👋 Welcome to Tami’s newsletter. Every week, we explore emerging trends in corporate learning and employee development, with a focus on AI and tech training.
Why Training ROI Matters More Than Ever
In today's fast-paced tech landscape and unpredictable economy, investing in employee development is a strategic necessity for remaining competitive. AI functions like electricity, with universal access, and the companies that can successfully deploy it first will gain a significant advantage.
However, as budgets tighten and pressure to deliver business outcomes intensifies, L&D leaders and engineering managers are being asked a critical question:
What is the ROI of our training programs?
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) for tech training, particularly in domains such as software engineering, AI, and DevOps, can seem impossible. But without clear ROI data, it becomes nearly impossible to defend budgets, scale initiatives, or gain executive buy-in.
This post breaks down why proving training ROI is challenging, how to overcome this challenge, and how Tami helps unlock measurable, high-impact ROI from your tech training initiatives.
Before that, we're excited to share that we've launched Tami’s AI-powered enterprise training platform to enhance your ROI by offering immediate training that accelerates product delivery, and it’s customized for instant impact. Want to learn the ROI your organization can see with Tami? Get your free ROI report.
The Challenge: Why Training ROI Is Hard to Measure
For many organizations, traditional instructor-led training (ILT) and self-paced course libraries dominate the landscape. But these legacy models come with major tracking and measurement challenges:
No clear business tie-in: There is often no structured way to tie learning to outcomes, such as reduced time-to-skill, improved delivery velocity, or fewer production incidents.
Lack of customization: Off-the-shelf content rarely maps directly to the skills needed in your engineering or AI projects.
Low engagement: Without context or relevance, engineers tend to disengage, resulting in low completion rates.
Delayed delivery: Scheduling an instructor can take weeks or months, delaying productivity gains.
According to the Association for Talent Development (ATD), organizations typically conduct ROI evaluations on just 5-10% of their learning programs. Yet ATD has also found that companies with comprehensive training programs see up to 24% higher profit margins compared to those that don't invest in upskilling.
As a result, training gets labeled as a "cost center" rather than a growth driver, which makes leadership skeptical about continued investment.
How to Track the ROI of Training Using the Kirkpatrick Model
One of the most widely recognized and practical methods for tracking training ROI is the Kirkpatrick Model. This four-level framework helps organizations evaluate the effectiveness of training in a structured and measurable way:
Level 1: Reaction – Measure how participants respond to the training. Were they engaged? Did they find it useful? This can be done through post-training surveys.
Level 2: Learning – Assess the increase in knowledge or skills through pre- and post-training tests, quizzes, or practical assessments.
Level 3: Behavior – Evaluate how well the new skills are applied on the job. This might involve manager observations, peer reviews, or performance metrics.
Level 4: Results – Measure the impact on business outcomes.
This could include faster project delivery, higher product quality, reduced errors, or improved team efficiency.
Some organizations also add a Level 5: ROI, inspired by the work of the ROI Institute, which calculates the financial return compared to the cost of the training initiative.
By applying the Kirkpatrick Model alongside clear KPIs and baseline metrics, organizations can build a consistent, repeatable process to measure training impact.
Tips to Prove the ROI of Tech Training to Your Leadership Team
Whether you're leading an engineering enablement program or building a strategic upskilling initiative, here are 5 proven ways to demonstrate training ROI:
1. Align training to business-critical goals.
Map every training session or program to a specific business priority, such as faster releases, reduced tech debt, or improved security posture. When leadership sees training as a lever for delivery, support grows.
2. Track time-to-skill and time-to-impact.
Use baseline assessments before and after training to measure the rate at which engineers adopt and apply new skills. For AI training or software engineering training, this might be the time to contribute to a new repository or feature area.
3. Capture leading indicators, not just course completions.
Instead of only reporting participation, measure job-relevant indicators, such as code quality improvements, peer reviews, bug reductions, and incident response time.
4. Use ROI benchmarks to compare performance.
Demonstrate how your program aligns with industry benchmarks for training return on investment (ROI). For example, the cost per upskilled engineer, the productivity lift, or the reduced onboarding time.
5. Highlight quick wins and case studies.
Document early wins from training investments. One engineer shaving days off deployment time due to a targeted DevOps course is a story worth telling.
Focusing on business goals, time savings, leading indicators, ROI benchmarks, and case studies will be effective for your leadership team.
How Tami Increases the ROI of Training Programs
Tami was designed to address the specific challenges faced by modern tech leaders. Here's how Tami delivers measurable training ROI for software engineering, AI, and tech enablement programs:
Custom, role-based training design: Tami tailors live instructor-led sessions to your tech stack, tools, and goals. This means no wasted time on generic content.
On-demand instructor scheduling: Do you need training next week? Not next quarter? Tami automatically matches you with the right instructor and handles the logistics in days, not months.
Transparent pricing and faster delivery: Reduce overhead and eliminate costly delays. With Tami, you see costs upfront and avoid inflated vendor quotes.
Outcome-based tracking: Tami's platform integrates learning outcomes with performance data, so you can tie training back to engineering velocity, AI adoption, or system stability.
Business case advantage: By eliminating long scheduling delays and the low engagement of self-paced courses, Tami enables teams to get training exactly when it's needed, helping you release new features faster, increase engineering velocity, and accelerate revenue generation.
Tami’s free Training ROI Calculator helps you estimate the ROI you could get by switching to Tami. Based on faster turnaround times, customized instruction, and direct access to the world’s best experts.
Building the Business Case for Tami
When advocating for AI-powered training, executives want to see a measurable business impact. Below are key metrics that show how streamlining instructor-led training with Tami can drive efficiency, reduce costs, and increase revenue:
Cost Savings:
Reduce training delivery costs by 30-50% by automating instructor matching, scheduling, and course customization.
Cut administrative workload by 40%, freeing up L&D teams for strategic initiatives.
Minimize retraining costs by improving knowledge retention by 40%, reducing the need for repeat sessions.
Revenue Growth:
Accelerate product training timelines to enable faster go-to-market for new products and services.
Reduce onboarding time for new employees by 50%, allowing them to contribute to revenue generation sooner.
Improve sales team ramp-up time, resulting in 25% faster quota attainment and higher revenue per representative.
Efficiency Gains:
Cut training launch times from 6+ weeks to under a week, reducing delays in critical skill development.
Automate instructor sourcing and matching, reducing manual effort by 80%.
Enhance training accessibility across global teams to ensure consistent and scalable learning.
Employee Impact:
Lower turnover by 15% by delivering better, faster learning experiences that keep employees engaged.
Improve compliance training completion rates by 30% with automated scheduling and reminders.
Reduce knowledge gaps by 50% to improve job performance and minimize costly mistakes.
Let’s Talk Numbers: What’s Your Training ROI?
If your training programs feel a bit outdated, like long wait times, high costs, and low engagement, it might be time to reflect:
What ROI are we truly achieving? Even more exciting, what return on investment could we unlock if we adopted a more modern approach?
Tami is here to support L&D teams, engineering leaders, and HR functions in delivering impactful training that’s not only on schedule and budget but also brings significant business value.
Curious about how much ROI you could discover by partnering with Tami? Try our Training ROI Calculator to receive your free, data-driven ROI analysis in just under 2 minutes.
Don’t guess, let’s prove it together.
Thank you for reading!
Training ROI report from Tami