Corporate LMS For Team Training Needs: Does It Fit The Bill?
One size fits all; or doesn't it? This generic label has been slapped on everything from hats and clothing to jewelry and belts. But, the reality is that more often than not, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t fit the bill.
Customization is the name of the game these days and it has even made its presence known within the world of training. We know that learners retain information very differently which is why we’re seeing a surge in popularity of blended and social learning.
This concept also holds true from a trainer’s perspective — one size truly does not fit all when it comes to team training. It is imperative that business units across an organization be equipped with the right tools to meet their specific goals and objectives. And, this often comes with unique training needs that do not always fall under the same organizational Learning Management System umbrella.
No Two Teams Are Alike, Nor Their Training Needs
Every organization has some type of hierarchy or chain of command that functions along the idea that all the individual units work together for the good of the whole. However, would it be safe to assume that sales and marketing will have very different training needs than manufacturing, safety and HR? Or, IT versus customer service?
While there will always be some crossover in training needs that a corporate wide LMS will suffice, there will also be an equal amount of situations where specific teams need a tailored solution. Common problems teams face include:
- Lack of administrative access or control of the corporate Learning Management System.
- A corporate Learning Management System that is too complicated for small team needs.
- Inability to customize training for specific team requirements.
Generally, a corporate wide LMS addresses common training needs such as onboarding, compliance, customer service, and general talent management.
Then each department or team within an organization might have additional training that is specific to their needs.
For instance, let’s say the sales manager needs to train all of their team on a new product within the company. Obviously, this is important for the sales team so that they can go out into the field and have a solid working knowledge of the product.
But, what often happens with a corporate LMS is that it doesn’t have certain courses for specific teams. In addition, the sales manager does not have access to the corporate Learning Management System. This happens either because it is managed by HR or Learning and Management and therefore cannot create a course or have any access to make changes. So, they have to improvise with old-school teaching methods, such as in-classroom training with printed materials.
The downside of this is that the sales team training is not tracked in the corporate LMS. Therefore, learners are not able to access the course while out in the field which is very helpful if they have a question and need an answer right away.
Enhance Your Corporate LMS With SharePoint
If you are a department manager and need specific team training that does not fall under the umbrella of your corporate LMS, there is a solution.
SharePoint may not be the first thing that comes to mind but it should. 1 in 2 Fortune 500 companies have SharePoint already and do not utilize it to its fullest potential.
Because it is highly configurable with all of your business systems like HRIS, IT, LMS and ERP, it makes a good candidate for your team training needs because you can extend training without interfering with the corporate LMS. In fact, it plays nice with other systems so you can easily and efficiently send back all your team training information to the corporate LMS.
SharePoint can be used for a variety of needs whether that is additional tracking and reporting, better compliance capabilities, or just granting full control of all sales training, management and administration to the sales manager.
With highly flexible permissions and control, SharePoint can be the LMS extension your organization is looking for – from automating the team onboarding process to meeting team level development objectives. All of this and more can be achieved without interfering with your existing Learning Management System permissions and control.
Team Sites In SharePoint
Team training doesn’t get any better than with SharePoint Team Sites. This is a great option for department managers that need extra training outside the corporate Learning Management System.
Team sites can be created for just about any collaboration task and is highly customizablee. It gives you the opportunity to upload content, create task lists for team members, use blogs or wikis to share information, gather input with discussions or surveys and establish a team calendar. For even more convenience, SharePoint and Microsoft Project can be synced together, so a manager can make changes in Project, and then lead a discussion with the team in SharePoint. No duplicate efforts.
Team sites are not the only way to collaborate. Teamwork and collaboration also happens with SharePoint MySites, wikis, discussion forums, gamification and newsfeeds.
Case Study: Pulte Group Prepares Team For Customer Service Excellence With Sharepoint Team Training
What started as a single home built and sold through the entrepreneurial spirit of an 18-year-old Bill Pulte, has grown into a multi-brand homebuilding company with the ability to serve customers in all phases of life. At the center of PulteGroup is their commitment to customer engagement, so when a new Customer Relationship Management, or else CRM, software was acquired, it was imperative to provide thorough and specific team training for their salesforce distributed throughout 50 US markets.
PulteGroup’s existing Learning Management System was quite cumbersome and lacked functionality needed for that specific team training project."We needed a user-friendly training system that could help our sales team hit the ground running", stated Kim Cole, the Training Lead at PulteGroup. "Our goal was to keep the sales team out in the field and away from the classroom as much as possible. A self-directed learning approach was ideal and ShareKnowledge LMS provided the tools for us to do this successfully."
After close consultation ShareKnowledge, a SharePoint-based LMS, was selected as the platform to deliver the new CRM team training for PulteGroup. ShareKnowledge was configured for the client to create a unique learning experience for their training administrators and sales team. That is, centralized content management, intuitive job-related learning paths and powerful analytics. This additional training for the sales team was created and implemented without interfering with the corporate LMS and the right people had access to their departments training.
Since Pulte launched ShareKnowledge in 2014, their salesforce of 1,000 employees has experienced a better, more streamlined approach to CRM training. No longer must they sit through mundane classroom training but rather a centralized, easy-to-use training system is at their disposal to learn what they need, when they need it - providing the ultimate flexibility in learning and development.
Training administrators can easily upload content to SharePoint in a timely manner without any fuss . To date they have uploaded over 80 different SCORM-compliant learning modules with dynamic CRM material. Comprehensive reporting features have also given them the flexibility to provide CEU credits to learners as well as a detailed summary of those that need additional mentorship. And, they are able to push these detailed reports back to the corporate Learning Management System.
Pulte is able to stay one step ahead of the customer service game by providing a comprehensive onboarding program for new sales hires with ShareKnowledge. From the get go, new employees are directed to their own personal learning page where they receive immediate training on the CRM software.
To date, Pulte has saved over 2,600 hours in classroom training. As a result, the onboarding process is much quicker and time to productivity has increased exponentially — ultimately resulting in a positive impact to their bottom line.
For more information about SharePoint Team Training with ShareKnowledge, please visit www.ShareKnowledge.com
