6 e-Learning Adoption Tips For Training Managers
Training is an integral part of any organization and training managers are the entrusted with not only the development and deployment of training but also with ensuring that it is on time, efficient and effective. With steady growth of an organization, the role of the training manager becomes increasingly challenging. In order to select the most proficient training path, they must consider organizational constraints in the training budget, the multitude training requirements, feasibility, etc., all the while ensuring efficiency in order to lead to a higher ROI for the company. There are many routes that can be adopted to satisfy an organization’s training needs, one of the more effective ones that has emerged in the last decade is utilizing technology in training development and deployment or use of e-learning.
Training managers are responsible for ensuring quality content that focuses on upgrading the skills of the workforce and catering to the organizations ever-changing needs. Outsourcing the development of training to an e-learning service provider assists corporations cope with their sporadic requirements while ensuring scalability, quality and updated content, in turn making training development hassle-free. An e-learning partner has skilled people, processes, an in-depth knowledge of the best practices and software to develop customized content as per the requirements of the organization and bring forth their expertise in providing successful development and delivery methods.
The task of ensuring quality training may seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be with the right support such as that provided by an e-learning partner. While considering partnering with an e-learning provider for the development and delivery of training content, training managers should consider the following aspects:
- Learning Needs of Organization
An in-depth analysis should be undertaken to understand the training needs of the organization both long term and short term alongside the needs of the different departments and roles in the company. Any training should be aligned with the defined organizational objectives and should be strictly evaluated for inefficiencies. Training should be evaluated in terms of content coverage, time and cost logistics, ease of accessibility, hassle-free updation, and other factors that are core for formulation of an effective training program. Instructor Led Training (ILT) programs tend to rank lower on these factors as compared to technology enabled trainings. - Quality Courseware
Success of a training program is directly dependent on the quality of the course, from content, to the style of delivery, to standardization and accessibility. A long-term partnership should be formed while outsourcing to the e-learning provider to gauge the efficacy of the developed content. An online training partner brings forth expertise in content handling in regards to relevance and appropriate coverage of organizational material, however, fairly discussing the organizational training goals, long term objectives, and improving your understanding of the trainee audience only go to strengthen the production of any training material. - The Training Logistics (Time and Cost)
Training logistics can be divided into two parts, the first consists of understanding the company’s internal dynamics such as the budget, time constraints, delivery platforms, and more; and the second involves the training logistics that an e-learning partner will bring forth with the implementation of their technology enabled solutions. After understanding the two parts, a comparison on the above parameters should be conducted to comprehend if the solutions provided by an online trainer fit the dynamics of the organization. Another comparison of importance is whether in-house content creation will match the efficiency achieved by using an online training partner. - Employee Turnover
No matter the size of the organization or the extent of employee turnover, adopting a technology enabled training solution has its merits. Any new hire or intra-organizational employee change will result in the need for training, this recurrent requirement can be challenging for training managers, as it involves making trainers, subject matter experts, and senior managers available for onboarding and provisioning for training infrastructure and relevant logistics. Online training, in case of repeated training, ensures standardization of content and can be used as many times as required thus, eliminating the need to control the hiring period or be concerned about repeated training costs. - Localization
Training managers are also faced with the concern of training geographically dispersed employees. Amongst the responsibility of ensuring quality training locally, they may also be faced with ensuring that the same high-level of training is being deployed to all employees, irrespective of their physical location. Guaranteeing a standardization of ILT globally is almost an impossible task. E-learning proves to be an enormous advantage here, its ability to be localized to various geographies and languages, while maintaining a standard is unrivaled at the same time it ensures the training is content oriented and trainer agnostic. Companies with globally dispersed employees or offices can utilize the same training to ensure quality courses for all employees. In cases where the primary language differs, the course can also be modified to feature the language of choice. - Learning Delivery Platforms
Online training is delivered through a platform called a Learning Management System (LMS). LMS is an application that delivers e-learning courses and assessments and tracks user data like course attempted, training progress, and scores. For organizations that do not have a ready LMS platform, one can easily be obtained to automate the training deployment process. To further benefit the users, it can be deployed on a secure cloud ensuring the training courses are available 24X7, with 99.99% server uptime. Certain functionality features you should look for when finalizing an LMS are security, flexibility, scalability, easy accessibility, training management, data access, with a backing of role based courses, and intelligent analytics.
A training manager is faced with many different choices and operational variables that have to be analyzed thoroughly before any decision can be reached considering that these decisions directly reflect on the ROI of the company, especially in producing skilled employees. Though the benefits are tremendous in transforming to a technologically advanced mode of training, the impact will only be felt if the organization is committed to the transformation and all the above aspects are taken into consideration and implemented well.
