ROI Methodology

Forward-thinking HR and L&D professionals make vital contributions to organisational strategy and welcome the accountability that comes with greater engagement. To demonstrate impact, you need robust data and a discipline for extracting meaning from the data - in short, the abdi ROI methodology.

The abdi ROI methodology addresses the ambiguities in human interventions. Correctly applied, it lets you calculate the return on your organisation's investment in learning and development.

Bottom line improvement:
but can my intervention take the credit?

A vital question, with a three-part answer:

• Not causality but evidence of a chain of impact.
• Impact results are adjusted for the impact of other influences.
• Standardisation through twelve guiding principles supports credibility.

The abdi ROI methodology links the outcome to the intervention through a chain of impact at up to five levels:

1. Participant reaction and planned action.
2. Participant learning.
3. Related operational changes.
4. Related improvements in business results.
5. Hence return on investment - the net financial gain set against the total cost.

Our methodology uses a range of techniques to isolate the effects of the L&D from other influences.

Getting the data
Robust data - both quantitative and qualitative - is key to a credible ROI figure. The methodology helps you decide what to measure. It shows how to convert qualitative outcomes to monetary values.

Help with process
The abdi ROI methodology offers case studies, checklists, pro-formas and other tools to help with:

• Planning an intervention (starting by identifying the business-level goals, then the operational needs, and considering how, and how well, the planned intervention will meet those needs).
• Planning upfront how the intervention will be evaluated - potentially at each of the five levels.
• Collecting the data for the evaluation.
• Estimating what proportion of the results can be attributed to the intervention.
• Converting the data to monetary value.

Credible results
Judgments are involved when translating soft data into money or isolating the impact of interventions. The ROI methodology uses twelve guiding principles to help standardise the approach and ensure the credibility of the results. The overall ethos is: if in doubt, claim less.

Continuous improvement
The best companies see the abdi ROI methodology as much more than a means to quantify L&D impact. It is a process improvement tool. Measuring the impact of workplace learning shows up ways to make it more effective.