Among the many “soft” descriptions of the benefits of training is the nebulous phrase: “greater employee satisfaction.” That’s not enough. A professional training program is only successful when it meets two critical prerequisites: 1) training must have a significant return on investment (ROI); and 2) top leadership must be committed to training, regardless of who in the organization is being trained.

The baseline ROI for training is the value of retention for each position. If you think you’re in a buyer’s market for replacing employees, think again. The internal cost of replacing an experienced employee with a new employee and getting that stellar new employee up to the level of production of the former employee is 6–9 months compensation for each position. That’s three quarters (nine months) of lost productivity. Countless studies have proven that retention of good employees is more directly correlated with training and development than compensation alone.

As for prerequisite #2: once leadership recognizes the ROI benefits of employee training, meeting prerequisite #2 is easy.