When our DevOps Engineer attended an AWS conference, he just wanted to stay updated on changes. He returned with a bunch of new ideas and told us, “The guys from Amazon and DataDog showed some great services and approaches to working with metrics. I’m going to try them out”.
Over the next two weeks, he worked on optimizing our infrastructure. I know my team makes effective decisions, but the results of these updates even surprised me: within two months, the company’s monthly cloud infrastructure costs dropped by $10,000.
This is a case where new knowledge delivered a measurable effect. But it’s not always like that. I’ve seen people complete the maximum number of AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other certifications; their resumes look impressive to most companies, but does that make them more valuable to the business? Not always. A certificate proves that an engineer has learned the course material, but whether they can apply that knowledge in practice is another matter entirely.
Investing in team development is definitely worthwhile. According to LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report, companies that systematically invest in team training are more confident in their ability to be profitable and are 42% more likely to become leaders in implementing GAI than others. In this column, I will explain how to identify the right moment for investment, choose the right training, and measure its impact.
Three signals it’s time to invest in training
The first signal is when the company’s strategic goals require an upgrade of the team’s competencies. The market doesn’t stand still. New technologies emerge that can take the product to the next level. Clients bring requests for which the team may lack expertise. Training becomes essential for the business to move forward.
The next signal is when signs of skills stagnation appear within the team. People stop generating ideas and offer only the most obvious solutions. If you suspect someone in the team is stagnating, there’s a simple way to check: ask them to propose three solutions for a single task. If the same simplest option comes up each time, the person has likely reached a development plateau and needs motivation. Sometimes, people simply don’t want to develop existing skills — they’re comfortable working in a familiar stack and staying within the bounds of routine tasks. In such cases, it’s important to clearly communicate expectations: advancing to a more complex role or receiving a raise isn’t possible without updating competencies.
And sometimes it's the reverse: the employee takes the initiative. When a developer wants to learn a new language or technology, their motivation is at its peak — nothing can stop them! Except, perhaps, a tech lead explaining that there’s currently no project in the company where these skills can be applied. Motivation is a valuable resource, and leaders need to harness it, directing it toward areas that benefit both the employee and the business.
How to choose training to ensure ROI
We’re all a bit obsessed with results — we want to see immediately how task completion times drop, velocity increases, and infrastructure costs fall after training. This is only possible if the training chosen genuinely impacts the team’s effectiveness. Here are three steps I use to achieve that:
- Identify the area of practical application. Ask yourself: which company goals will this help to achieve? Are there current projects where these skills are needed? Will they help increase revenue or reduce risks? For example, our company’s apps, built on Cordova, were displaying incorrectly on mobile devices. We sent several developers to learn React Native to fix this. After training, they succeeded: mobile stability improved, and this immediately showed in customer feedback.
- Analyze not only current but also potential client needs. Clients’ long-term plans often indicate where the market is heading. When the AI boom began, we saw its applications expanding rapidly and clients exploring new possibilities. We already had an ML team, but LLM projects weren’t a priority. So, we sent several developers to LLM training. Later, a client requested an AI agent, which was developed by those who took the courses. As a result, the AI agent automated most of the client’s repetitive requests, reducing the load on the CSM team, and the client continued working with us.
- Analyze skills using a skills matrix. A skills matrix helps identify not only individual knowledge gaps but also those across the team. For example, if several people are weak in cloud technologies or security, it signals the need for team-wide training. It also provides transparency during role and salary reviews: if someone wants to advance but the assessment shows they need to strengthen certain competencies, training becomes a necessary step to reach the next level.
So, how to calculate ROI?
The simplest indicator is work speed. If an employee previously completed ten tasks per week and now completes fifteen, the impact is clear. Reasons may vary — for example, they may have organized their knowledge or returned from a course with a new approach that saves time.
Another tool is the skills matrix. After training, you can see during a skills review whether expertise has grown in the areas where it was lacking. Another metric is the cost of solutions, as in the DevOps Engineer example I mentioned earlier.
But training outcomes aren't always about money. Sometimes it’s about strengthening expertise within the company. Once, we needed a database sharding solution for a multi-cloud architecture. The team responsible for that part of the product had ideas, but they needed validation. Colleagues consulted the Software Tech Lead, who had taken courses on Data Warehouse architecture. He explained which solutions would work and which would create critical risks or be too costly. In the end, these conclusions were confirmed by external review, proving they were correct.
Investing in training isn’t a perk for the team — it’s a way to ensure the company’s resilience, maintain a competitive edge, and develop strong experts ready for new challenges. The sooner you realize this, the faster training will start delivering results.
How to get management buy-In for training investment
Even when a technical leader clearly sees the need for team training, the final decision rests with company management. And this is often where barriers arise—one of the biggest being limited budget. Here are a few approaches that can help make the case for investment.
Start with a free pilot. Organize an internal knowledge-sharing session or mini-workshop where a team member presents a new tool or approach they've been exploring. This lets you quickly demonstrate how learning impacts team performance—even if the results aren't measured in dollars yet, you're building internal expertise that others start turning to.
Make the business case. Leadership needs to understand not just what the team wants to learn, but why this and why now. Come armed with evidence: how fast is the technology evolving, which companies are already adopting it, and what business benefits are they seeing? For example, within AI, more specialized and practical areas are emerging—like AI agents—and your team may lack the skills to work with them. If you can show that acquiring these skills could automate customer support or reduce operational costs, training starts looking like a smart investment rather than an expense.
Propose flexible formats. You don't have to lead with a request for a week-long course that takes people away from their work. Start smaller—a few-hour workshop, sending developers to relevant conferences, or an online course they can work through for a couple of hours once a week. A smaller ask is easier to approve.
At the same time, it's important to build a culture of continuous learning rather than relying solely on one-off training events or approved budgets. Money isn't the only resource that determines growth opportunities—technical leaders can create them by weaving learning into the team's everyday work. A simple example: a dedicated channel on your workplace platform where people regularly share articles, case studies, and insights from their practice. It costs nothing extra but creates an environment where knowledge flows continuously, not just after a paid course.
