Ground Report

Employee engagement is one of the most important elements for high productivity, and therefore is among the most common causes of descending revenue growth. The problem is so acute worldwide that a number of companies in Sweden even initiated the new regime, reducing workdays to only 6 hours in 2016 to try boosting productivity. A research conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that an average grown-up American spends 8.8 hours a day working but more than half of that time is spent on social networks, small talk with colleagues and other activities not related to work. It is clear that something has to be changed.

To cope with the problem, organizations are making efforts to strengthen employee engagement by introducing various training programs, but few have proved to be as efficient. ELearning as a training method is cost-effective, saves time and improves learning retention. ELearning is easy to follow, you can pause and resume any time, while mobile learning products make it even more attractive and accessible to employees. Meantime, knowledge they gain almost directly translates into a higher revenue. Statistical analysis by JoomlaLMS Learning Management System shows that eLearning brings an average of 40% revenue increase, 53% productivity growth and 26% of learning cost decrease.

What Makes Elearning so Good?

This state-of-the-art learning method is what clients need nowadays – the tool is omnipresent, easy to use, only a few fingertips away and very practical for both users and organizations. Here are some of the most important features of eLearning:

• Cost efficiency – it saves tons of funds simply because it is available online, and no additional planning is requested in terms of premises and materials.
• Enhanced retention – interactive learning and numerous interesting features improve learning processes.
• Time saving – users need less time to pass a course than through traditional training sessions, while experience shows that it also takes only a small portion of time to learn new things this way.
• Mobile access – eLearning is available almost anywhere due to rapid mobile communications growth; it is expected that revenues related to mobile learning products will reach $12.2 billion in 2017.
• Proactive teaching methods – game sessions, group discussions, audio-visual demonstrations and many more tools are used to create more comfortable teaching environment.
• Self-paced learning – it is always difficult to make everyone follow the same rhythm, and eLearning gives each user a chance to gain knowledge according to his/her own pace.
• New lessons learned – it all comes to the knowledge employees receive in the process, and eLearning guarantees it. Once a training is completed, it results in up to 90% of objectives met according to IBM.

With such features and a proactive approach, eLearning is the most appropriate way to engage employees and boost creativity, performance and overall productivity.

“TELL ME AND I FORGET, TEACH ME AND I MAY REMEMBER, INVOLVE ME AND I LEARN” – Benjamin Franklin

What About the Software?

There is a huge diversity of Learning Management Systems available on the market but companies usually decide between two software options: customized or off-the-shelf. The latter is mostly cheaper and broader in effect, offering a variety of features for all sorts of business. However, once you have developed your business, off-the-shelf LMS will not provide you with more customized options necessary to maintain a smooth working process, thus creating more obstacles than advantages.

Capterra conducted a survey among its clients to find about their LMS needs and experiences, revealing that almost 30% of users were not satisfied with their current eLearning tools. Of these, two thirds have changed software because it did not provide all of the necessary features and lacked more customizable solutions. So, in case your business demands more specific features, then you should start thinking about custom software. In that case, it will give you a distinctive advantage over competitors whose processes are slowed down by canned LMS.

A Custom Software Example

Philips Dynalite, a manufacturer of lighting control solutions, learned that its staff should advance to the next competency level and hired Itransition to develop an all-inclusive training portal. Once this thoroughly customized content management system was done, users at Philips Dynalite were able to participate in webinars and attend video lectures, download files or send their own documents for peer-to-peer sharing and networking; take tests, obtain certificates, etc.

At the same time, system administrators were able to carefully follow and analyze career achievements, review exams and certificates, send important course notifications and publish news. According to Itransition’s report, Philips Dynalite “was genuinely satisfied with the on-time, on-budget approach”.

Final Verdict

People go to work and people often get bored – this is the undeniable fact of modern business. It is very difficult to create a devoted and passionate team without a proper strategy, and it is up to organization to provide a more engaging working atmosphere. Using eLearning programs, companies will boost employee performance, and thus carefully planned investments will pay off massively. Employees with better knowledge will understand corporate goals and contribute much more to its strategic objectives, while the very structure of LMS is easy to implement without substantial costs involved.

Of course, not a single business tool is so perfect that it can be applied in all cases regardless of their features. Yet, eLearning is “a must-have” software for all companies looking to boost performance and productivity of their employees. There are so many pros and not too many cons, but if you have different experiences – don’t hesitate to keep us informed in comments.