HR professionals feel pressure to demonstrate financial ROI for staff development expenditure

According to research from talent and career management specialist, Right Management, HR professionals in the UK are facing increasing pressure to clearly demonstrate the financial return on investment (ROI) of staff development.

Its global survey, which questioned 2,500 senior executives in 14 different countries, discovered that even though 65% of UK-based senior HR executives believe they are already highly effective at measuring the impact of their talent management initiatives, 85% stated they are under pressure to demonstrate the outcome of these initiatives in monetary terms.

It also revealed that globally, 82% of HR executives said they were experiencing this pressure to deliver.

Commenting on its findings, Mark Hodgson, Talent Management Practice Leader, Right Management, said:

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“It’s a tough call to demonstrate the ROI on talent management initiatives.”

“Typically, it’s been measured by collecting ‘happy sheets’ based on feedback from employees but this is a fairly light touch which is no longer enough to satisfy the board.”

He added:

“Today’s economic climate is compelling HR executives to demonstrate that their talent development initiatives are worth the investment by using convincing metrics which indicate a substantial monetary ROI.”