After seeing the success of learning management systems in the educational system, it’s no wonder that businesses have gotten privy to wanting to replicate that same success for their training programs as well. This post will explore the benefits of why a learning management system is essential for businesses to provide better on-the-job training for their employees.
What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?
A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software solution that allows businesses to create and manage employee training programs. You can use an LMS to create, manage and deliver training content for an employee training program. An LMS platform also aids with monitoring and tracking the progress of employees’ online training and their retention of the training materials presented.
LMS software programs enable businesses to create engaging eLearning courses and training modules which can be delivered through internal communication channels, such as email, to promote employees’ online training initiatives. Most LMS platforms also allow course creators and instructors to track the user progress of the online courses, view the results of each course, and record when employees complete them.
Utilising an LMS platform can be beneficial for businesses to ensure the required corporate training initiatives, such as compliance training courses, are being completed as needed by employees. Additionally, LMS platforms can help employees increase their on-the-job skills by participating in online training courses in sales or customer training, promoting better employee performance.
Why Businesses Need Learning Management Systems
In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, they must ensure the training and educating of their employees focuses on industry best practices and maintaining compliance regulations for their business to continue and succeed. Companies that do not embrace and adapt to the ever-changing needs will eventually fall behind their competitors.
A learning management system is essential for businesses because it helps improve employee skills and performance with development programs, reduces training costs, and creates a collaborative learning culture in an organisation. A learning management system also enables organisations to measure the effectiveness of their training programs and save time by reducing their reliance on in-person instructor-led training and paper-based course materials.
Learning management software can help businesses stay on top of the latest industry developments and trends by providing employees with easy access to training materials and resources for workplace skills training. LMS software also allows organisations to manage their training software more efficiently and ensure employees use their resources more effectively while saving time and money in the long run.
It’s no wonder that the use of LMS in businesses is growing every year.
Types of Learning Management Software for Online Learning
There are numerous types of LMS software designed for online learning on the market today. These software programs enable businesses and educators to create, deliver, track the training process and provide online assessments for employees. Most LMS software types available for organisations allow teams to create courses and build a learning module based on the training subject matter to be covered through the learning process.
Here are 2 types of standard LMS software systems that businesses use:
1. Web-based Online Learning Management System
These online training programs allow employees to take online courses from any location with internet access. Online learning through web-based LMS software can help employees stay current with the latest information about training programs needed to complete their roles at work. Also commonly referred to as e-learning, web-based LMS software often includes access to mobile learning content and e-learning assessment tools.
2. Cloud-based Learning Management System
This type of LMS program runs on a server in the cloud instead of on the internet or from a computer or device. Cloud LMS software requires less storage space than an offline system would require because most of its data is stored online and in a cloud environment rather than saved locally.
A cloud-based LMS and web-based LMS are typically easier for IT administrators to manage because they don’t have to install additional hardware onsite or store data locally on the on-premise services. Utilising online learning management software can allow users to simply log into the cloud portal at any time to access all necessary information about courses currently offered or required by the departments within the organisation.
Benefits of Learning Management Systems for Organisations
Regardless of whether your organisation uses a web-based or cloud-based learning management system, their advantages can help your company save time and money and help everything run more efficiently. The best learning management systems can aid companies with consistent training modules and assessments to help them provide valuable tools and resources to their employees. Below are several ways that a corporate LMS program promotes organisations to train and assess employee skills more effectively.
Increases the Ease of Mobility for Online Training
An online learning management system allows companies to provide training and development whenever and wherever they need it. Nowadays, most businesses and their employees are remote or work in a hybrid environment. Additionally, with this new working environment globally, there is an increased challenge for deskless workers. Many deskless workers are not able to stick to the traditional learning ecosystem. Therefore, they need mobility, flexibility, and asynchronous learning options to increase their skills and thrive at work.
The increased mobility of a cloud-based LMS also provides organisations and their staff with a flexible learning platform that promotes self-paced learning instead of structured instructor-led learning onsite. Businesses need to give employees the freedom to choose how they want to educate themselves if they’re going to create immersive learning experiences for their staff.
Grows Efficiency and Productivity for Companies
It’s widely known that an onsite instructor-led training program can be both costly and challenging to maintain learner engagement. An LMS helps guide you on where your company’s money should be spent on your staff’s learning and development needs. It is also a great way to keep your company’s training process and budget under better control.
The best learning management systems help you determine where to allocate your training program budget by identifying who requires more support services and where more education is needed by helping you identify which employees need more training. Reviewing assessment and training metrics such as learner progress, completion rates, and test scores can help determine whether your company resources and learning management systems are practical and valuable to your staff.
For instance, if an employee has been struggling with the same performance tasks for a while without improving, it allows you to assess if it’s the employee’s performance or the effectiveness of your training program and resources for employees to succeed at their job.
It also allows businesses of all sizes to see which areas benefit from various learning programs to better allocate resources toward those providing the most return on investment (ROI). It also can help determine how effective each program is for its intended audience over time and how much money was spent developing these courses initially versus how much was brought back into the business through increased productivity.
Simplifies New Employee Onboarding
A learning management system is a great way to ensure that new hires get up to speed quickly while keeping your existing employees informed about any changes in procedures. An LMS can also ensure workplace training and learning objectives are shared and company-wide based on the department or team subject matter. This helps with employee retention since it reduces the amount of time spent training and onboarding new hires, as well as conducting complicated refresher training procedures for existing staff members unless necessary.
A learning management system also allows you to identify who requires more help and where more teaching is needed. Suppose an employee’s performance has deteriorated over time. In that case, this may indicate that they need additional soft skills or sales training. For illustration, imagine your salespeople are struggling initially but start performing well after going through training courses provided by your LMS provider. This may signify that those individuals would benefit from additional support with their job duties to help them succeed at their job.
Encourages Skill Development and Collaboration
The best learning management systems provide an all-in-one platform where employees can access training resources, discussion forums, track their progress, and measure their performance. It also allows them to create their own personalised learning plan and manage courses they wish to take to increase their skills and development.
Learning management systems also supports employee development by allowing staff to learn new skills or enhance their existing ones so they can perform better at their jobs. This increases the overall productivity of your company, which means staff can get more done with less time and effort while utilising fewer resources.
Online training can also facilitate communication and collaboration between your employees by sharing information and creating content together. The use of lecture-style video lessons within an online training allows users to interact with each other while viewing materials in real-time or later for reviewing purposes. It will encourage active participation among team members by creating opportunities for discussion and collaboration regarding the training content topics covered. Better team collaboration can help them resolve problems faster and more efficiently for your organisation.
Creates a Company Knowledge Resource
Learning management systems makes it easier for employees to access the information they need when they need it. With an LMS, finding your team’s training materials is simple and accessible within the training portal. Employees can also easily share important information with internal and external stakeholders through internal communications channels to ensure mandatory employee training and compliance training are conducted as required.
Also, the LMS platform you use can be a valuable knowledge and information resource for employees to ensure they do their jobs correctly and efficiently. It can act as a repository of knowledge and learning materials for your staff. Utilising your LMS as a knowledge base allows for information access to answer questions or share knowledge among teams. It can also help businesses share information that is useful for ensuring employees are all on the same page.
This is especially useful when multiple people are working on a project together who may not be physically co-located, such as employees working remotely or at different branches across the country or the world. It ensures everyone has equal access to the learning management system and the employee training program without worrying about them missing out on important information.
Boosts Employee Engagement and Reduces Turnover
One of the best benefits for businesses that utilise a learning management system for their training and development is that it boosts employee engagement and reduces turnover when effective. In the past, most business leaders believed that employee training was just another expense on the budget. However, in today’s competitive market, employees need opportunities for continual growth to stay ahead of the competition.
Learning management systems allow organisations to empower employees by providing them with relevant educational content. It can create a culture of learning within your organisation. Since learning is a continuous process, it allows leaders and teams to learn together as a team effort. By providing this culture of learning and a feedback loop between managers and employees, businesses will see higher levels of engagement throughout their workforce and lower turnover rates among key talent within the company.
Next Read: Find out how a blended learning approach can take training to the next level.
