Is There a Return on Investment for Training?
Topic: Funding for behavioral health service provider agencies is always limited, making it difficult to decide how and when to spend scarce resources on staff training. If evidence existed for a clear return on investment for certain training topics or techniques, agency administrators may find it easier to make the decisions about how much and what type of training to provide to staff. Purpose: In spite of expert opinion and some evidence that the most common training approaches are ineffective, yielding no return on investment, or a negative return (money wasted) agencies continue to provide primarily single session lecture based training either face to face or via a tedious and uninspiring online format. If this article, along with previous education and training columns, were to convince administrators to use their limited training dollars more wisely, the result is likely to be improved staff competencies and better service outcomes. Sources Used: Sources include the personal experience of the author and the available literature on training effectiveness and return on investment for training initiatives. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Administrators need to make informed choices about using best practices for staff development. While the well designed studies that would clearly document return on investment for training in behavioral health services may not be possible or affordable, dialogue and consensus are needed on what measures might indicate effective training outcomes.
Psychiatric rehabilitation journal