Why Return on Learning is the better metric to use to justify elearning in the organization

Return on Learning (ROL) is a better metric to use when trying to determine the benefits of investing in elearning programs for your organization. Most firms look at Return on Investment (ROI) as the key metric but I believe this is a faulty gauge as it does not focus on what should be important: are your employees learning and do you have a learning culture to drive success?

ROL is more important as it allows an organization to focus on allowing their employees to learn how and when they can. That is why using social media  is so powerful as it eliminates the focus on the bottom line and places the emphasis where it should be: on the learning. ROI provides a static snapshot of the investment, while ROL looks at the totality of the return on promoting learning in an organization over time. ROL is a continuum whose benefits are seen in higher employee satisfaction, productivity and profitability (see here for details).

The skeptics will say that to justify an e-learning program, the CEO/CFO will demand to see the return on the investment. Again, the focus is on the bottom line and shortsighted as e-learning translates more powerfully to the top line over time, something that is harder to calculate but no less powerful.

The use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc. are so powerful because they are spaces that employees can leverage on their own time and for things that help them. These platforms are informal learning in its most powerful form as it promotes learning from others and facilitates "leader" as teacher (with the leader being the subject matter expert not the person who happens to have a C in their title).

The interesting question is what should the formula for ROL be so you can use it in your organization to justify the use of social media for learning. Over the next few weeks I will try and develop a formula for ROL and would love to hear your input on what you think should be included in the calculation.