LMS Evaluation Can Help You Understand If Your Current Platform Is Worth The Investment
It is crucial to make an LMS evaluation early and often to determine if it suits your online training needs. Your organization devotes a lot of resources to the L&D. So, it goes without saying that you need to set parameters that show if the LMS is helping you achieve your objectives, or draining precious resources that would be better spent elsewhere. However, identifying the value of an LMS can be daunting, as there are a lot of factors which are difficult to quantify, such as workplace morale and employee motivation. Knowing where to look helps you calculate the monetary benefit of your LMS investment. Here are 6 tips to evaluate your current platform so that you can figure out if it’s time to make a change.
1. Calculate Training Costs When Conducting An LMS Evaluation
Training takes up a big portion of the organizational budgets. When evaluating your LMS, you need to determine the cost of training each employee. On average, organizations spend $1000 annually on training a single employee [1]. Aside from the cost of employee training, your organization will incur other LMS costs such as:
- Ongoing maintenance costs (upgrades, updates, and add-ons)
- Content customization/development costs
- Administration and implementation expenses
As such, you must identify ways to reduce these costs without, however, lowering the quality of the training experience. For example, investing in a new LMS with built-in authoring tools that allow you to create instead of purchasing course content. This lowers course development costs and also forms an important area of return to factor in when calculating the value of your LMS.
2. Measure Productivity
A Learning Management System should help employees discover new and efficient ways of conducting their day-to-day duties. When productivity increases, employees spend less time on tasks and perform their duties more confidently. When you are conducting an LMS evaluation, consider whether it’s increased employee output and task proficiency. With increased production, comes decreased labor costs, which benefits your bottom line. For instance, when you train your HR department on the best hiring practices, you can do away with having to outsource people to conduct interviews for you. By what percentage has the productivity increased since you started using LMS for training? Answering this question determines if you are getting the best Return On your Investment or if it’s time to look for a replacement platform.
3. Analyze Employee Attrition Rates
Employees take part in training to satisfy their personal and professional growth needs. Thereby, reducing the rate of employee turnover. It can be costly to replace a departing employee. LMS training boosts the morale of your staff members. It helps them understand their job responsibilities and equips them with the appropriate knowledge for dealing with everyday challenges. Though it may take some time for you to be able to compute changes in turnover, it is an excellent indicator of LMS value for money.
4. Monitor Your Profit Margin With A Thorough LMS Evaluation
Aside from improving employees’ performance, LMS solutions are meant to help the organization increase its profit margin. How much money has your business brought in since you began training your employees online? Are your employees hitting their sales targets? Has the rate or returns decreased due to an increase in product knowledge? The difference between past and present performance is a clear indicator of the value that LMS has added to your company. Increased earnings are manifested mostly in the sales department. Successful LMS training helps your sales team to increase product and service conversions. It’s wise to record the sales numbers of individual sales agents before and after you implement your LMS. When you track these numbers over time, you will obtain a more accurate figure.
5. Measure Customer Loyalty And Satisfaction
Another measure of LMS worth is the level of customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. When employees receive successful online training, they gain better customer relation skills. With these skills, they assist customers to make favorable buying decisions by equipping them with appropriate products and service knowledge. Their communication skills also improve greatly. The domino effect continues as customers who receive superior service are more likely to return to your organization. To find out if your LMS is really worth your investment, measure customer satisfaction and loyalty before and after every training course. A continued increase in these two factors indicates favorable ROI.
6. Take A Closer Look At LMS Metrics
Your current LMS’ built-in analytics and reports give a good indication of whether the tool is worth the investment. Are employees completing the necessary training in a timely manner? Which devices are they using to access the system? Do their assessment scores show signs of progress, or are they failing to absorb the necessary knowledge? These questions can help you determine if the LMS is giving your organization, and its corporate learners, what they need to succeed. For example, low engagement stats and lengthy completion times may indicate that the tool’s UI is causing trouble. Or that it doesn’t offer your learners the interactivity they need to fully immerse themselves in the eLearning experience.
With these 6 tips, you can successfully conduct your LMS evaluation and find out if it is worth the investment. If the results are unfavorable, you might consider consulting the vendor to see if upgrades or other pricing packages are available. But if there are too many product pain points, it may be time to replace your existing platform to enhance the value for money.
Download our eBook Value For Money Learning Management Systems for tips and tricks that can help you get the best value for money LMS. It also includes tips on how to effectively conduct an LMS evaluation to check the worth of your investment.
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