Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Does Training Pay Off? Let the Numbers Do the Talking
Joe Wynne is a versatile Project Manager experienced in delivering medium-scope projects in large organizations that improve workforce performance and business processes. He has a proven track record of delivering effective, technology-savvy solutions in a variety of industries and a unique combination of strengths in both process management and workforce management.
What if you had data that proved one business strategy would increase gross profit margins by 24 percent and increase income per employee by 218 percent (no, we're not missing a decimal point)? What if the same strategy would increase your company's price-to-book ratio by 26 percent? Would that be useful in your next project justification? I thought it would be.
Such provocative data does in fact exist in a recent State of the Industry Report from the American Society for Training & Development. ASTD's Benchmarking Service studied 501 U.S. organizations. The close connection between organizational competitiveness and the amount of training investment has been consistent for three years.
Why should you care about training investment? Because there are projects that you can lead--without having to be a training specialist--that will bring about those exciting financial performance improvements. We will look at specific projects later. First, we need to review the benchmarking report.
You've Never Seen Benchmarking Data Like This Before
Benchmarking is known to be effective in business improvement efforts. Useful benchmarking data for training, though, has been difficult to obtain, so we have not known the answers to some important questions. For instance, how critical is training to organizational success? Is it worth the money required for expensive …
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