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There is no denying the role online services have played since the UK Government first announced the country was going into lockdown, including in the learning and development (L&D) field. Yet now I’ve seen a new term pop up in articles I read: ‘Zoom Fatigue’. This latest phenomenon describes the impact of overusing virtual platforms, including tiredness and worry.

After a challenging year, organisations are starting to build for the future. Leaders should look into how they effectively use virtual settings, and how they start to integrate a return of face-to-face. For some aspects of work, home-based environments are favoured, but for other areas, a face-to-face setting has clear benefits.

One area which is likely to play a key role in the future of business, and therefore needs deep consideration on the best setting, is L&D programmes. Inspiring staff and maintaining engagement continues to grow in importance for many businesses. As such, we can expect more organisations to look towards L&D to ensure staff remain motivated. However, as budgets tighten, we can also expect more emphasis on delivering a positive ROI on such programmes.

Over the last 18 months, we have been working with the globally-renowned ROI Institute to produce a world-first tool. It has been designed with one goal in mind: to help give L&D professionals a clearer understanding as to what makes a training programme successful. The team at ROI Institute has used its decades of experience to analyse thousands of ROI studies to determine what factors make the most impact on delivering a positive return. One of these factors is what environment programmes are delivered in.

The environment in which a learning programme takes place does have a considerable impact on the ROI of a programme, according to ROI Institute. For example, training that takes place online are subject to distracting influences and as a result lower levels of concentration. These can be controlled when delivered in an external location. Hosting externally, results in a higher ROI as the participants are more likely to give their full attention to the course.

In total, there are eight key factors which help determine the ROI of an L&D programme. Our L&D Barometer asks eight multiple-choice questions around these factors, which help L&D professionals understand how impactful a training course is. As well as receiving an estimated ROI, both as a monetary figure and a percentage, the tool also offers guidance of where a programme needs improving (if required).

We hope that users find this tool as useful as we do, and that it can play an important role in the future of your programmes. I’m also happy to run through the L&D Barometer with you, if you would like to understand it further. If you drop me a message, I’d be more than happy to arrange a quick call to demonstrate the estimator.

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Measure the impact of your learning and development (L&D) programmes.

Discover the L&D Barometer