Managing Employee Training Online

By now many organizations have moved their training departments online, tapping into the vast potential of e-learning or blended learning programs. With a virtually infinite source of training materials to draw from just a keystroke away, online learning has quickly become a must-do for companies intent on delivering a consistent message to a scattered or

remote workforce.

But the benefits of e-learning programs don’t end there. In fact, some of the most powerful features of an LMS don’t involve the ability to create amazing training programs or even to deliver them to workers in any place, but rather their ability to consolidate all the elements of training management into one simple, easy-to-use platform.

Reduce Costs

By utilizing an LMS to manage employee training, organizations can save money by freeing up management or HR departments to focus their time and energy on other projects. And with the growing popularity of cloud-based, software-as-a-service LMS platforms, the ability to automate most elements of corporate training — like handling enrollment, administering quizzes, or parsing compliance-training completion statistics — is now available at a relative bargain.

A learning management system can handle employee enrollment, deliver training and quizzing, monitor progress and completion in real time, and track even hundreds or thousands of employees — wherever they’re based — simultaneously, all the while nearly eliminating the possibility of costly human errors.

Gain Insight

Beyond just cost savings, LMS platforms offer progress-tracking features that can give trainers a unique insight into an individual employee’s, or an entire organization’s, overall training progress. The ability to burrow down into a single trainee’s completion percentages or quiz scores can reveal how an employee is progressing through a training regimen; while a larger, bird’s-eye view of company-wide scores shows where an organization’s strongest suits are, and where skills may still be lacking. Many of these types of features can also give a view of training performance over time, as well.

Integrate with Apps

One of the newest features some LMS platforms offer allow for training initiatives to be integrated with other company-wide applications like hiring, payroll, or social networking programs. While not yet a universal feature, integration offers incredible benefits to training managers trying to wrap up as many of their duties as possible into one unified program.

Online, e-learning is an incredible new frontier, and training departments are just beginning to scratch at the surface of its potential. By utilizing a feature-rich LMS to handle administration, companies can free themselves to focusing on the most important part of learning and development: Dreaming up amazing new programs.

Image used under Creative Commons by Dell’s Official Flickr Page.

Share this on