E-learning and LMS blog articles

Onboarding is an essential element of any L&D initiative, the process helps new a starter become more familiar with their new role and what will be expected of them as a valued member of the team. Having a powerful learning management system (LMS) can play a vital role in managing, delivering, and measuring the onboarding process. Using an LMS can yield better training results, encourage employee engagement, and save a considerable amount of time spent on manual processes for both the training team and new employees. To help exemplify the key benefits of using an LMS to support onboarding, we have put together a handy infographic.

What is an LMS?

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a digital learning platform used to manage and measure e-learning and online training. An LMS unites all the elements required to deliver a learning and development programme, including course content creation, training, assessment and reporting.

For more information on LMSs – read our comprehensive guide here.

Benefits of LMS employee onboarding

1. Cost-effective

One of the key benefits of using an LMS for employee onboarding and induction training is that there can be considerable cost-savings on your training budget - saving a considerable amount of money on instructors, venues, transportation, days away from the office, etc. Utilising your LMS to create and host the appropriate content online means employees can be given the same high-quality training as those in the office.

Moreover, if you wish to implement a blended learning strategy, which combines traditional face-to-face training with e-learning, a good LMS will make easy work of scheduling and managing this as well.

2. Personalised learning paths

Because an LMS easily facilitates the updating of training material and courses, all new employees get current and relevant content. And, if your LMS allows you to bundle courses to create specific learning paths (determined by job role, for example), then suddenly the onboarding process becomes personalised, delivering user-specific training to individual learners.

An LMS that allows you to create specific learning paths and personalised experiences for the different roles in your organisation is a powerful tool and makes the onboarding process much more engaging for each learner. Additionally, automation tools make training a much more streamlined process for L&D admin teams.

3. Automated role-based learning

Choosing an LMS that allows you to mirror your organisation’s hierarchical structure (roles, departments, etc.) will make assigning new hires to the right learning path becomes significantly easier and more manageable.

An LMS such as Totara Learn offers the hierarchies feature, which enables you to transfer the organisational structure of your business onto the LMS and define roles and departments for each of your users. With the hierarchies function you can automate learning assignments so that any new employee onboarded to the system is automatically enrolled in the correct learning path. 

4. Scalable

Whether you’re onboarding a single employee at a time, small groups, or teams in the hundreds, your onboarding must be consistent. With your LMS, handling a large number of people is not a problem – and, unlike traditional offline training, the costs don’t rise with every new hire. Your LMS is scalable, and able to handle hundreds, indeed thousands of new learners.

With LMS automation, each of these new learners can automatically receive the learning path(s) that is right for them – when they need them, in the order that they need them, and on whatever device they want to use for their learning. Using an LMS means high-quality training can be carried out anywhere, anytime and regardless of the number of new starters - ensuring everyone receives the same standard of training.

5. Mobile learning: give new hires flexibility

Increasingly in today’s digital world, having a mobile learning strategy is necessary to meet the needs of your employees and their digital habits.

With an LMS that facilitates mobile learning, your onboarding training and materials are fully accessible through mobile devices, giving your employees the flexibility to access their learning pathway whenever they need it, regardless of location.

6. Asynchronous

Using your LMS to manage the onboarding process also gives your employees the opportunity to learn at their own pace – with all the material and correct instructions, your new employees can learn at their own speed while still doing their work requirements.

Your new hires benefit because not everyone learns at the same pace, but it is also good for the business because it minimises downtime and disruption at work. Additionally, learners have the opportunity to revisit lessons and content as many times as they need to in order to gain a good understanding of the subject matter - a benefit that cannot always be achieved with offline or face-to-face learning.

7. Trackable

An LMS also allows you to monitor, track and report on the progress of each new employee. This helps you evaluate their skills and aptitude for tasks, determine who might need additional help and focused training, and automatically issue next-stage training paths and certifications.

The best way to test whether a new starter has retained the knowledge learnt throughout the onboarding process is to implement assessments at the end of courses or include quick-fire quizzes throughout, to help employees get a better understanding of where their knowledge base lies. 

Implementing a powerful onboarding process with the right LMS

Without the right learning management system, it can be difficult to implement the powerful, diverse onboarding process that your organisation is striving for. You need an LMS with a full range of functionality, intuitive features, automation technology and the flexibility needed to cater to a wide range of learners. Whether your organisation currently has no e-learning platforms or you're looking to upgrade your current system, get in touch with one of our e-learning experts to find out more about our LMS offerings. Or, if you've got a platform in mind, book a free LMS demo to see first-hand how our systems can transform your onboarding process and L&D initiative.