How to Conduct a Cost-Benefit Analysis

Benefits

The most difficult part of doing a cost-benefit analysis is quantifying the benefits of a training program. Quantifying benefits is difficult because many of the benefits of training—improved attitudes, increased knowledge—are intangible and therefore hard to attach dollar values to.

Tangible Benefits

A tangible benefit is any gain directly resulting from training. A gain is either increased revenues or decreased costs. Tangible benefits occur in these areas:

Time

Time savings are perhaps the most common benefit from training programs. For example, if training can eliminate one one-hour meeting a week for five engineers to share new innovations they've read about, the company saves one hour of nonproductive time for each engineer. ...