According to Forbes, “in 2018, over $87.6 billion was spent on corporate training and development across the United States.”
Companies spend a lot of money on both mandatory and elective organizational training, but is the investment being used wisely to cultivate a learning culture? Do your employees groan at the thought of mandatory training? Do they find it beneficial?
As we began to develop eLearning courses for our customers, we found eLearning offered the ability for custom and more sophisticated trainings for employees. This shift was important in helping employees connect to organization goals, increase ease of use, and apply the concepts to their job. Although, developing impactful eLearning is a large endeavor, it minimizes the “groan” factor and is well worth the investment.
In implementing an eLearning culture for our required trainings, employees saw the applicability to their job function and we gained buy-in by conveying content in a more engaging way. We developed an interactive course template reinforcing the brand, content retention, and consistency.
A key element for success is leveraging a robust Learning Management System (LMS). Our employees can now easily access content, including required trainings, downloadable supplemental material, and elective soft skills courses. As an organization, we can track training statistics and communicate at the click of a button. Additional characteristics of a successful eLearning culture include:
- Obtaining management buy-in
- Investing in eLearning subject matter expert (SME)
- Allocating corporate time for learning
- Leveraging easy to use, learner centric tool (LMS)
- Fulfilling company-wide training requirements
After releasing our updated courses, our training team received extensive feedback commenting on the immediate positive impact and quality. The look and feel was aesthetically pleasing, content was more applicable to their job, and previous complex concepts were easier to understand.
Creating an eLearning culture benefits the organization, as well as its employees. We are successful because #PeopleAreOurStrength. A demonstrated commitment to employee development and program improvement is critical to drive a positive culture – both internally and as you support customer needs.