Designing Digitally
04/24/2019
Most businesses have a need for effective and efficient training. You’ve probably heard of online learning, or eLearning, as a solution, but do you know how it can benefit your organization? In order to fully understand the impact it can have on your employees, here are some ways an online training approach can be an advantage to your company:
One of the biggest benefits of eLearning is that it allows you to stay ahead in a fast-paced industry. Workers in every industry need to keep up with their peers. Educators must be aware of new instructional design methods, IT companies need to stay ahead of potential security threats, and retailers have to look out for online competition.
Professional in every industry have to stay up-to-date on the latest developments. They can quickly fall behind due to the increasing demands of their day-to-day responsibilities. Online education provides a way for organizations to keep their employees ahead of industry trends.
New hires are faced with the learning curve when taking on a new job. Whether it's adjusting to the company culture or learning new procedures and processes for their line of work, it'll take time for them to become comfortable in their job roles. Sometimes it can take as long as a year, which is why mitigating the learning curve is one of the key benefits of eLearning.
Many new hires don't receive on-the-job or orientation training and are left to perform duties and tasks on the fly. That's where online education comes in. Online training gives them the support they need in a standardized process that doesn't depend on their instructional abilities.
Employees used to be happy to work for an organization for the sake of job security and a pension. That's not the case anymore. No one considers the company they work at as a place where they'll spend the rest of their career. It's getting expensive for organizations to constantly hire new employees on a regular basis.
Most of the workers that leave a position have highly trained skills but often do not feel valued. Businesses are finding new ways to retain their current employees, which involves ongoing education to better their skill sets and advance within the organization. Be sure to remind your workers that there are opportunities within your organization that can't be found elsewhere.
Compliance regulations often go through regular adjustments and updates. Not meeting these compliance protocols can cost your business a lot of money. Making sure that your employee follows all government, compliance, and safety regulations can be expensive and difficult to track. Online education is a great way of maintaining those compliance standards annually. It's also possible to update the courses with new standards as needed.
Organizations are finding it difficult to fill labor positions due to the current workforce demands. Online courses reduce this need by providing new hires with additional training and allowing current workers to advance to better paying and higher skilled positions. Since most businesses prefer to hire workers that are already highly skilled, those who take on certain responsibilities will notice that these online programs pay off in the long-term.
Elearning may seem costly at first, but it's more affordable than other training options. The cost of hiring an instructor may work for a year or two, but those fees never go away, whereas an online course requires a one-time up-front fee. Online learning has a longer shelf-life, which means they're maintained and updated on a regular basis. The education provided by these courses will last longer, and may even grow over time.
Online learning is easier to track than other training methods. You can collect all sorts of data, such as completion rates and test scores. Elearning allows you to track learner activity and performance among individuals or groups. You can also track the weaknesses found in critical knowledge or skills across your organization.
This data allows you to measure the success of your online courses and identify learners who may need additional support. This data can be combined with other data to improve the impact of online learning. For example, the completion rates from an online educational course can be combined with sales targets to determine how online learning is having a direct impact on business goals.
Adaptive and responsive eLearning has become an industry standard. Online courses are becoming more accessible on smartphones and tablets. This gives your employees the ability to learn at a time that fits their schedule. They can learn in between business meetings or on the way to the office.
Breaking up each course into individual chunks of learning can make it even easier for your employees, which is one of the little known eLearning benefits. Microlearning has become an affordable way of delivering education. It's quickly become one of the most popular ways for workers to learn new skills on the go.
Designing Digitally specializes in creating custom eLearning solutions that help improve corporate training strategies. If you are interested in learning more about these benefits and how they can be applied to your employee training, contact our team today.
We bring a personal and effective approach to every project we work on.
