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Adobe Training ROI: Benefits of investing in training are clear
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Investing in training is a significant expense, both in cost and time. It’s important to ensure that there is a return on investment (ROI) for Adobe training, web design classes, or other courses. Fortunately training ROI can be quantified. The actual training ROI is different for every organization and team, and changes depending upon the desired goals.
A four-year study by the American Society of Training and Development shows that firms who invest $1500 per employee in training compared to those that spend $125, experience on average: 24% higher gross profit margins and 218% higher income per employee. Separately, a 2% increase in productivity has been shown to net a 100% return on investment in outsourced, instructor-led training, such as the courses led by American Graphics Institute. Here are some of the benefits that are common with taking training courses at AGI:
Increased Productivity: An increase in user efficiency can be calculated by either a percent increase in productivity, or a time savings on certain tasks. For example, with Photoshop classes, Illustrator training, and InDesign courses, we often have students tell us that they are saving hours per week on projects by using more efficient techniques learned in our class. This becomes easy to quantify, as you can take the hourly rate of an employee, multiply it by the hours saved each year, and the results are easy to see.
Reduced learning curve: If it takes a user 40 hours to learn on their own what they can learn in 10 hours of training, you’ve freed-up 30 hours of their time. Again, the cost of a user’s salary for the additional time spent learning on their own is part of the savings. Similarly, the time spent trying to search for answers is reduced, eliminating time wasted with self-help efforts.
Reduced Reliance on Help Desks: User are able to reduce the time they may spend with a support desk or time they are spending asking another colleague or help desk.
Greater Flexibility: Employees learning new skills can adapt and perform additional work, or more work that may have needed to be outsourced or turned-away.
To help ensure there is a return on the training investment, it is best to have clearly identified the desired outcome at the start of the training. The desired outcome is essentially the goal or objective for the training program. It may be as simple as ensuring employees are capable of using new software tools. The goals may be more specific, such as gaining the qualifications to use a new system such as Adobe Creative Cloud, produce a specific deliverable like a website using newly acquired HTML skills, or meet specific productivity targets. Goals such as reducing time to deliver products, or improving quality are common. Primary goals may also lead to other secondary benefits such as improving customer satisfaction, retaining customers, not losing business, and reducing complaints or reducing mistakes.
AGI has been delivering professional development training for more than 15 years, and takes seriously the desired training outcomes. Ensuring that a training program has a strong ROI is important for every course offered: from Adobe training programs through HTML classes and UX courses.
About the author
Christopher Smith is president of American Graphics Institute. He is the co-author of Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies and more than 10 other books on design and digital publishing. He served as publisher and editor of the Digital Classroom book series, which has sold more than one million books on topics relating to InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro and other Creative Cloud apps. At American Graphics Institute, he provides strategic technology consulting to marketing professionals, publishers designers, and large technology companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and HP. An expert on web analytics and digital marketing, he also delivers Google Analytics classes along with workshops on digital marketing topics. Christopher did his undergraduate studies the at the University of Minnesota, and then worked for Quark, Inc. prior to joining American Graphics Institute where he has worked for more than 20 years.