Anyone who has been to school or college recently will know that there is generally a 'learning portal' that they can connect to in order to help with their course. These can be part of an overall academic intranet, complete with social and downloadable content, or they can be a standalone solution used solely for the purpose of learning.
There are also a plethora of online courses to be found, which allow people to gain qualifications in their own time, at their own pace. This is great on a personal and professional level, as it allows people the chance to really take control of their own future.
However, learning doesn't have to be restricted to academic qualifications and a good learning management system (LMS) can aid a company when it comes to staff training. Qualifications can be on offer, depending on the nature and size of a business, but a learning management system can also be used strictly for the purposes of initial and ongoing training for new and existing staff.
Companies with more than one office
A LMS is a type of content management that allows a company to create, track and manage training, even if a company is spread across various office locations. It allows employers to put in place a program for staff, who can earn credits, certifications and even further qualifications.
This can all be delivered to the employee via a simple, single interface and can be as 'smart' as you like, automatically gathering results and creating reports. The LMS can also be used for taking online payments, if you were to set up a training course for outside parties that have to pay.
Further to this, it can be a part of the company intranet, or simply integrated with your website in order to provide an online platform for learners to work on.
Why train staff internally?
Productive and well-trained staff are not just an asset to your business, but one to themselves too. Using a LMS to ensure employees are always trained to the peak of their ability is rewarding for both company and employee. Many man hours are wasted each year by poorly trained staff and this results in lessened productivity and frustration.
This doesn't make for a happy workforce, people want to be able to give as much as they can to enable them to enjoy their job and feel a sense of satisfaction that they know exactly what they're doing.
According to a recent paper from IBM, "Untrained or poorly trained users will cost significantly more to support than well-trained workers."
The result of not training staff properly is cost then, as well as:
- An increase in downtime
- Distraction to other workers
- Having to complete a task more than once due to mistakes
- IT support
IBM go on to say that the American Society for Training and Development say that, "41% of employees at companies with inadequate training programs plan to leave within a year versus 12% of employees at companies who provide excellent training and professional development programs."
This reinforces the idea that poorly trained staff are not only in general unhappy, but they recognize the reasons for this and won't commit to a company that doesn't let them progress professionally.
Further to this, IDC estimate that poorly trained staff mean that "a company will lose 10 to 30% of its capabilities per year. By Year Three, an organization has retained only 41% of its original capabilities, dwindling to 24% by Year Six, due mostly to employee movement, process changes, technology changes and the dearth of knowledge new hires bring to the organization."
However, this suggests that it may be more cost effective to hire new staff than train existing employees. This isn't the case in reality, the average cost of recruitment is around $18 USD each per year. Further to this, losing skilled staff can cost a company significantly more, so it's in an organization's interest to retain staff by offering them better career progression.
Handling poor performance
Implementing a training program is an ideal way to handle poor performance in the workplace. Without one, managers have to address why and how their staff are underperforming and what they can do to remedy the situation, without creating any uncomfortable scenarios.
It's important that employees are not only given the opportunity to improve, but are also given a clear idea of how performance is measured. This is another area which can be incorporated into your LMS, somewhat like a rewards system.
Nobody wants to be in a job where they feel under-valued or out of their depth and offering staged training in this manner is rewarding for both the company and the employee.
Motivation
Everyone needs something to motivate them and this is especially true of the workplace. OK, so an employee is being paid to so her job, but is that enough of a motivating factor on its own?
For some people maybe, but not many if they don't have sufficient training or targets to work towards. In order to get the most out of a workforce, it's necessary that they have something to strive for, be it a qualification, pay rise or bonus, or simply a title such as 'employee of the month.'
By providing employees with a way of improving themselves, you're also providing motivation. This could be because the worker knows they can climb the corporate ladder, or it could be a simple matter of competitiveness with other workers. No matter what, a motivational tool will affect every aspect of a worker's performance and this will be a credit to your company in terms of both profits and valuable staff.
Bearing this in mind, when choosing a LMS, it's a good idea to plan carefully what you would like employees to gain from learning, what they will achieve and how this is presented to them.
Of course, the LMS portal should have personalization capabilities and the employee should be able to access it whenever they like. It's surprising how many people already take their work home with them, and if they want to learn, they won't mind doing so at home if the rewards are worthwhile, so ideally they should be able to connect to their learning environment wherever they are.
Finally, companies who are considering using a LMS to train staff should weigh up what the LMS offers in in terms of pricing and decide if this is offset by having staff who an asset to the company, rather than an unhappy liability.
Craig Bailey is a Sydney based technology consultant. He blogs about technology at http://www.craigbailey.net/blog and http://craigbailey.org
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_James_Bailey
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7516549
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