The ROI of Investing in Bespoke E-Learning for Your Business
You invest in training because you want a result.
Better performance. Fewer errors. Faster onboarding. Stronger consistency. Less firefighting.
But six months later, many businesses are left wondering:
Did it actually deliver… or did we just create “training activity”?
For SMEs, ROI matters even more because time and cash flow are less forgiving.
So let’s make ROI practical.
1) What ROI really means in learning
ROI isn’t just about course completion.
It’s about measurable change in things like:
fewer mistakes or rework
faster time-to-competence for new hires
improved customer outcomes
reduced manager interruptions (“Can I just ask…?”)
improved compliance behaviours
faster task completion or decision-making
If training can’t shift something real, it’s not an investment it’s a cost.
2) Start with outcomes, not content
Before building anything, get clear on:
what should be happening now
what is happening instead
what people need to do differently
how you’ll measure the change
This is where ROI is won or lost.
The biggest ROI failures happen when businesses jump straight to building content before they’ve defined the performance goal.
3) Understand the full cost (not just the build)
When calculating ROI, include:
development cost (design, build, reviews)
learner time spent completing training
manager/support time spent reinforcing it
ongoing maintenance (updates, tweaks)
Bespoke e-learning can absolutely be worth it, but only when it replaces real inefficiencies, not when it sits beside them.
4) Use a simple ROI approach
You don’t need a finance degree.
A basic approach works:
Identify the cost of the problem now
time lost, errors, rework, delays, escalations
Estimate the improvement you’re aiming for
even a modest reduction can be valuable in SMEs
Compare benefits vs total training cost
If the benefits don’t clearly outweigh the costs, don’t build the training.
5) The hidden ROI boost: reusability
Well-designed bespoke e-learning often creates compounding value because it can be:
reused for future hires
updated as your business evolves
embedded into onboarding
used as an on-demand reference
That’s when you stop paying repeatedly for the same knowledge transfer.
A smarter way to invest
Bespoke e-learning works best when it’s:
focused on a real performance need
designed around actual scenarios
measured using meaningful metrics
built to be reused, not forgotten
And sometimes, the best ROI comes from not building e-learning at all, but improving the system around it.
Want support defining and measuring learning ROI?
If you want help clarifying what to measure (and how), or deciding whether bespoke learning is the right investment, I can help.
A good place to start is the Learning Impact Scorecard, it highlights where your current training is strong, where it’s leaking value, and what will deliver the fastest wins.
👉 Take the free Learning Impact Scorecard
Or if you’d prefer supported clarity before committing budget, Define & Align helps you identify the right solution (and the right measurement plan) before anything is built.