How a Learning Management Service Can Benefit Your Business

Businesses all over the world are adopting ways to deliver effective learning programs to their employees to help increase user engagement, productivity and retention. Looking after the learning and training needs of your employees is central to the success of every organization. Companies these days want to create a robust platform for corporate training that can deliver effective corporate training programs to a wider audience. And that is where a learning management system (LMS) fits the bill.

A learning management system can offer many benefits to organizations of all sizes. But first, let’s define what an LMS is all about.

What is an LMS?

An LMS is an enterprise-wide application that enhances the flow of information to managers. As described by Asha Pandey, CMD and Chief Learning Strategist at EI Design, it can manage, track, regulate, monitor and deliver learning programs to a wide audience. In addition to delivering fully automated online training, an LMS can support hybrid training models like blended learning and the flipped classroom approach. Also, an LMS solution can deliver training content, assignments and tests to employees, track their progress, manage recordkeeping and offer support on a continuous basis.

Benefits of adopting an LMS

The online revolution has altered our lives in many ways. The way we communicate, shop, and even learn and train have changed for the better. eLearning is an effective way of delivering course material in a classroom or training room environment. eLearning software solutions allow organizations to deliver corporate training programs and courses online, or other platforms.

How an LMS improves learning

• It keeps track of learning – Employee development and meeting all the compliance norms are the two key factors that concern every organization. With an LMS in place, you don’t have to worry about these factors, as it tracks who has taken the training and how well they performed.
• It reminds you about retraining – Learning and training should be a continuous process if you want your employees to remain up-to-date on all developments. An LMS can keep you informed on the last training taken by your employees, and the upcoming retraining schedule.
• It provides real-time reporting – An LMS can track the progress of your employees accurately and provide comprehensive reports in real time.
• It offers on-demand learning – With an LMS in place, your employees have around-the-clock access to training materials. They also have the option of revisiting the courses if they want to review the material.
• It allows anytime, anywhere learning – mLearning – or mobile learning – is a growing trend, with organizations now delivering training courses on such mobile devices as smartphones and tablets.

How an LMS benefits your organization

• Helps improve your employees’ performance – With an LMS in place, you can access eLearning courses on demand. It keeps your employees current on all recent developments and compliance norms, which helps improve their overall performance.
• It speeds the process of compliance training – Bringing new hires up to speed faster is another advantage. Even for established employees, an LMS helps get everyone on board simultaneously when organizational changes occur, or new compliance regulations are established.
• It reduces cost – As organizing and conducting face-to-face training is costly, an LMS helps reduce your overall training cost.
• It helps multiple site deployment – You can conduct training at different locations without concerns about training consistency and uniformity. The same message is delivered across all locations, and everyone has access to the same material.
• Everyone gets a chance to attend the training – Employees have the flexibility to schedule their training to their convenience – either completing the session at once, or as they have time, depending upon their workflow.
• It can align with your organization’s learning needs – An LMS is a powerful corporate training tool that takes into consideration your organization’s learning needs. You can train your employees for new initiatives easily, consistently and effectively, and measure the impact of learning.  

What to look for in an LMS

When you buy LMS software for your organization, you need to make sure that it offers features that keep your employees engaged. If the LMS you purchase lacks compelling functionalities, it will be difficult to generate user engagement.

Software Advice conducted a survey of full-time employees to learn which popular LMS features they would like to use the most. A summary of the findings were reported by Brian Westfall, Senior Content Analyst for Software Advice.

• Micro-learning engages more than half of employees – Because 58% of those surveyed said they would like to engage more with the training content if it was broken up into shorter lessons, micro-learning is a growing trend.
• Gamification – In the survey, 35% of the employees said that real-life rewards based on the progress of learning would be the top gamification incentive for using their organization’s LMS. This is another trend that is quickly spreading. LMS systems have incorporated many video game-like functions, such as leaderboards, badges and point systems.
• Social learning modules, such as discussion boards and content sharing – In the survey, 24% of respondents said that the discussion board – followed by content sharing (23%) – would be the social learning module that engages them the most with their company’s online learning tools. Another popular trend in online learning is the surge in social learning due to the rise of the social media in the last decade.
• Mobile access – In the survey, employees were asked whether they would be more comfortable using corporate training software on their mobile devices. Almost half of them (48%) said they are more likely to use an LMS on their mobile devices, but surprisingly 39% of them said that mobile access would not make any difference to them.

If a learning management system is what you are looking for, DocuServe has solutions that will help you produce, manage and distribute your eLearning content without the need to hire an expensive in-house content development team. Our comprehensive LMS tool can take your learning and training standard to the next level. Contact us for all your eLearning needs, and increase the engagement of your team members.