As practice shows, training an existing employee makes more business sense than hiring a new person. What's more, your current employees are already loyal to your company, so they will gladly take on the opportunity to expand their knowledge and get new skills. A Learning Management System or LMS makes the process of employee training effective, engaging, and affordable even for small organizations, so in this article, we will discover value-driving reasons to start using an LMS for business.
What Is a Learning Management System
So, let's get started from the beginning and discover what is an LMS. Learning Management System (LMS) is dedicated software that allows for creating, sharing, and storing educational content for employees, students, or self-learners. Speaking of an LMS for businesses, then this is a system that also allows for employees’ training progress tracking, performance evaluation, spotting knowledge gaps, and adjusting the employee training to the necessities of an organization.
What Makes a Good Learning Management System for Companies
To choose an LMS that will help your company meet its business goals, you should know what makes a good LMS for corporate necessities. Plus, you have to take into account your business-specific considerations. So, below are the most important features a good LMS system should come with.
- User-friendly interface. The platform should be able to meet the needs of all your employees from day one—from new hires to seasoned veterans—without requiring them to learn how it works from scratch.
- Customization options. With their help, you will be able to create custom training modules that fit your company's unique needs.
- Mobile compatibility. The system should be compatible with mobile devices so that employees can access it on the go.
- Integration capabilities. Finally, it should allow for integration with other systems like HR and payroll tools.
Why Use an LMS - 15 Undeniable Reasons for Growing Companies
Now, let's find out what is a benefit companies gain by using an LMS. Below you will find 15 reasons to use an LMS for training companies to upskill your current employees and new hires.
Streamlines employee training
An LMS solution serves as a centralized system that stores all educational materials you want your employees to study. It eliminates the need to schedule face-to-face training sessions, saving time and effort for both trainers and learners.
Increases employee engagement and retention
The best way to train your employees effectively is to provide them with a tool that makes training easy, engaging, and interactive. An LMS is the perfect way to do this. Plus, the information studied in this way will be retained for longer.
Provides employees with self-paced learning options
The ability to learn at one's own pace is a huge benefit of using an LMS. This allows employees to take breaks when they need them or speed up when necessary, which can't be done in traditional classroom settings.
Delivers consistent training across the organization
An LMS makes sure all employees are receiving the same information at the same time, no matter where they are or who they're working with. It helps keep your company on track as it grows and delivers exceptional benefits if you have multiple business locations or several remote teams.
Reduces training costs and time
Training is a huge cost for companies, and it's also a huge time sink. Learning management systems (LMS) can help you reduce both of those things by providing a central location for all your training materials. Plus, you no longer have to pay for having a coach or trainer in your office. Instead, you can hire an expert teacher online and save significantly.
Offers comprehensive tracking and reporting capabilities
The 360-degree tracking and reporting capabilities of an LMS provide valuable insights into training effectiveness and employee performance. This data can be used to identify areas where additional training may be needed, address skill gaps, and make informed decisions on resource allocation and talent management strategies.
Gamified learning and increases learner engagement
When learning is fun, people will be more likely to complete it. An LMS can make learning more fun by adding games, quizzes, or other engaging features that make employees want to learn more and compete in a friendly way.
Increases productivity and efficiency
An LMS helps you manage your company's employees by providing them with relevant information when they need it most. This means that employees don't have to waste time searching for information themselves — they can just log into the system whenever they need something new and get started right away.
Enables personalized learning paths for employees
Depending on the skills your employees need to upgrade, you can create personalized educational content and custom learning paths for each of them. The main task of an LMS for this use case is to consolidate all the educational materials and control employee development within a single platform.
Improves collaboration and knowledge sharing
LMS platforms usually provide features for collaboration and knowledge sharing, like discussion boards, group projects, and virtual classrooms. Such a collaborative learning experience will be especially useful for remote teams that have no opportunity for face-to-face contact, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and mutual help.
Enhances onboarding and new hire training
The onboarding experience is decisive for a new employee's success since efficient onboarding helps them understand their tasks and project specifics faster, getting up to speed in several weeks. Using an LMS system for employee onboarding allows for saving time and effort for the company, improving employees’ time-to-productivity significantly.
Provides mobile access to training resources
Compatibility with mobile devices is one of the best features of modern learning management systems. It gives employees an opportunity to learn on the go, if their learning path suits this tactic, plus always have access to educational content at their fingertips.
Mitigates risks associated with employee training
LMS for business ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and provides documentation for audits. It mitigates risks by tracking and documenting employee training completion, reducing regulatory non-compliance and associated penalties.
Enables customization for specific organizational needs
Since business goals are mostly specific, employees’ training programs are unique as well. Learning Management streams are usually flexible enough to create customized learning workflows, align them with the company's objectives and ensure a tailored learning experience for employees.
Improves overall business performance
Combined together, all these benefits of using an LMS system improve overall business performance significantly. The opportunities to cut costs on employee training, keep them engaged with mastering new skills, encourage them to leverage these new skills for organizational growth, and create effective onboarding experiences all contribute to the enhancement of business performance.
Conclusion
When chosen with your business goals in mind, a Learning Management System can bring significant advantages to your company's employee training process. Its main benefits include but aren't limited to cost-cutting, better employee engagement, consistent educational content delivery, and improved business performance ultimately. So, if you also plan implementing an LMS for employee training, consider the Kwiga learning management platform. With its customizable features, engaging learning experiences, and robust tracking/reporting capabilities, you will be able to transform your approaches to employee training, invest in the most valuable asset of your organization — your human resource, and future-proof your business in the long run.