As your business grows, you might encounter new sets of challenges for your employee training. For one, the more people you hire, the more effort you need to put in to make sure your training is engaging. Likewise, you need to foster new skills and abilities within your employees to make them grow along with your company. This is where corporate learning management systems or LMS tools for business can come in handy.
According to LinkedIn, 43% of businesses are investing more in technologies that can improve employee training – and one of the most popular technologies for that is an LMS. This humble platform can accomplish crucial tasks for your company’s learning and development needs.
With that, here are ways an LMS can help you overcome the challenges in conducting effective employee training within your organization.
1. Saves up time and costs for training
Conducting employee training can add a huge strain to your budget. You sometimes have to pay for travel costs, rentals, printed learning materials, and hire instructors for the course. Not to mention, the whole process can be time-consuming. It will require rigorous planning beforehand if you want it to be successful.
Fortunately, an LMS can drastically reduce time and cost spent on employee training and development on two fronts:
- Unlike traditional, face-to-face methods, an LMS allows learners to go through the course from their own devices.
- You no longer have to force them away from their workflows just to sit through a lengthy lecture. They now have direct access to the course – meaning they can simply click through the modules in between tasks.
Hence, you should keep these considerations in mind when choosing LMS for your business.
2. Organises training and learning materials
Managing learning materials can be challenging. Keeping them in separate folders might not be enough in the long run, especially once they start to pile up. Instead of having them spread out on different hard drives and devices, you can store all your learning materials in one location.
You can use an LMS to centralise all these documents and data into one secure platform. This reduces the risk of losing important files along the way and makes it easier for you to manage and organise them accordingly. However, you should note that an LMS is different from learning content management system (LCMS). An LMS stores learning materials and make them more accessible and interactive for your users while you use an LCMS to create content that you will, later on, upload into an LMS.
3. Makes learning accessible and convenient
An LMS does more than just store learning materials; it also makes learning more accessible to your learners. By just connecting to the internet, they can go through your courses anytime and anywhere. You can make it even more convenient for your users by choosing an LMS with multi-platform capabilities. This will allow them to use any types of devices during training.
According to the latest survey, almost 93% of internet users prefer using their mobile devices to connect to the internet than desktops or laptops. Hence, this feature is no longer just a luxury but a necessity if you want your training to be more effective and efficient. This added flexibility will also allow your employees to find the most conducive environment to learn faster and more effectively.
4. Personalises learning experiences
Everyone has their own way of learning. What works for one might not necessarily work for another. One of the greatest benefits of an LMS for employees is the ability to personalise the learning experience for each user. It gives them more control over where, how, and when they will take a course.
Depending on your chosen platform, you can offer different methods and styles of teaching that can adapt to your employees’ needs and capabilities. You can create asynchronous courses to give them the time and pace they need to absorb new information and skills. Moreover, you can upload different media types for learning, such as videos, audio, or text. And for those who strive in a more social environment, you can even use your LMS platform to promote social and interactive learning.
5. Tracks employees’ progress and performance
Results from training can be harder to measure, especially if you don’t have the right tools. Fortunately, an LMS has built-in features that allow you to monitor your employees’ progress and see how it impacts their performance in the long run.
There are many ways for an LMS to evaluate your employees’ progress. For one, it can conduct quizzes or tests to see how well a user absorbed information. It can also incorporate gamification elements into courses to encourage your employees to apply their new knowledge. From there, the platform can automatically rank, grade, or rate your employees according to their performance. No matter your use case, you should include tracking functionality in your essential LMS features checklist.
6. Increases engagement during training
A common concern when it comes to employee training is engagement. Whether face-to-face or virtual, it can be challenging to secure your learners’ complete attention. Before you know it, they might start to lose interest and motivation to push through with the course.
The best corporate LMSs can go beyond simply teaching your employees new skills. You can also use it to boost their engagement and motivation in the process. For one, an LMS platform promotes social learning. This allows learners to interact with other people taking the course, share opinions, and learn from each other.
Furthermore, you can incorporate gamification elements into your courses and offer rewards at the end of each session. You can even add an achievement or badge page where learners can post their ranks, grades, and ratings in public. This can boost their participation and make the course more dynamic.
7. Leverages data and analytics
Your employee training sessions can become treasure troves full of valuable data and insights regarding your employees and business as a whole. This includes information on the strengths and weaknesses of your employees, the skills you need to focus on developing, and how to improve your courses for next time. You can even use it to determine what LMS you prefer to use in the future.
Using an LMS platform can help you leverage various data and analytics. Moreover, it can present essential data into digestible reports in the form of graphs and charts. This makes it easier for you to see the bigger picture of how learning and development can impact your workforce and your business growth.
An LMS is key to effective learning
Your business relies on the capabilities and skills of your employees. Their personal growth can contribute to the overall success and growth of your business as well. It’s your job to bring out the best in them, and finding the right corporate LMS software to help you is the best way to conduct effective and successful employee training.
There are countless LMS platforms to choose from, all of which have their own sets of tools and functions that are crucial to your employees’ learning and development – so take the time to explore what platforms like Acorn PLMS have to offer.
Related Reads on This Topic
Non-Negotiable LMS Reporting and Analytics Tools
Unless you want to manually trawl through all the learning data your employees will create, that is.
How to Build a Robust LMS Business Case
And what to ask of providers to ensure you’re delivering on said business case.
Understanding How LMS Systems Operate
How they operate should align with your business goals. Spoiler! Not all LMSs will work for your goals.