You are a HR manager in a financial services company. In the 110-employee IT department, you observed a high turnover rate. Exit interviews and a survey with colleagues in the department revealed that many of them were not satisfied with the level of professional training and development they receive in the company. For two years, the turnover rate has been 27%, much higher than the industry level. The cost of recruiting and training one new staff was $65,895 on average. To address this problem, the company developed a training program that averaged 80 hours per year employee. As a result, you observed turnover rate in the department dropped to 17% this year which seems to be a significant drop but still higher than that of some of your competitors (which is around 12~15%). The average employee wage was $45 per hour. Instructor, classroom, and other overheads cost $325,000 in total for the training program.

Please calculate the financial return on investment of the training program given the costs and benefits information. Show your calculation (3%).