But it’s not all doom and gloom! This new way of working has forced business leaders to reconsider their priorities, with many finally viewing Learning and Development (L&D) as a ‘need to have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’… and about time, may we add.
Workplace learning has fundamentally changed. According to our Learner Survey, half of learners find it easier to fit online learning into their working day. Long gone are the days of stuffy training rooms: hello eLearning!
But with employees now learning from a variety of locations, online, how can L&D leaders keep track and manage their workforce learning?
Learning Management Systems (LMS) are platforms that allow you to manage every facet of workplace learning, from design and delivery to scheduling and reporting. Having an LMS is known to boost workplace learning and productivity, and reduce the training costs for an organisation by 25% to 40% – sound tempting?
Searching for the right LMS can be daunting and a little confusing. With so much information out there, how do you know where to start when choosing an LMS?
To make it a bit easier, we’ve done the hard work for you – here are our top 6 tips and must-have features for a game-changing LMS:
Personalised learning content
Remember life before Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify?
Spending hours searching for the right film, even leaving your house for the privilege!?
Binge-watching has never been easier, and today’s workers demand consumer grade technology across all platforms, so why shouldn’t our eLearning be the same?
91% of employees want personalised, relevant training. It makes sense!
If learning is directly connected to the learner’s job, they’ll get insights that can actually enhance their day-to-day work life, which is far more motivational for better performance. When content is personal and relevant, learners are more likely to be engaged and want to continue their development.
With Learn, you can assign your people the learning they need based on user data, so achievements and course content become tailored to each individual.
User experience
Hands up if you’ve used a platform that has been confusing, slow, or just straight up annoying?
You are not alone. And it’s off-putting because, as a recent study discovered, adults only have an 8 second attention span online (that’s 1 second less than a goldfish…)
Your people have a lot on their plate, and screen fatigue is a real thing. So why would they want to face a stressful experience trying to navigate an LMS? Put simply, they wouldn’t: engagement rates would be low, development uptake would flatline, and teams would quickly develop a negative outlook on L&D.
The biggest win you can make for company buy-in is a super user-friendly platform. Why? It supports wider engagement from learners as it’s a more enjoyable and satisfactory experience. The more your learners enjoy using their LMS, the higher engagement rates will be, overall improving team progress.
Even better, a great user experience can also reduce costs, lowering training overheads and allowing for faster onboarding, for both learners and management.
Learn gives learners a friction-free experience that allows them to access essential training in less than two clicks. With a choice of multiple languages, clear reporting on courses to be completed and accessible course catalogues, continuous development has never been easier.
Integration
Your LMS should reduce your time-consuming admin tasks. But if it doesn’t communicate with your HR tech stack, the manual work will rapidly creep back up. Imagine if you could integrate your LMS with your other people tools? Imagine automated actions, specifically assigned training, new users profiles, and data synchronisation…
Too good to be true?
Not with Learn.
Integrate your LMS with all your crucial HR software, including performance management tools, to produce intuitive dashboards that give managers complete clarity over individual and team progress, quickly identifying knowledge and skills gaps.
94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company that invested in their development. By integrating Learn with Perform, you ensure continuous development and growth within your team, giving your people security and fulfilment. Happy people = long-term employees.
Intuitive reporting
So, your teams have an efficient, easy-to-use and content filled learning platform. But how do you measure the success of the platform and your team’s overall progress. And why is it important?
You need flexible reports that give you insights into your learners’ progress, so you can understand:
- Are the team engaged in the training?
- Are they easily able to meet their training goals?
- Are there any actions that are needed or courses to be added?
This helps you to make better business decisions, optimise learning plans, and demonstrate a clear return on learning investment for long-term business use. This long-term investment and learning culture will lead to happier and more productive employees!
Learning on-the-go
Life is starting to feel ‘normal’ again and hectic work schedules mean we don’t always have the time to dedicate to training.
The solution?
Learning on-the-go!
With workforce demographics shifting and Gen Z now forming almost 25% of the workforce, it is important that your LMS provides different learning options that suit your workforce to optimise their eLearning experience. 76% of Gen Z employees believe that learning is the key to a successful career, and according to our Learner Survey, 50% of 18–25-year-olds said that learning through mobile devices would be effective or very effective. So, to help support this culture of professional learning and self-led development, why not enable learning through mobile devices?
Choose an LMS that’s mobile friendly and empowers your people to fit learning around their schedule.
Waiting for an appointment? On the train?
Through award-winning interface, learners can now access learning on a range of devices, at a time and place that suits them!
Customisation
An LMS is an extension of your business, and for your learners, it’s the centre of their development.
Think about it, if a learner can use an LMS that feels familiar to them and they can identify with it, they will have more faith in the platform (no trust issues here!).
The more they trust the platform, the more likely they will engage with it and repeatedly utilise the content.
With Learn, you can apply your own brand in the system in just a few clicks. No coding required (you are welcome!).
Productivity and completion rates will increase, enhancing your teams’ progress and performance and ultimately developing a longer-term culture of learning. This will support your ROI, so allowing learning and development can remain an organisational priority (yay!)
Written by Claire Moloney Claire is an enthusiastic and meticulous content writer whose passion is to support growth and continual learning for everyone.
