What could reinforced training return for your organization?

Estimate the productivity value of countering the forgetting curve — based on your own headcount, salary, and ramp-up numbers.

Your training program

Employees trained per year 500

Average fully-loaded salary $75,000

Current time-to-competence (weeks) 12

How long until a new hire or newly-trained employee reaches full productivity in the trained skill.

Expected reduction in time-to-competence 5%

elevator9's whitepaper cites 1–2% productivity gains as typical; 5% is a moderate onboarding-speed assumption.

Ongoing productivity lift from retention & application 1.5%

Performance gain from employees actually applying — not just attending — training.

Include turnover impact

Baseline annual turnover 15%

Turnover reduction from better-supported training 2 pts

Gallup (2022): employees who feel supported in applying learning are meaningfully more likely to stay.

Replacement cost 0.5× salary

Program cost

Estimated annual elevator9 cost

Auto-estimated from Direct Enterprise pricing tiers below — edit if you have an actual quote.

Estimated return

$995,192

estimated annual value from reinforced training

Faster time-to-competence$432,692

Ongoing application & performance$562,500

83×

return per dollar spent

4 days

estimated payback period

This is a planning estimate to size the opportunity, not a guarantee of results — actual returns depend on program design, delivery quality, and organizational follow-through. Figures are built from assumptions in elevator9's published research (forgetting-curve loss, spaced-reinforcement studies, Gallup 2022 engagement data).

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How this is calculated

Faster time-to-competence = employees trained × average salary × (ramp weeks ÷ 52) × % reduction in ramp time. This treats salary cost during the ramp period as the value at stake, and estimates how much of it is recovered by reaching competence sooner.

Ongoing application & performance = employees trained × average salary × productivity lift %. This reflects the portion of training that is actually retained and applied to work, versus attended and forgotten.

Turnover impact (optional) = employees trained × turnover reduction (percentage points) × replacement cost multiple × average salary.

Program cost is auto-estimated from elevator9's Direct Enterprise tiers (Starter $3,000 / 150 learners + $18 each additional, Growth $6,000 / 350 + $16, Premier $12,000 / 750 + $15) based on your employee count — edit directly if you have an actual quote.

Sources referenced in elevator9's research: Beer, Finnström & Schrader (2016); Ebbinghaus (1885/1913); Salas et al. (2020); Gallup State of the Global Workplace (2022).