E-learning and LMS blog articles

In the November issue of our Essential E-learning newsletter on LinkedIn, we examined a recent inquiry that found apprenticeships and training programmes were not meeting the UK’s future skills needs. Within many businesses, employer-led learning and development opportunities are few and far between or basic at best, leaving employees with little opportunity to grow.

In 2023, 59% of employees reported receiving no workplace training, forcing employees to engage in self-directed learning and development activities, independent of their employers.

But what’s behind the scarcity of employer-led training opportunities? One of the biggest factors holding employers back from investing in meaningful employee learning and development opportunities is the risk of losing their trained and highly skilled staff members to other organisations.

Many employers fear that they won’t see an ROI for their training initiatives if employees leave once training has been completed. But is this potential risk enough to justify providing insufficient employee learning and development opportunities?

What are the benefits of investing in employee learning and development?

The benefits of a highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce outweigh any potential risks of losing an employee whose training you’ve invested time and money into. When employees are afforded meaningful and effectual learning and development opportunities, they’re armed with the skills, knowledge, and confidence that allow them to perform at their best.

Employee learning and development enhances job satisfaction and improves employee performance and productivity across the entire organisation, all of which make the potential risk of losing an employee seem minimal in comparison.

Supporting staff acquisition

Why worry about losing trained staff if you can’t hire them in the first place? 92% of employees consider learning and development opportunities when choosing between job offers, so offering effective L&D is one of the best ways to attract top talent.

Moreover, 77% of employers are struggling to fill roles within their organisation, resulting in the need for upskilling and reskilling programmes that allow employers to hire inexperienced employees and close skills gaps with effective learning and development programmes. Here, the cost of investing in employee training is slight compared to the expense of workforce shortages caused by vacant positions.

But L&D doesn’t just support staff acquisition - 94% of employees would stay longer at a company if it offered learning and development opportunities. For the majority of employees, L&D is no longer a nice to have but an essential business function, which ultimately answers our question. Investing in employee training is absolutely worth the potential risk of losing trained staff as employees who aren’t afforded L&D opportunities will leave anyway.

How can you deliver meaningful employee learning and development with a strong ROI?

The best way to create an employee learning and development strategy that will produce a strong ROI is to invest in an e-learning platform such as a learning management system (LMS).

Time and time again, we see businesses of all sectors and sizes experience cost-saving benefits when using an LMS that will ultimately boost the ROI of staff training.

For example, LMS automation can help speed up manual processes such as reporting and training deployment, which ultimately saves on admin costs over time. Using features such as automated training enrolment means admins can rapidly deploy vital training, ensuring it reaches the right people with little to no involvement. As LMS training can be carried out autonomously, employers can expect significant savings on costs associated with areas such as hiring training professionals and conducting training sessions.

What’s more, using an LMS allows businesses to deliver meaningful learning and development opportunities that tick all the boxes for learners, mitigating the risk of staff turnover as a result.

For example, 80% of employees want personalised e-learning that is tailored to their individual needs and goals. Delivering this standard of high-quality, tailor-made learning and development opportunities may sound like an expensive undertaking, requiring a significant investment. However, using an LMS such as our Totara Learn LMS means you can deliver personalised learning at scale, without incurring additional costs and weakening your training ROI.

Features such as personalised learning pathways, individual learner profiles, and hierarchies can help employers easily deliver a personalised learning experience that targets specific skills, competencies and training requirements. The best part? You can deliver all of this and more to an endless number of employees using a single e-learning solution. Find out more about delivering a personalised learning experience by reading our blog here.

Ready to invest in employee learning and development?

Don’t let the fear of employee churn stop you from taking advantage of the vast number of benefits that come from investing in employee learning and development. If you’re ready to invest in this vital business function, now is the time to explore the e-learning solutions that will support your L&D strategy.

We understand that getting the best ROI from your training initiatives will be at the forefront of your decision-making; to help you get maximum value from your investment, we’ve put together a free ROI guide. Download our guide today and learn how to effectively calculate the ROI of your LMS and maximise your training investment.