Last month, we presented some ideas for getting more done with shrinking resources, including tips on maximizing your workforce’s performance and guidance on drafting skills hierarchies.

This month: the second part of how to do more with less in a tough business climate. The main focus – using return on investment (ROI) as an evaluation tool for making important decisions.

What is ROI?
Traditionally, ROI is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency and performance of an investment or activity, or to compare the performance of a several different actions. Another way of looking at ROI is that it measures how effectively a company uses its capital to generate profit—the greater the ROI, the better. ROI is a popular measure because of its versatility and simplicity—if a venture or investment does not have a positive ROI, or if other opportunities exist with a greater ROI, then the venture or investment should not be undertaken.

• Reduce training time
• Reduce training cost
• Increase or maintain the rate of new-hire graduation from the training
• Increase or maintain the first year retention of new-hires

• Increased proficiency in the workforce
• Reduced head count but able to handle work flow volumes
• Increased employee retention after the first 12 months
• Reduced errors and non-compliance by representatives