Measuring the impact of L&D is widely recognised as important – but in reality, it’s often overlooked due to time pressures, complexity, or a lack of clear metrics.
Measuring ROI from using Everything DiSC® can be nuanced since much of the value is in improved communication, collaboration, and culture – all of which contribute to performance but aren’t always directly quantifiable. That said, organisations can measure ROI by looking at both tangible business outcomes and intangible behavioural change.
Here’s a breakdown of how to approach it:
Define Clear Objectives Up Front
Before measuring anything, clarify what the organisation is hoping to achieve. For example:
- Improve individual performance
- Improve team communication
- Improve team performance
- Reduce conflict
- Increase sales performance
- Enhance leadership effectiveness
- Enhance Management effectiveness
- Support cultural change or engagement
Link DiSC to Business Metrics
Pair Everything DiSC training with relevant business metrics. Some examples:
| DiSC Application | Potential KPIs to Track |
| Sales Profile | Revenue growth, lead conversion rates, customer retention |
| Management Profile | Employee engagement scores, team productivity, retention |
| Workplace / Agile EQ | Collaboration ratings, cross-team effectiveness |
| Productive Conflict | Frequency/severity of conflict reports, HR interventions |
| Work of Leaders | Leadership 360 feedback, goal achievement, team morale |
Pre- and Post-Assessments
These assessments are designed to evaluate behavioural change following an Everything DiSC® session, focusing on communication effectiveness, conflict confidence, and leadership/management capability.
We recommend assessments are conducted at the following intervals: Pre-session, and Post-session at 1 month, 4 months, 8 months, and 12 months and ideally, each assessment includes: Self-Assessment, Peer Feedback, and Manager Feedback.
One of our current clients, a high performance Formula 1 Team, is measuring ‘Collaboration’ every 3 months through their staff survey – another great way to measure a behaviour! When designing your assessment, we suggest responses are rated on a 1–5 Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree), with optional comment boxes.
Read about an example to adapt, add to, or to provide a framework and structure here
Track Participation & Engagement
High usage of Catalyst™ (DiSC’s online learning platform) and post-session coaching or action planning can indicate commitment and increase ROI.
Track:
- Number of learners completing profiles
- Time spent on Catalyst
- Number of follow-up sessions or usage of comparison reports
Financial ROI Calculation
For tangible outcomes (e.g., reduction in staff turnover, improved sales), apply a standard ROI formula:
ROI = (Net Benefit / Cost of Investment) x 100
Example:
- Cost of DiSC implementation: £10,000
- Reduction in staff turnover saves £25,000
- ROI = (£25,000 – £10,000) / £10,000 = 150%
Use Stories & Case Studies
Quantitative data is powerful, but its stories that really sell!
Collect examples of:
- An underperforming team that became high performing
- A leadership team turned their engagement survey results around
- A sales team that closed more deals using insights from the Sales Profile
- Leaders who changed their approach based on their Work of Leaders results
- These narratives help stakeholders see the impact in action.
All businesses need to see a tangible return on investment (ROI) if they are to support an activity. This can sometimes appear difficult with L&D activity where much of the output is seen in intangible terms. However, those intangible improvements lead to tangible, financial, gains as we have demonstrated. It is important that L&D teams can demonstrate the financial impact that their work delivers. Embedding DiSC into a business delivers demonstrable, financial benefits as well as the softer, intangible benefits.
Written by Heidi Blakeway, Director of The Fruitful Group
