When you control how training is delivered to your employees, you can unlock a wealth of benefits that make it easier to access, more effective and more fulfilling.
According to Gartner, 70% of employees feel they don’t have the skills they need to do their current jobs effectively, and 64% of managers don’t think their employees are ready for future skills requirements.
One of the best investments you can make is to transform your organisational learning strategy and close those gaps.
The most effective way to do that is by setting up a corporate learning management system (LMS). Here are six reasons why:
1. Make learning flexible
According to LinkedIn Learning’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report, one of the main challenges facing learning and development leaders within an organisation is the steeply increasing workload. Diversity, equity and inclusion programmes have increased by 11% since 2021. There has also been a 10% increase in large-scale upskilling or reskilling programmes over that same period.
An LMS lessens this pressure by making training available to your employees on their own terms.
2. Personalise learning experiences
Having an LMS allows you to personalise the learning experience for each employee. Personalised learning is efficient, effective and engaging because it takes into account the knowledge that learners already have and builds from there.
There are several ways in which an LMS makes it easy to personalise learning. For example, release conditions trigger activities based on how the learner uses the system, such as suggesting additional resources for someone who is struggling or more advanced material for someone who can take on a greater challenge. Material can also be made available in a variety of formats, such as readings, videos, discussions, games and quizzes appealing to different earner preferences.
Personalising the learning experience using an LMS allows employees to work at their own pace and take charge of their own learning and development.
3. Maintain consistency
Rather than having multiple resources scattered across systems and services, an LMS lets you organise all your corporate learning in one place. This has multiple benefits:
- A single login simplifies access to learning
- You can automate reminders for compulsory training to reduce administrative tasks
- With one standard interface, all your training offerings can have a consistent look and feel that match your branding
4. Foster collaborative learning
According to LinkedIn Learning’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, employees prefer learning with their peers. In their survey of 2,393 employees, 91% reported being more successful when learning together, and 92% said learning together creates a sense of belonging.
An LMS makes it easy to design social learning experiences even when your employees aren’t together in the same room. Collaborative tools like discussion boards and virtual classrooms give learners a chance to share knowledge and experience, and to benefit from each other’s expertise.
5. Manage learning data
An LMS gives you access to a plethora of data that you can use to improve your organisational learning strategy. The learning analytics within your LMS allow you to:
- Improve learner engagement
- Identify hidden skill sets and high-potential employees
- Identify and support at-risk learners
- Make it easier to update employee training records
Your LMS can also give you peace of mind about data security and compliance. In our webinar Addressing the Skills Gap, Katy Tynan, principal analyst at Forrester, points out that many companies capture plenty of data but don’t use it for anything meaningful because they struggle with how to use it safely.
Having the right LMS enables you to use all that rich data safely to make informed, evidence-based decisions about every aspect of your company’s training and development programmes.
6. Reduce costs
A corporate LMS reduces costs associated with in-person training – such as room rentals, transportation, accommodation and meals. But there are also non-monetary savings, including:
- Flexibility to learn when it’s convenient and most productive
- Personalised learning means your employees aren’t doing training they don’t need
- Insights that can help you reduce onboarding time, close skills gaps and focus on employee career development, helping you improve retention and reduce hiring costs.
An LMS is an important part of a comprehensive organisational learning strategy. The ability to respond to current and emerging skills and competency needs with flexible, personalised and engaging learning experiences is a necessity you can’t afford to ignore.
Want to learn more about finding the right LMS for your business? Get in touch today.
Written by
Kristine Clark is part of the EMEA Marketing Team with a focus on content and email marketing. Combining a love for languages and culture with over 2 decades of marketing skills.
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