Management Issues: Return on Investment in End User Training
Meg Williams Network Program Specialist, FLICC/FEDLINK
Getting Down to Business
Return on investment
Costs and benefits
time
money - out of pocket, cost avoidance
quality
Efficiency, effectiveness
doing things right
doing the right things
Key Questions
How much time and effort does training require?
How do you show that it’s worth it -- for your users and for you?
How do you incorporate a training program into library operations?
How do you get credit - and resources - for accepting the training mission?
Where to Look for Costs and Benefits
Tangibles
Staff time
for your users
for you
Publication costs
online and fixed
Materials
Equipment
Facilities
Intangibles
Increased expertise
Shift in level of inquiry
different questions
asked by different people
Quality of information
Quality of decisions
Library relationships
Morale
Staff Costs - Users
How much does it cost end users to come to training?
GS-9, step 1 in Washington DC
Annual
Hourly (2,080 hours/year)
Daily (8 hours/day)
$31,680 $15.23 $121.85
Weighted Hours Per Year
Hours per year
Minus 10 holidays
Minus 12 leave days
Total
Times 80% productivity (accounting for meetings, breaks, phone time, etc.)
2,080 hrs 80 hrs 96 hrs 1,904 hrs
1,523 hrs
Annual salary divided by 1,523 hours per year instead of 2,080
Loaded Staff Costs
Staff Costs
Regular
Weighted
Plus 20% Benefits
Annual $31,680 $31,680 $38,016
Hourly $15.23 $20.80 $24.96
Daily $121.85 $166.39 $199.68
So, a day of training should provide a GS-9 student $199.68 worth of benefit
(not counting opportunity costs, indirect overhead and other infinite refinements)
How Does the User Get $200 Worth?
Spend less time and money online
Lexis-Nexis costs $155 - $380 per hour
Patents and Chemical Abstracts cost $90 - $120 per hour
BIP and ERIC cost $30 per hour
Spend the same amount of time online, but get more / better information
Spend less time offline weeding through poor search results
Intangible Benefits
Being self-sufficient
Having the right information at the right time
Networking and having access to experts
Getting to be an instructor
Staff Costs - Library
Hours
Developing the class
Clerical and admin work
Day before
Training day
Day after
Follow up support
Loaded salary costs
GS-11 instructor ($241.58 * 14 days)
After the first time (without development time)
80 hrs 4 hrs 4 hrs 8 hrs 8 hrs 8 hrs 112 hrs
$3,382 $725
Direct Costs
Staff costs
Handouts
Online resources (1 hr/student in a cheap, real database)
Equipment, software, internet (5 workstations and a printer, over 3 years, 250 days/year)
Total
Additional sessions (without development time)
$3,382 $80
$240
$20
$3,722 $1,065
Indirect or Elusive Costs
Facilities and other agency overhead
Could be 30% or more
Oportunity costs
What else could the trainers have been doing?
Ripple effect on other library functions
Hidden costs
Management, inter-unit coordination
How Does the Library Get Its Money’s Worth?
Staff freed from how-to talks and routine reference
Greater use of fixed price pubs and systems lowers their cost per user
CD-ROM, print materials, online subscriptions
Internet connections, equipment
Greater use of bibliographic tools lowers their cost per unit
More accurate ILL, document delivery, and printing
Empowered users
Empowered Users On the one hand, but on the other hand
Understand what’s possible
less demanding
more demanding
Use publications more
budget
spurn print
conflicts
input into collection development decisions
Handle the routine, easy questions
library handles the hard stuff
searching instead of doing their own jobs
Change relationship with the librarian
require lots of support
abandon us
So . . .
Training costs are not insignificant
Too great simply to be absorbed
Library needs some form of compensation
Benefits can be identified and measured
Users can reap tangible benefits quickly
The library’s reward is more intangible
Overall, the agency benefits both ways
Next question - How do we fit training in?
Making Room
Who will be your trainers?
Library staff? IT staff? Vendors? Others?
How will you conduct training?
Formal sessions? Tutorials? By phone?
On your schedule? On demand?
How will you do troubleshooting and support?
Cheat sheets? Hotline? Refresher classes?
Librarians as Trainers
Position Descriptions
Which job series? GS-1410 or GS-1712?
Major duty or "other duties as assigned"
Vacancy announcements - knowledges, skills and abilities (KSAs)
Let your trainers:
Practice teaching - knowing the subject matter is not enough
Take time to learn, prepare, and evaluate
Have backups - one expert is not enough
Partnering and Outsourcing
Working with your IT shop or expert users
More trainers means more staff costs
Increase in time for development and coordination
Division of labor
Better quality
Shared support duties
Rapport
Sending students to the database vendor or to other sources
Up front charges
Contract administration costs
System knowledge
Familiarity with your users
Who does followup support?
So . . .
Library staff and facilities are going to be involved in training and support somehow
Make sure your positions reflect the work
Help people get qualified to perform it
Control the scheduling
Next question -- How do we get support for a training program?
Getting Credit Means Taking Credit
Get the library’s face - i.e., you - in front of the students
Make sure students know that the training is offered under the library’s auspices
Tell them where to get support
Have a library staff member welcome the class and introduce the instructor
Follow up via email to get evaluations and send news
Make Alliances Beyond Your Core Users
Have separate classes for very senior staff
Different content - address their needs and concerns
Taught at their desks, when they need it
Have classes for administrative staff
Finance, contracting, personnel staff, etc.
Meet with your counterparts in the IT and program/research units
Don’t let all the contacts be at the instructor level
Be on Top of Things
Remember, it’s the librarian, not the library
Sure, you’re in a support unit, but you’re a also good manager
Quantify wherever you can
Don’t say everything is immeasurable, intangible. "Goodwill" only counts when a company is sold.
Make charts and reports
Analyze your invoices; figure out which units got what
Couch your reports in terms of information used, not just dollars spent or items handled
Getting Resources
Don’t just absorb the training function
Unless you can really drop other things
Don’t ask for piddly little amounts
Show how much training costs
Show how much of the costs you’re funding
Tell people what their share is
Tell them how they’ll benefit
Tell them what they’ll lose if they don’t get trained