative for a quote for your organization.