Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of training is a constant challenge for companies. It’s a question every HR and L&D team faces: “How do we know if it’s working?” The answer is rarely straightforward. Business impact, behaviour change, and performance improvement are often complex, long-term outcomes influenced by multiple factors. But while true ROI can be elusive, there is one simple and often overlooked metric that says a lot: attendance.

Surprisingly, even this basic data point isn’t always tracked. When we ask clients how Elevate’s attendance compares to other programmes they run with different suppliers, they often respond with: “We don’t actually have those stats.” And that’s revealing in itself. Because if no one’s showing up, it’s hard to argue the training is delivering value – no matter how brilliant the content or how high the investment.

Yet, many organisations don’t consistently track attendance – despite it being one of the clearest early indicators of programme effectiveness. Attendance tracking often gets deprioritised in favour of end-of-programme feedback or post-training surveys – despite being an early and objective measure of engagement.

What We’ve Learned

Over time, we’ve gathered insights from client feedback and industry data that paint a clear picture of attendance benchmarks in corporate training:

• Even when a course is mandatory, average attendance tends to hover around 80%.
• For live online sessions – like webinars or virtual workshops – the typical attendance drops to around 48%.
• Over a year-long programme, graduation rates are often as low as 20–30%.

These numbers set a useful benchmark. And that’s where Elevate stands out.

Across different cohorts and companies, Elevate consistently delivers an average attendance rate of 75% – not just in a single session, but sustained across a full year. That’s not just better than average. It beats even mandatory courses in many organisations.

Why This Matters

Training doesn’t work if people don’t attend. It’s a simple truth, yet often ignored in conversations about impact and ROI. There’s a lot of focus on outcomes – skills gained, performance improved, business goals achieved – but those outcomes can’t happen if employees aren’t engaged in the first place.

High attendance is not the whole story, but it’s the start of the story. It shows the programme is relevant, engaging, and well-delivered. It indicates buy-in – from participants, managers, and the organisation. And most importantly, it creates the conditions for real learning to happen.

So when companies ask about ROI, a good first question should be: “Did people actually turn up?” Because if they didn’t, the rest doesn’t matter.

If this resonates with you, have a look at our upcoming sessions to see how we can help to unlock – and elevate – the potential in your workplaces.

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