Consistency In Online Training: How To Overcome The Main Obstacles Organizations Come Across
Employees need to know what your company stands for and what to expect when they login to the online training platform. As such, consistency across the board is crucial. Employees must be able to not only put their best foot forward in the workplace but provide a united front. This way, customers and clients understand your brand messaging and establish trust. What they don’t want to see are sales reps, customer service associates, and managers who seem to be working from different playbooks. Below are 7 hurdles organizations must overcome to ensure eLearning consistency in online training.
7 Online Training Obstacles And Tips To Overcome
1. Limited Brand Integration
You’re unable to integrate your own branding due to limited LMS customization. Thus, your online training resources don’t reflect your image or identity, which makes them seem fragmented or disjointed. This also puts a damper on your employees’ sense of ownership and organizational pride. They feel like you’re offering them a generic course instead of a cohesive online training experience that is representative of your brand. To overcome this hurdle, invest in an LMS that offers full brand integration support. Such as the ability to customize dashboards and incorporate your logo and messaging.
2. Unclear Style Guide Or Complete Lack Thereof
Your style guide is all over the place. Nobody knows which font type to use for which resources. This doesn’t just have an impact on the aesthetics, but the consistency of your message. Your L&D team isn’t on the same page, so your employees aren’t able to fully invest in the finished product. This is why it’s essential to develop a style guide that is the same across the board. Everyone involved in the development process should know what to expect and how to maintain consistency in online training through design. In fact, pin the style guide to the LMS homepage and eLearning Project Management platform to refresh your team’s memory.
3. Tonal Ambiguity
You have to get the tone just right to send the right message and evoke the right mood. Otherwise, employees are left confused and have a difficult time forming an emotional connection during online training. Tonal ambiguity is a major hurdle you must overcome to achieve consistency in online training. Ideally, the tone should reflect your target audience’s preferences, needs, and personalities. For example, use a more professional tone when developing online training content for your external partners or franchisees. Likewise, a more conversational or personable tone may be a perfect fit for new hires with first day jitters. But underlying all this, your entire online training program must have a foundational tone that is the same for every online training course, module, or just-in-time resource. It needs to be indicative of your brand image so that it sends a clear message to employees.
4. Lack Of Online Training Objectives Or Goals
Consistency in online training hinges on which learning goals and objectives you hope to achieve. Thus, you must iron these out first to find the best direction for your design and accomplish the desired outcomes. For example, every member of the L&D team understands the objectives of your compliance online training and works toward a common goal. Rather than everyone being on a different page and blindly trying to feel their way around the eLearning development process. Every piece of text, visual, and graphic should not only reflect your brand, but support the over-arching outcomes.
5. Too Many Cooks In The L&D Kitchen
There are simply too many people working on the same project, and nobody seems to want to step into the leadership role. Even if there is an effective eLearning Project Manager onboard, collaborators are unaware of the shared vision for the project or how to best achieve the goals. There may even be in-fighting because certain individuals have conflicting ideas for the online training program. Thus, you end up with a disorganized online training course that feels like a mismatched puzzle. This is why it’s so essential to host a pre-project meeting to lay the groundwork. Assign roles and make everyone aware of the tone, pace, aesthetics, and learning objectives.
6. Inflexible eLearning Templates
Another obstacle to overcome, to maintain consistency in online training, is the very thing that should streamline the eLearning development process. eLearning templates are meant to create more cohesion and make your professional life easier. However, inflexible eLearning templates have the opposite effect. You cannot achieve your vision or incorporate personalized elements because it’s too rigid. Or you’re using an outdated eLearning template that doesn’t reflect modern technology or your current online training look/feel. If your rapid eLearning authoring tool doesn’t have versatile and customizable eLearning templates, look online for low-cost options.
7. Unclear Brand Image And Identity
Online training equips your employees with the skills and information they need to do their jobs. But it also creates an online environment wherein they soak up your brand and learn how to advocate it when interacting with customers/clients. An unclear brand image or identity leads to unclear online training outcomes. Employees don’t know how to put their best foot forward because they aren’t sure about the direction; or what you expect from them in the workplace. We often think of brand image as a marketing thing, but it applies to every aspect of your organization. Including employee development.
Conclusion
Whether it’s a microlearning serious game or a comprehensive certification online training course, you must maintain consistency in online training. From the tone and pace to the underlying learning objectives, every piece of the puzzle must fall in place. Does your current online training program suffer from any setbacks? And how you can work to create more cohesion and standardize the eLearning experience?
Incorporating branding into your online training course doesn’t stop with the logo and color scheme. Read Brand Image Alignment: 7 Branding Elements To Include In An LMS For Training Companies to see which elements eLearning organizations should incorporate.
