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Warwick Conferences has partnered with the renowned ROI Institute to launch a world-first tool to support businesses and learning & development (L&D) professionals understand the ROI of their training programmes.

Developed in response to rising pressures to determine the success and business impact of a training programme, the ROI Estimator provides those working on L&D programmes with expert analysis of current or upcoming training schedules.

The online tool -which takes less than five minutes to complete, asks the user eight questions about their training programme. Upon completion, users receive an estimated ROI based on an extensive analysis of almost 2,000 ROI studies, and advice on how to improve a programme, if required.

The launch follows research by ROI Institute and ATD, which explained that while 74% of CEOs believe the ROI of talent investment should be measured, only 4% say they see this in action. In the same findings, 96% said that impact should be measured, but only 8% claimed it was.

With budgets expected to come under more scrutiny than ever before, the launch of the ROI Estimator provides those organising and delivering programmes the opportunity to qualify the success and areas of improvement.

Paul Bartlett, Director of Warwick Conferences, said: “Over the last two years, we have been on a mission to support the L&D industry to prove the value of training programmes. In 2020, we uncovered a real need to make ROI more accessible and easy to understand, detailed in our industry report. As a result, we have created a tool which we hope will provide businesses with an understanding of how impactful their training schedules currently are, and, more importantly, can become.”

To develop the innovative tool, ROI Institute identified eight factors that significantly impact the overall ROI of a programme. The factors – which include the responsibilities of the participants, the perceived value of the course and how involved senior leaders are with development programmes – were determined by the analysis of 2,000 pieces of ROI research. 

Once the ROI questions have been answered, users will understand their program's potential impact through both a monetary figure and a percentage. L&D professionals and businesses will also receive guidance on how training could be improved or if it is deemed a programme of excellence.

Jack Phillips, Ph.D., chairman of ROI Institute, said: “When Warwick Conferences came to us to develop this unique tool, we were instantly excited about the prospect of creating a one-of-a-kind estimator for L&D professionals. We know from our research that CEOs and business leaders want to see more proof that training has a positive impact but determining this can often be over-complicated.

“From our many decades of study, we have been able to determine the key areas in which L&D programmes achieve the most success and business impact. We are in a period where budgets are under increased scrutiny, so the launch of this tool is perfectly timed to support businesses and to enable them to maximise the impact of their L&D.”

The tool can be accessed via the Warwick Conferences website by visiting https://warwick.ac.uk/services/conferences/roi