The five level return on investment framework
Return on Investment (ROI) is a measure of the monetary benefits obtained by an organization over a
specified time period in return for a given investment in a training program. Looking it another way,
ROI is the extent to which the outputs of training exceed the inputs. ROI can be used both to justify a
planned investment and to evaluate the extent r
to which desired return was achieved. However, it
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cannot measure all the aspects of training success: whether the learners liked the training or not, the
numbers of learners participating in the training, the extents to which learner’s personal "objectives
were-
" accomplished (Shepperd, 1999) (For summarise see Appendix-I, table - 4)
ROI adds the fifth level to the Kirkpatrick for some reason. There are some pros and cons of
calculating ROI of a training program. The costs of training are known and expressed in monetary
terms, but the benefits are often soft, subjective, and difficult to quantify and convert into the monetary
terms. Costs are known up front, before training, but benefits may accrue slowly over time. But on the
other hand, course objectives and content will become more lean, relevant, and behavioral with focus
on monetary results rather than on the acquisition of information. And by calculating ROI on the
courses where it is possible, it is more apt to be trusted on the ones cannot evaluate at four levels