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You can develop and carry out the most impressive training programs for your event staff. But if you are not tracking their Return on Investment (ROI), you might just be pouring time and resources into something that does not actually improve your operations. Measuring event staff training ROI ensures that your investment actually translates into functional benefits.
In the previous post, we discussed why investing in training and development matters and the undeniable impact it has on brand representation. Today, we take the next step. This guide explores how to measure event staff training ROI.
Event staff training is a learning program or initiative designed to help staff understand their responsibilities and perform their roles effectively. It typically starts with general guidance on the event procedures. From there, the training becomes more role-specific depending on the position. For example, brand ambassadors may receive specialized instruction on how to present and promote a product while engaging with potential customers.
For a deeper dive on event staff training tips, here is your guide.
When done right, event staff training can bring about various benefits to your agency and your team. According to a report, 86% of HR managers see training as a way to improve employee retention, and 83% consider it effective for attracting new talent. In addition to that, effective training can boost work performance and job satisfaction.
Event staff training Return on Investment (ROI) is the measurement of the value or benefits a company gains from a training program compared with the money and resources spent on it. It is usually expressed as a percentage. Nowadays, you can use an online training ROI calculator to compute ROI, or apply the simple formula below:
Training ROI (%) = (Net Benefits ÷ Training Costs) × 100
If the thought of measuring the ROI of event staff training makes your head spin, you’re not alone. Numbers and formulas can feel overwhelming, but the event staff training ROI formula and figures do not have to be. Here is a clear, easy-to-understand, step-by-step guide on how to measure the ROI of event staff training.
To measure the ROI of event staff training, you need to start by identifying and listing all costs related to the training. This enables you to clearly calculate the total investment made in the training program and accurately compare it with the benefits or returns it generates.
Training program costs are typically divided into direct and indirect costs. Direct costs refer to the expenses directly paid for the training itself, such as trainer fees, learning materials, venue, and certification printing. Meanwhile, indirect costs are expenses that support the training but are not always immediately noticeable. These can include employee wages during training hours, reduced productivity while staff attend sessions, and the time administrators spend coordinating and preparing the program.
Once you have identified and listed both direct and indirect costs, add them together to get the total. For example, if you spend $2,000 on training materials and $1,000 on paying staff for their training hours, your total training cost is $3,000.
Net benefits are the total measurable gains or savings that your event staff training generates for your business, expressed in monetary terms after subtracting the total cost of the training. In other words, it’s the actual value your training creates once you account for what you spent to make it happen.
To measure net benefits, start by identifying the improvements your training was designed to achieve. These could include reduced setup time, fewer lost or damaged materials, more clients or ticket sales due to better staff performance, or fewer new hires needed because staff retention improved. After you’ve listed these improvements, assign a monetary value to each one. For example, if training reduces setup time by three hours per event and you have 5 staff members who handle the setup, with each staff member earning $20 per hour, the savings per event would be $300. If your company runs 50 events per year, the total annual savings from setup time alone would be $15,000.
Next, subtract the total cost of the training from the combined value of all measurable gains. For instance, if your total training cost is $3,000, and your total annual benefits are $15,000, the net benefit would be $15,000 − $3,000 = $12,000.
Now that you know your net benefits and training costs, you can calculate training ROI using the formula:
Training ROI (%) = (Net Benefits ÷ Training Costs) × 100
Using the example above, where the training costs are $3,000, and the net benefit is $12,000, the calculation would be:
Training ROI (%) = ($12,000 ÷ $3,000) × 100 = 400%
Computing ROI doesn’t stop at getting the figure; you need to interpret the results. Sticking to the computations we have above, with ROI = 400%, this means that for every dollar spent on event staff training, the company gained $4 in measurable value. In other words, the training generated four times the investment, showing that it was highly effective in improving staff performance, reducing costs, and increasing overall business value.
Improving the ROI of your training program sounds great in theory, but in reality, it takes time, effort, and the right tools to make everything run smoothly. The good news is you do not have to do it alone. StaffConnect is designed to make the process easier.
StaffConnect is an event management platform built to support teams across the entire event journey. From onboarding staff and scheduling shifts to managing payroll, everything is organised in one place. When it comes to training, StaffConnect lets you create surveys that help understand your staff’s knowledge, identify training needs, and gather insights before the training even begins. These surveys can be sent to your team in just a few clicks, so you can start preparing staff right away.
During training, communication becomes easier through centralized tools like live chat, making it simple to share updates and answer questions in real time. Once training is finished, you can send surveys again to collect feedback and see what worked well.
With StaffConnect, event teams get trained faster, engagement improves, and hours of administrative work are saved while all your data stays accurate and easy to access. Book your free demo today to learn more!