It has become something of a cliché for business owners to claim that 'people are our greatest asset'. Yet, much to the dismay of employees, the effort they put in to developing this 'human capital' continues to be seen as an expense and not as an investment. It's time to turn this around. Start to analyze your training programs as if they were capital investments using techniques like Return on Investment (ROI). You may start to change the level of success your business obtains. Especially now as there is a wide assortment of training options available at reasonable costs, (due to advances in internet-based programs), you will be able to realize ROI faster than ever.

What is ROI? Return on Investment is simply a business metric tool to help you see if your current course of action or potential course of action is cost-effective and provides gains to your business. The term means that business owners evaluate the investment potential by comparing the amount and timing of expected gains to the total investment costs. Below is a simple example on how to calculate ROI. We are going to use an example of $5,000 in training expenses to generate a projected $17,500 total amount of gain from that training.

Simple ROI

=

Gains - Investment Costs ______________________ Investment Costs

=

$17,500 - $5,000 _________________ $5,000

=

250% total return

 

The financial benefits of training should not only be measured in terms of employee reactions, nor the amount of learning that has been achieved, not even the extent to which behavior may have changed. The real benefits come from improved performance. Since your staff use your practice software everyday for every patient that comes in, software training is one of the most logical areas to invest resources into. Here are just a few of the areas that effective software training will bring immediate improvement to your office.

• More efficient usage of software. The better the software is understood, the more productivity increases.
  

• Using full potential of all software features. You spent money on a package that has many features... use them!
  

• Happier employees. People don't like what they don't understand or are unsure of. Those that do are happier.
  

• Improved customer service. Happier employees will always mean happier patients.
  

• Better employee retention. Once again, employees that understand the tools to do their job will stay.
  

• Increased accountability. Eliminate excuses for why tasks weren't completed on-time/correctly.
  

• Getting new employees ready faster. Down-time for new employees can be greatly reduced with formal training.
  

• Keeping current with requirements. Changes in the healthcare industry often effect portions of software.
  

• Greater understanding of the business. Increased awareness in one area often leads to that in other areas.
  

• Better motivation and morale. Employees seeing the owner invest in them, shows them they are wanted and needed.
  

For more information on training please Contact Us.