3 Steps to Prove the ROI of Employee Training

As an HR leader, you know your training programs made a difference. You've seen employees grow, heard positive feedback, and watched engagement improve. But translating those wins into the concrete ROI numbers leadership wants? That’s where things get tricky.

You don't need a PhD in data analytics or weeks of number-crunching to prove training value. Here are the three steps for building a compelling case for your training program without drowning in spreadsheets.

Foundational numbers

Before diving into complex calculations, gather the data you're likely already collecting:

• Completion rates: How many employees finished required training programs?
• Engagement metrics: Which courses had the highest participation and satisfaction scores?
• Time to competency: How quickly did new hires reach productivity benchmarks after onboarding?
• Compliance status: Are you meeting regulatory requirements without scrambling at the last minute?

These basic metrics tell a story leadership understands: efficiency, risk mitigation, and employee development.

Callout: How Wave Utilities used Go1 to deliver measurable training results to leadership

Lost in a maze of L&D content, and with engagement and completion scores falling, Wave Utilities needed a new approach to upskilling, reskilling, and retaining its 350-strong workforce— one that empowered employees to control their own learning pathways

After switching their learning approach, their completion rates rose from 78% to 98% and comprehension scores increased from 2/5 to 4.36/5.

Tangible outcomes

The key to proving ROI is linking learning to results impacting the bottom line:

• Retention improvements: 45% of workers are more likely to stay in their role if they receive training. Compare your own turnover rates for trained vs. untrained employees. Even a small reduction in turnover translates to significant cost savings when you factor in recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity.
  
• Employee performance gains: Training improves employee performance by 22%. Track whether employees who completed specific training programs showed measurable improvements in their work. This could be increased sales, fewer errors, faster project completion, or higher customer satisfaction scores (according to research, companies report 19% increase in customer satisfaction after employee training programs).
  
• Reduced incidents: For compliance and safety training, document how programs helped avoid costly violations, accidents, or legal issues.

Employee insights

Aside from hard numbers, one of the best ways to provide ROI is by assessing how employees interpret learning content. This might look like assessing content

• Ratings: See how learners are responding to content across your organization—at a glance and over time. If average ratings are strong and trending upward, it’s a clear signal your curation is hitting the mark.
• Sentiment: Partner with a platform that analyzes the reasoning behind ratings, enabling more nuanced curation decisions and helping build programs learners actually want to engage with.

Now turn those metrics into the concrete numbers leadership expects.

Calculate your training costs 

Add up your total investment over 12 months:

• Platform and content costs 
• Employee time spent in training (hours × average hourly wage) 
• Program administration and management time

Example: 200 employees × 8 hours training × $25/hour = $40,000 in employee time, plus $20,000 in platform costs = $60,000 total investment.

Convert benefits of training to dollar values

Assign conservative dollar amounts to your measured outcomes, including: 

• Turnover reduction
• Performance improvements
• Avoided compliance penalties and safety incidents

Apply the formula

(Benefits - Costs) ÷ Costs × 100 = ROI%

If your training prevented just 4 employees from leaving ($60,000 in savings) while costing $60,000 to deliver, that's already a 0% ROI—break even. Factor in productivity gains, compliance benefits, and you're typically looking at 200-500% returns, even with conservative estimates.

When sharing your findings with leadership, focus on metrics aligning with their priorities:

• For CFOs: Lead with cost savings and efficiency gains. Show how training reduced expenses or improved productivity.
• For CEOs: Emphasize strategic outcomes like employee engagement, sentiment, retention, and competitive advantage through skill development.
• For department heads: Highlight specific improvements in their areas—better customer service scores, reduced safety incidents, or faster project delivery.

When presenting these results, ensure they’re not buried in dense reports. For each group of stakeholders, create straightforward one-page summaries with:

• Key metrics in easy-to-scan charts
• Before-and-after comparisons
• Specific dollar amounts where possible
• Brief examples of individual success stories

Your training programs are making a difference. With the right approach, you can show leadership exactly what the difference looks like—and secure the support you need to keep developing your people.

Ready to make ROI reporting easier? Go1's analytics dashboard automatically tracks key training metrics, making it simple to demonstrate program impact without manual data collection. Book a call today and see how our tools can streamline your ROI reporting process.