E-learning and LMS blog articles

In this age of AI technology, it’s fair to assume that any ‘e’ type platform will work away autonomously, ticking along nicely in the background while you get on with running your business. In reality, it takes time and investment to make e-learning programmes perform well. If not fully embraced at every level of a business, e-learning quickly becomes a flash-in-the-pan novelty tool, dusted off and brought out of retirement once or twice a year to deliver some obligatory, bare-bones training course. Just read our article on why not all LMS projects are successful to see how easily e-learning programmes can fall at the first stumbling block.

And then there’s the real business challenge: making sure that your e-learning programme not only does its job in terms of learning, but in terms of improving your bottom line. So, let’s cut to it – beyond the jargon and technological advances, how can you ensure that e-learning at work benefits your business?

Free up personnel hours

Time and money – two factors businesses often cite as barriers to e-learning investment. But if there was ever a perfect model for the phrase ‘you have to spend money to make money’, investing in workplace e-learning is it. That’s because while there is a recurring expense for SaaS e-learning platforms, the potential in saved manual administration is enormous.

Consider this scenario: your organisation’s HR department manages hiring and onboarding, staff training (internal and external), and company compliance. Each of these areas brings with it a considerable amount of data to manage and distribute:

• Onboarding involves personnel profiles and progression reports.
• Staff training requires course creation and deployment, as well as virtual or face-to-face training sessions and attendance records.
• Most crucially, company compliance involves certification processes, deadlines, and intensive reporting.

The number of personnel hours all this requires can’t be overestimated. We’re talking about hundreds, if not thousands of hours every year, depending on the size of the business. 

Make reporting, data management, and training oversight more efficient with an LMS and save countless personnel hours

Coupled with the fact that all of this data is likely coming from a variety of different sources and platforms, the administrative burden is significant. Streamlining these many processes within an LMS consolidates everything in one secure digital space. Detailed records and reports can be instantly accessed, automated compliance schedules set, and onboarding courses and tasks assigned with ease.

Properly integrated with existing HR systems and procedures, an LMS saves countless hours in manual administration. And this doesn’t just impact your HR teams. According to the latest Gitnux data, all full-time employees who use an LMS save 157.5 hours a year on average. Not only does this make operations run more smoothly, efficiently, and cost effectively, but it also frees up personnel hours to do the exact thing you didn’t think you had time to do in the first place – invest in managing a powerful e-learning programme.

Motivate & inspire

Words like ‘inspire’ and ‘motivate’ are often - sometimes rightfully - dismissed as sales jargon by business owners. ‘Just how does “inspiration” increase my profit margins exactly?’ But hear us out - motivating and inspiring your team with e-learning at work can deliver impressive returns.

Tying e-learning goals to organisational outcomes is key to motivating LMS users. Just like you, your teams don’t want to spend time learning things that don’t actually help them deliver better results. After all, e-learning at work eats into their working hours – so it’s important to make sure it counts. Employees need to see the impact e-learning has not only on their performance but on their career progression, just as you need to see your e-learning programme deliver a strong return on investment.

For instance, imagine that your company has implemented a new Challenger Sales tactics course for your sales department. The course is multi-faceted, featuring e-learning courses on the theory of the ‘Challenger Sale’ and how it can be used to close more deals, interactive scenarios, and multiple-choice assessments and quizzes. You’ve set a deadline by which all training needs to be completed and assessments adequately passed. Your LMS administrator has assigned course badges and certificates to be issued to users upon completion, which they can also share on their LinkedIn profiles. So far so good – motivation is high, the department is engaged, and competition amongst team members to complete and secure their badges and certificates first is on the rise.

Linking e-learning courses with organisational goals and career development enhances employee performance 

But why stop there? With an integrated performance management system, you can link this learning to continued professional development – capturing instances when sales employees used their Challenger Sales skills to convert deals and tracking their progression with 360-degree feedback. By clearly connecting the learning you want employees to use with organisational goals and career progression, motivation and performance levels increase accordingly. And the data doesn’t lie. 70% of employees using e-learning report improved teamwork, which translates to 87% of businesses that invest in an LMS seeing a positive ROI within two years (Gitnux.com).

A final bonus - a 2018 LinkedIn Learning report found that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development. So not only does an e-learning at work programme increase productivity, boost engagement, and drive revenue – it also reduces turnover.

Identify untapped potential

In the current tight labour market, it's especially difficult for businesses to recruit new, skilled up employees. A 2023 Jobs for the Future survey showed that many workers feel they'll need new skills to compete in the soon to be AI-driven workforce. The results also highlighted that 66% of Gen Z and millennial workers feel that they need to hone their skillsets to maintain a competitive edge. As well as identifying and closing existing skills gaps, e-learning tools can highlight users that excel in their fields and other areas - ensuring no skills go unused.

Using the enhanced reporting an LMS provides, and the employee development data accrued with a performance management system, it’s easy to see which staff members have an abundance of skills and talent to push forward business operations. Not only is this a great way to search out and promote leadership development within your existing workforce and build a robust succession planning strategy, but it also enables managers to more strategically deploy team members and assign responsibilities to ensure maximum efficiency.

With a better understanding of who performs best, and at what, within your organisation, you’re ready to facilitate peer-to-peer and informal learning. This type of e-learning relies almost exclusively on existing employees to share ideas, learning content, and resources via a learning experience platform. In other words, the actual content (and the generation of that content) costs nothing to your organisation, instead empowering your employees to promote best practice amongst themselves. You can even nominate SMEs (subject matter experts) to lead conversations and curate learning playlists – perfectly complementing the more formal e-learning at work offering an LMS provides. Workplace knowledge sharing cultures are thought to increase productivity by up to 40% (Document360), meaning this kind of investment is a no-brainer.

Start enjoying the benefits of e-learning at work

Whether you already have an e-learning programme set up in your business or not, we’re here to help. It could be that you need some advice about your current programme and software, or that you’re looking to invest in the right platform. In any case, our experts are on hand to give the advice and guidance you need. We’d love to talk to you.

Contact us today and begin getting more from your e-learning at work strategy.