ROI of Continuing Education:
Making Added Value Measurable
Continuing education creates added value—but it also ties up time, budget, and administrative resources. With our “ LMS ” ROI calculator, you can get an initial assessment of the economic potential inherent in digitizing and centrally organizing your continuing education programs.
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Number of Employees Who Need Training
How many people in your company regularly participate in continuing education programs? For example, with 1,000 employees, the number is typically 800–900.
Number of continuing education days per year per person
On average, how many days per year does a person spend in training sessions, workshops, or seminars? Industry average: 2–4 days/year. Half-days count as 0.5.
Current Percentage of In-Person Training
What percentage of your training sessions currently take place in person (in seminar rooms or at external venues)—as opposed to online formats? For example, 60% means that 6 out of 10 training days are held in person.
Employees with travel expenses for training
How many of the participants need to travel for in-person training (e.g., to a different location, requiring a hotel stay)? Example: When there are multiple locations, this figure is often between 40% and 70%.
Training Administration (Hours/Month)
How many hours per month are spent in total on organizing training sessions? As a guideline: 80–160 hours per month for companies with 500 or more employees.
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- Scheduling and Room Reservations
- Registration, Withdrawals, and Participant Lists
- Certificate Issuance and Tracking
- Reminder Emails and Reporting
- Coordination with trainers and service providers
Planned Use of Content
Would you like to use ready-made training courses in addition to your own content? Ready-made content covers topics such as Office applications, soft skills, or compliance and reduces the amount of work you have to do yourself. Multiple selections allowed.
+ Content Collection
250+ curated e-learning courses in an e-learning library covering Office, soft skills, and methodologies
+ Content Kit
2,000+ microlearning modules or microlearning nuggets for personalized learning paths
+ Compliance College
Mandatory and Awareness Training: 5 Topics—GDPR, IT Security, Occupational Safety, Corruption Prevention, and Sustainability
No selection? Only your own content is used in the calculation.
Annual Savings Potential
through a digital learning infrastructure
travel days saved per year
Admin hours saved
Productive days regained
Cost Savings in Detail
Frequently Asked Questions About the ROI Calculator
The Core ROI Formula
Return on investment compares the net economic benefit to the total costs incurred:
- ROI (%) = [(Total Savings - Total Costs) ÷ Total Costs] × 100
- Net Benefit (€) = Total Savings − Total Costs
- Payback Period (Break-Even in Months) = (Total Costs ÷ Total Savings) × 12
The 6 Pillars of Cost Savings in Detail
Our calculator determines the economic benefit based on six practical factors supported by scientific benchmarks and industry data:
- Travel & Hotel Expenses: Elimination of travel expenses for in-person sessions that can be conducted digitally (average of €380 per training session).
- Productivity gain: 25% less downtime thanks to flexible, time-independent learning.
- L&D Administration: Approximately 30% time savings through automated management and certificates.
- Trainer fees: Fewer seminar days booked with external providers thanks to digital modules.
- Content Creation: Reduced in-house effort thanks to ready-made standard content.
The assumptions have been deliberately chosen to be conservative (for example, a maximum of 45% of in-person days are assumed to be digitizable) in order to provide a realistic and reliable basis for decision-making by management.
Yes, the average costs associated with implementing a LMS (e.g., implementation costs) are already factored into both the ROI calculator and the results. However, variations may occur depending on the specific use case and configuration.
The calculations are based on current and verified industry data. Sources used include Statista and Personio for travel and lodging costs, Finanz.de for average salary costs, and the 2024 Fee Study by managerSeminare for trainers’ daily rates.
In addition, the calculator incorporates conservative assumptions regarding the degree of digitization, time savings achieved through asynchronous learning, and potential cost savings resulting from automation using a LMS. However, we would like to point out that actual savings may vary depending on the company and individual circumstances.
To perform the calculation, you'll need some basic information about your current continuing education status:
- Number of Employees Who Need Training
- Number of continuing education days per year per person
- Current Percentage of In-Person Training
- Percentage of employees who incur travel expenses for training
- Number of hours per month required for training administration
- Please indicate whether, in addition to LMS , you would also like to use the content products available at Haufe Akademie
For each entry, the calculator provides additional tips and explanations. To help you navigate the process, we also provide industry-standard average values.
Do you, too, regularly have to explain why continuing education in your organization isn't just a cost center, but actually contributes to active value creation?
Shift the discussion from “We need a tool to improve our learning culture” to “Here’s the business lever for cash flow and productivity.” The ROI calculator provides you with reliable, source-based figures to support this.
Tip:
- Base your case on three key pillars: cost (potential budget savings), time (freed-up capacity), and governance (audit-compliant documentation).
- Prepare a cost-benefit analysis: Make your current training costs and manual process expenses transparent, and use the ROI calculator to identify your organization’s potential savings.
- Use conservative values strategically to enhance your credibility.
Note: We are happy to support you, your team, and all stakeholders in this and any future processes, and we look forward to participating in further discussions. Please feel free to send us a contact request.
Even if travel expenses and external course licenses aren't relevant to you, an LMS is still worth it: The key benefits here lie in the automation of training administration and legal certainty.
Without a centralized LMS , the manual management of digital formats (e.g., participant management in Excel, invitations, deadline tracking, and certificates via e-mail or SharePoint) ties up significant staff resources. An LMS fully automates these processes, reduces routine workloads by approximately 30%, and provides complete, audit-proof documentation for mandatory training sessions.
Example (500 employees, 60 admin hours/month):
Simply by automating routine administrative tasks, your L&D team saves approximately €10,800 in valuable work time each year.
Data protection is our top priority. The ROI calculator—just like our LMS —is fully GDPR-compliant. The information you provide during the six calculation steps is neither stored nor transmitted to us. We do not have access to your entries at any time and cannot view them. Your data therefore remains entirely with you.
