A Smart Approach To E-Learning Can Boost Productivity And Efficiency

Onboarding and training have become increasingly important for most modern companies, but these subjects have now become a critical part of the employee experience. Employees expect that when they arrive at a new company they will receive the tools and training they need to get the job done well and constant support to maintain and improve their skills.

This makes learning an ongoing process. Some jobs may require ongoing learning because the work environment changes all the time. In other cases it is more closely connected to career development – employees will learn new skills so they can transfer to different areas of the business.

The main driver is less important than the need to be able to deliver ongoing training in an efficient way that works for both the business and the employee. Classroom learning with 40 other people all in-person feels like a very dated model today and isn’t at all flexible – either you can attend the class or not. Employees don’t want to go back to school – they want flexibility.

Modern e-learning solutions change this.

Most individuals have seen this in their own life – away from the office. Duolingo is now one of the most popular ways to learn a new language. The app has over 60 million users globally. Duolingo uses Machine Learning (ML) processes to learn about each individual user. Where are they making mistakes? What do they need to practice more often?

The Khan Academy is another great example. The app now features over 8,000 different video lessons on different subjects. The videos have been viewed over 2 billion times and it now has over 70 million regular users.

In our personal lives it has never been easier to find reliable online video or gamified content that can help us to learn a language or pass a science exam. This approach to e-learning has gradually been entering the enterprise.

Modern e-learning is usually managed by the Human Resources team – for both onboarding and ongoing career training. HR teams need training systems that are authoritative and have the right level of detail, but are also fun and very flexible to use.

If an employee can dip in and out of the training system during quiet periods at work, or even when they are at home and focused on personal development, then it makes the system easier to use and more fun. Corporate e-learning can also follow the Duolingo approach to gamify the environment – giving prizes and points for learning achievements and even comparing progress to colleagues to create competition.

A robust approach to e-learning is about more than just ensuring your team has the required skills to do their job. It also demonstrates that your business wants to invest in the future career of your team – this can be a significant level when focused on reducing the cost of employee churn. If you are looking after people and helping them to develop through fun training systems then they are far less likely to leave your business.

With a typical recruitment cost of several thousand dollars per employee, just imagine if your approach to learning and training could reduce attrition by half – suddenly there is a direct cost benefit to the business for taking this approach.

A modern approach to e-learning promises to deliver more engaged and satisfied employees who are easier to retain, because they can see more of a future with an employer that offers easy to use training systems. That’s better for efficiency and productivity!

IBA Group has deployed many bespoke e-learning solutions for HR professionals globally.