Interactive ROI Calculator

Recruitment and Administration Staff Costs

Recruitment and administration costs include any recruitment fees related to the hiring of WIL students as well as the wage costs of staff completing administrative tasks relating to recruitment. To find this number, multiply (number of employees spending time on recruitment) x (number of hours per week spent on recruitment) x (number of weeks spent recruiting) x (hourly dollar rate of recruitment staff). To this result, add any additional recruitment costs, such as advertising, job posting fees, etc.

Training Staff Wages

Training staff wages include the cost of time spent by staff that are training and instructing WIL students - meaning staff who are taking time from their day-to-day work to help WIL students. To calculate this cost, multiply (number of training personnel) x (number of hours spent per week training WIL students) x (number of weeks in WIL program) x (hourly dollar rate of training personnel).

Student Wages

To calculate your student wages, multiply: (number of WIL students) x (number of hours worked per week) x (number of weeks worked during the WIL program) x (hourly dollar rate). Add to that any overtime, and compensation for food, travel costs, living expenditures, etc.

Training Supplies

Training supplies can include books, learning software and videos, working equipment, other educational fees or external courses offered to the WIL student during their experience. To calculate this cost, multiply (number of students) x (cost of training supplies per student).

Material and Infrastructure Costs

Material and infrastructure costs include any essential equipment or software required by WIL students during their programs ( e.g., laptops, monitors, licenses, etc.). To calculate this cost, first calculate the materials cost by multiplying (number of students) x (cost of materials per student) and add the infrastructure costs. Infrastructure costs relate to any machinery or appliances required for students to complete their work as well as the cost to rent or lease the premises or other infrastructure used by WIL students.

Financial Support

To calculate your net inputs, the ROI formula subtracts your financial supports from your total costs. To calculate your financial support, add all financial aid and other financial supports received to run your WIL program. Be sure to check out our Financial Supports Catalogue afterwards to discover new financial support programs available to you.

Skilled Talent Pipeline

Skilled talent pipeline refers to benefits and savings associated with attracting, recruiting, onboarding, and retaining students after their WIL placement. Refer back to How to Calculate Your ROI to learn about the different types of skilled talent pipeline benefits and how to calculate their value. Although overly simplified, one way to do this is to calculate the difference between the cost to attract, recruit, onboard, and train external applicants compared to hiring a WIL student. For example, if it costs you $2,000 per external applicant vs only $1,000 per WIL student and you hire 6 out of 12 WIL students following their placement, your retention value is 6 x ($2,000 - $1,000) = $6,000.

Production

To calculate your productivity, consider the value of the production benefits you receive from your WIL students. For example, if a WIL student takes on some of the lower intensity tasks of a more senior employee, that employee is able to dedicate their time to higher value/more productive tasks. Or, you may be able to increase your productivity by having a WIL student complete work that would otherwise have been outsourced to an external vendor. These examples may seem overly simplified but can give you a sense of how to calculate your productivity benefits. We recommend you use key performance indicators already in place at your organization.

Innovation

Calculating intangible benefits such as innovation from your WIL program can be difficult. You can approximate the value of a successful idea proposed by a WIL student, or the value of a new software that they might suggest to save the organization time and money. Consider as well the benefits of bringing in diverse students and ideas in your organization by developing robust equity, diversity, and inclusion hiring practices in your organization.