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Saratoga Workforce Index

Learning & Development Investment per Employee

Definition and latest national average benchmark

Learning & Development Investment per Employee

2022 National Average Value

$

180

Value has
N/A
variance across industries
Value has
N/A
variance relative to revenue
Value has
N/A
variance relative to headcount

What is the Learning & Development Investment per Employee? 

Learning & Development Investment per Employee is a benchmark that measures the average amount spent on learning and development (L&D) per employee. This includes the total training costs for internal and external training provided to non-contingent employees. 

What is the average value of Learning & Development Investment per Employee? 

According to the Saratoga Workforce Index, the national average Learning & Development Investment per Employee in 2022 was $180 

Where can I get Learning & Development Investment per Employee benchmarks? 

The annual Saratoga HR and Workforce Benchmarking Study releases the Learning & Development Investment per Employee benchmark for over 20 different industries each year. The national average is released as part of the annual Saratoga Workforce Index.  

How is Learning & Development Investment per Employee calculated? 

Learning & Development Investment per Employee is calculated by adding up all the costs related to training, including compensation and benefit costs of all training staff, food, training materials, travel costs, and room/equipment fees for training sessions. This also includes instructor-led, computer-based, and video-based training, new hire orientation and conferences. This excludes costs related to Executive Coaching and college courses, trainee pay and benefits, and tuition reimbursement costs. This total is then divided by the number of employees to get the average investment per employee. 

What does a low Learning & Development Investment per Employee mean? 

A low Learning & Development Investment per Employee might indicate that the organization is not investing heavily in the reskilling and upskilling of its workforce. This could potentially impact employee development, talent retention, employee feelings of empowerment, and organizational performance, productivity, and efficiency. 

What does a high Learning & Development Investment per Employee mean? 

A high Learning & Development Investment per Employee may indicate that the organization is heavily investing in the reskilling and upskilling of its workforce. It could also indicate that the L&D team is inefficient, and overspending based on the actual outcomes.  

What other benchmarks are relevant to Learning & Development Investment per Employee? 

Revenue per FTE 

Labor Cost Revenue Percent 

HR FTE Ratio 

Finance FTE Ratio 

IT FTE Ratio 

About the Saratoga Workforce Index

The Saratoga Workforce Index is an indispensable reference of national averages of 30 commonly requested HR metrics. Based on PwC Saratoga’s annual workforce benchmarking study of over 1000 metrics spanning hundreds of companies and over 20 industries, the Saratoga Workforce Index is your “quick start” guide to workforce benchmarks.

Download the guide to see the national averages for all of these:
  • 90 Day Total Turnover Rate
  • Average Number of Direct Reports
  • Cost per Hire
  • Director Headcount Ratio
  • Executive Headcount Ratio
  • Finance FTE Ratio
  • First Year of Service Turnover Rate
  • General & Administrative Function Voluntary Separation Rate
  • Hire Rate
  • HR FTE Ratio
  • Information Technology FTE Ratio
  • Labor Cost Revenue Percent
  • Layers
  • Learning & Development Investment per Employee
  • Legal FTE Ratio
  • Management Headcount Ratio
  • Manager Headcount Ratio
  • Offer Acceptance Rate
  • One to Three Years of Service Voluntary Separation Rate
  • Promotion Rate
  • Racial/Ethnic Minority Headcount Percent
  • Racial/Ethnic Minority Promotion Rate
  • Racial/Ethnic Minority Voluntary Separation Rate
  • Revenue per FTE
  • Time to Accept
  • Time to Start
  • Turnover Rate
  • Vacancy Rate
  • Voluntary Separation Rate
  • Women Executive Headcount Percent
  • Women Headcount Percent
  • Women Promotion Rate
  • Women Voluntary Separation Rate

Need industry-specific benchmarks?

We provide these values as a reference point for discussions. However, given the high variance across industries, sizes and revenue, these national averages should NOT be used to make important business decisions or used in any formal reporting.

If you intend to use benchmarks for business decisions, please join Saratoga as a full member so you can have access to more specific comparison groups for each industry, revenue, size, profit/non-profit status and more. With a full membership, you’ll have access to over 1,000 metrics that are much more accurate and specific than a national average. The membership process is relatively simple, mostly automated and reasonably priced with a clear ROI.

Referencing Saratoga Workforce Index Data

If you choose to refer to these metrics in any of your materials, whether internally or externally, we ask that you include the following statement:

Excerpted from the Saratoga Workforce Index. © 2023 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, all rights reserved. Data is for discussion purposes only and cannot be used for investment decisions or financial evaluations.

You may include up to five metrics in any internal or external publication without any additional permissions. Contact us at saratoga@pwc.com if you want to use more than five or would like to reproduce the Saratoga Workforce Index in its entirety.

About Saratoga

Saratoga workforce and HR benchmarks provide reference points for executive-level discussions,  context for people dashboards, and data to inform workforce and HR decisions. Hundreds of companies across over 20 industries trust Saratoga each year to supply over 1,000 validated workforce benchmarks around turnover, diversity, staffing, productivity, efficiency, fairness, and more. 

Request a demo of Saratoga to get access to industry-specific benchmarks for up to 1000 benchmarks.