The Importance of Defining the Return on Investment for Skilling within Public Sector Organizations (Part 1)

Now more than ever it’s essential in government organizations to have a well-equipped workforce that understands the benefits of technology and can navigate the increasing complexities of new innovations along with the risks. Disruption to critical infrastructure can come from many places, including cybersecurity attacks, unintended consequences of updates, hardware failures or weak maintenance routines. Organizations that have a significant reliance on technology need to ensure their workforce has the latest skills to mitigate these risks. 

Our prior white paper ‘Public Sector Insights on Skilling’ highlighted the profound impact skilling can have within Government organizations, contributing to employee engagement, improved performance, and boosting talent retention. However, one element within that guidance – Proving the Return on Investment from Skilling – surfaced that public sector organizations find it challenging to make the business case for skilling. Many organizations that shared their skilling budgets were the first to be reduced when there was fiscal pressure. But in the era of AI, and as public sector organizations embark on their AI transformation, skilling has never been more important. 

One way to help public sector organizations defend their skilling budgets is to conduct comprehensive evaluations of their skilling programs. By measuring the return on investment (ROI) of these programs, public sector organizations can demonstrate the value of their investments and how they contribute to organizational success. 

A clear business case for skilling, supported by robust ROI evaluations, can help defend these critical budgets from cuts, while improving program and employee performance. Defining the ROI in skilling is not just a measure of financial return but a crucial step in fostering a competent and resilient government workforce. 

In this series, Defining the Return on Investment for Skilling within Public Sector Organizations, we will share best practices and insights from a recent study conducted with a government customer and the ROI Institute, which found a 43% ROI from their skilling program. Read part two of our series, to understand the process and steps to take to conduct your own evaluation study. 

Read part two, Best practices to help define return on investment for public sector organizations (Part 2) 

References 

Jack J. Phillips, and Patti P. Phillips, Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods, 4th edition. New York, NY: Routledge (2016). 

Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Jack J. Phillips, Gina Paone, and Cyndi Huff Gaudet, Value for Money: How to Show the Value for Money for All Types of Projects and Programs. Beverly, MA: Scrivener Publishing (2019).