eLearning is one of the most effective tools for creating a skilled, diverse, and inclusive workforce. Explore the multitude of ways eLearning can have a meaningful impact on your organisation — and your people
Whether you’re a small, medium, or large organisation with a remote, office-based or hybrid workforce — eLearning can offer the transformative opportunity your organisation needs. From role-specific training to topical learning, the way you deliver workplace training can have a lasting impact on your people. And with so many critical issues organisations are facing — the likes of unconscious bias, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE& I), mental health and neurodiversity at work — the need for concise training has never been bigger.
In this article, we’ll be exploring the benefits of eLearning for employers, specifically. We’ll also be taking an objective look at the ways a managed rollout of eLearning content can deliver success in your business.
What is eLearning?
eLearning – also known as electronic or online learning – is the modern way of upskilling and re-skilling your workforce by using digital technologies including learning management systems (LMS) to deliver eLearning content and training activities.
Online learning has become popular as more employees work in a remote or hybrid way, but it has been used by forward-thinking organisations for decades. eLearning is also popular in schools and universities, but throughout this article we will specifically be referencing the benefits of eLearning in the workplace.
To provide engaging and memorable eLearning activities, businesses need to ensure they’ve got the right technology to underpin their strategy and support the teams delivering learning content. Before committing, consider what the best e learning platform might be for your organisation, as well as the right type of eLearning content; could micro learning offer a practical solution for training a busy workforce, for instance? And would your LMS be able to effectively deliver, track and report on your learning activities?
When businesses have the right learning platform, the right learning content, and the right people to drive organisational change, the benefits of eLearning can be realised.
Advantages of eLearning at work
The advantages of eLearning for employees are a direct reflection of the benefits to organisations. A happy employee will want to stay with your organisation, and the wealth of knowledge and skills they accumulate during their learning and development journey only adds value to both the employee and their employer. Other benefits of eLearning include:
- eLearning offers exceptional suitability to all learning styles and preferences. Micro learning comprises concise lessons with less of a demand on your employees’ time; they’re also suitable for learners with short attention spans, and offer a more enjoyable and engaging way of delivering important learning activities
- It is both cost- and time-efficient, requiring limited involvement from your people team, especially if you opt for off-the-shelf eLearning content
- Content can be modified and tailored as required, keeping pace with rapidly changing learning needs, evolving information, and legislative changes
- Online learning appeals to a wide audience without excluding learners with limited or budding technical skills, while simultaneously driving higher engagement and completion rates. It really is a solution for all
- The lower environmental impact of eLearning also supports businesses’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets
While many of the benefits of eLearning for employees overlap with those for organisations, eLearning has some distinct advantages for employers.
Learn more: How gamified learning platforms support your quest for continuous development >
Seven advantages of eLearning at work: how employers benefit
1. eLearning is scalable
One solution for multiple needs. eLearning resources can be tailored to meet the needs of a varied workforce, making it one of the most reliable assets for your organisation. You can start small and work your way up, or you can use every tool at your disposal from the beginning.
eLearning journeys can help you onboard new starters more effectively, enabling them to familiarise themselves with your organisation, its various departments, and their new role at a pace they are comfortable with. Using eLearning for employee onboarding and inductions can minimise the learning curve for new starters, meaning they can start working on deliverables sooner.
Employers can also use eLearning to deliver management training, which not only supports teams and individuals in performing better in their roles, but encourages them to identify and support the learning needs of their direct reports. This ‘domino effect’ can have far-reaching, positive impacts for the wider business – financially, developmentally, and strategically.
2. eLearning is agile
Fast-paced organisations are faced with the challenge of finding a way to deliver the highest-quality training in the shortest amount of time, with as little business disruption as possible. eLearning content – more specifically micro learning content – illustrates its agility in a few ways:
- Targeted, short-from eLearning videos enable people teams to deliver valuable content in a way that helps employees consume and retain more information
- On-demand access allows employees to dip in and out of learning activities at intervals that suit them; this means less ‘downtime’ for organisations, and a higher likelihood of employees completing courses
- Without the limitations of a physical training room, new learning material can be delivered more rapidly, more often
In an era where time is money, speed of delivery contributes to one of the most tangible benefits of eLearning for organisations.
3. eLearning is targeted
eLearning offers both broad and targeted learning options. Every eLearning journey can be fully customised to address specific learning needs, or purchased off-the-shelf to address broader topics or themes.
Your people team can effectively deliver optimised content with minimal input. Familiarising new starters with processes, policies and procedures for example, can help achieve a broad goal while still allowing for personalisation. Role-specific training can be allocated to help employees improve their efficiency, advance their career — or even expand their career prospects within your organisation: the manager’s toolkit is a great example of this.
Certain departments may need to undergo regulatory training – GDPR eLearning is one example – and this can be easily managed using eLearning to ensure delivery of the most relevant, timely content while upholding full compliance.
eLearning content is typically focused on a single theme, which provides a more relevant learning experience. It also assists with knowledge retention, and can help employers to develop the skills, culture, and practices needed to foster equality and diversity in the workplace.
4. eLearning empowers
When organisations deliver on their promise to support their employees’ professional development needs, they can start to attract and retain more top talent. Not only are employees empowered through upskilling, but they feel valued.
Employees who participate in eLearning can consume nearly five times more material and retain up to 60% more information; they will be able to implement and drive organisational change. Further, the ‘invisible’ benefit of empowering your employees through eLearning will lend well to a positive brand affinity and cultivating a learning mindset.
Offering eLearning on other relevant topics including mental health, unconscious bias, and DE&I can further transform your organisational culture.
5. eLearning cuts costs without compromising quality
The cost of face-to-face training can be comparable with high-quality eLearning courses, but digital learning activities offer a more outcome-focused approach to training and development.
Once a learning journey is created, it can be replicated across a variety of departments, topics, and learner groups – immediately reducing the cost of ongoing in-person training. eLearning can provide a more practical solution at scale with the added benefit of technological integrations – such as an integrated HR and LMS solution – without increasing the cost.
You are in control of the learning content – whether curated, bespoke, or a combination of the two – so you don’t need to worry about the quality of the learning material, its recency, or rising costs for higher quality training.
6. eLearning ensures consistency
Distributing eLearning content from a central platform provides a single source of truth. This can eliminate mismatched information, creating clarity for managers and employees alike.
Using an LMS to deliver eLearning also gives you full visibility of learner engagement and activity completion rates. You can interpret data in real time and make informed decisions to ensure a consistent learning experience for all.
In-person training has many variables that can affect the delivery of learning content, whereas eLearning provides a repeatable, reliable framework for the delivery of great training material.
7. eLearning platforms offer insights, analytics, and reporting
eLearning is typically delivered through an LMS, which should offer reporting and analytics functionality. The right LMS offers useful insights into engagement rates, where learners are spending more or less time, the most popular content, and many other datasets that can steer future learning and development plans.
With a 360-degree view of all learner activity, people teams have the information they need to shape strategies and drive professional development across your organisation.
eLearning is the ultimate solution for employees and organisations alike
eLearning may seem to be a single component of a successful employee experience, but it is a crucial one. With the right learning journeys in place for your employees, you’ll be that much closer to realising your organisational goals.
If you need help choosing the right eLearning courses, get in touch with us today. Our team of eLearning experts hold over two decades of experience in delivering leading eLearning content across a variety of organisations, sectors and industries.
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This article was first published on Digits.co.uk – a Ciphr Company.