A learning management system can support multiple projects, goals, and people. Here are some tips to effectively demonstrate the advantages to each key stakeholder group
You’ve got a problem, and you’ve found the solution: implementing a learning management system (LMS) will be the answer to your company’s training dilemma. But you already know it won’t be easy to convince everyone that it’s a worthwhile investment.
There will be many colleagues involved in deciding if the time is right to invest in your first, or replacement, LMS software. To get everyone to agree, you’ll need to demonstrate how it benefits them, their team, and your organisation as a whole. So here’s how to show stakeholders why they should invest in LMS software – and how it will have a positive effect on your workplace.
Five ways every colleague can benefit from LMS software
1. How LMS software benefits C-suite executives and senior leaders
Your management team will want to focus on the company’s objectives and areas that need improvement, as well as any urgent issues that may arise. These goals may include simplifying processes, increasing productivity, or boosting sales effectiveness – and the best way to do this will be through continuous training and employee development.
LMS software will help you deliver training activities in a timely and cost-effective way. But how can you demonstrate this to your board?
Start with a use-case analysis; this detailed study will define why you need LMS software and how it will benefit your business. Senior executives will want to understand the impact on your organisation, and the pay-off of using a learning management system to achieve its goals – so make it clear why this software is required, and its primary purposes.
You’ll also need to show how training costs will fall and employee productivity will rise. The use case can also demonstrate how LMS software can support a range of people-related priorities, including creating a better onboarding and induction journey, sales training, and meeting compliance standards, plus offering voluntary learning opportunities.
It seems all good so far, but your management team will also want to know about the return on investment (ROI) before approving the funds for new LMS software. The bad news is it can be quite tricky to demonstrate ROI in a way that can be easily visualised by your senior executives – but it can be done.
Easily compare costs and profits link to your LMS platform with our customisable LMS ROI calculator template >
“Firstly, you need to look at your current process,” says Andrea Matkin, Ciphr’s LMS sales manager. “You’ll need to check how much time is dedicated to administration: if you don’t have the right LMS software, then this can actually add to the amount of time that’s spent on admin. But the right system takes away the problem so you can focus on more beneficial tasks, such as your overall learning strategy, learner engagement, and talent development.”
Risk management is another area where LMS software will help your business, especially if you’re operating in a highly regulated sector. “To comply with any regulatory requirements, you’ll need to have one reliable source of information as well as have a record of who has completed which courses,” adds Matkin. “This will help you avoid fines and other consequences for non-compliance, which, as well as impacting your profitability, can negatively affect your company’s reputation.”
2. How HR teams benefit from LMS software
Although LMS software is often procured and managed by L&D teams, it’s an indispensable tool for HR teams. Not only can it support any long-term initiatives that add value to your brand – such as employee experience improvement initiatives – it also allows employees to manage learning-related tasks, such as booking activities, themselves.
A 2020 survey by XpertHR found that 20% of HR’s time goes towards admin – the same amount that’s devoted to business consultancy. But these tasks can become self-service items as employees become autonomous, and use your LMS to learn how to submit these requests. This gives HR teams more time to focus on other projects.
If you want to improve employee engagement, LMS software will help you achieve this goal by making it easier for employees to identify training needs, and access and complete learning activities. LMS software such as Ciphr LMS includes gamification features – like quizzes, reward points, and badges – that encourage both motivation and participation, so search for software with these functions to make an even greater impact.
You can also use data from the LMS software to track any trends, to make changes to improve the learner experience, and analyse staff performance. And you can check who’s completing courses and who may be struggling, and then offer additional support to those who need it.
Data from LMS software can also help you identify and then close skills gaps. Once you’ve identified the core business objectives your HR and L&D teams need to tackle, you can then take a broader view of your business and check which skills are both abundant and lacking at an individual, team, and business-wide level through a skills gap analysis exercise.
While it’ll be up to HR and L&D to work together to create appropriate competency frameworks that match your organisation’s objectives, LMS software can take the strain when it comes to analysis at an individual or team level. Not only can managers compare training results of their direct reports, but employees could check what they need to do to reach the next step in their career.
3. Your employees will benefit from LMS software
If you invest in LMS software, it means employees can perform better in their jobs. Your people will have access to tools that can help improve productivity and expand their skills and knowledge. These can be certification courses, online libraries of curated digital eLearning content, or even live virtual events.
As well as providing basic training for your employees, you’ll also want to consider how to retain your top performers. A 2022 PwC survey of more than 52,000 workers worldwide found 49% said their job requires specialist training. That’s a lot of training and skills that will need replacing if they leave, so it makes sense to put more effort into keeping the best talent.
Training and upskilling aren’t limited to specialist roles, though. ‘Opportunities to learn and grow’ remain the number one driver for great workplace culture according to to LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report.
LMS software can also help boost the employee experience. People are happier when they’re heard, respected, and trusted to forge their own careers – and offering opportunities to upskill and progress their professional development can have a significant impact on retention.
McKinsey found in a 2021 study that the most common reasons for quitting a job were not feeling valued by their organisation (54% of employees), and not feeling valued by their manager (52%). Using LMS software to upskill your people will help them feel that your organisation is committed to their career development, and therefore that they are valued members of your team.
4. LMS software benefits for managers
While training processes may be developed by your HR and L&D teams, some responsibility for staff development will always fall on line managers. Many managers are not only expected to be technical experts, but also great coaches who can identify when their direct reports need additional training support.
So where does the implementation of LMS software fit into this? It’s essential for making learning experiences more efficient, more tailored, and more closely linked with business goals.
“Any good LMS software will have a management dashboard and reporting function,” says Matkin. “This gives autonomy to managers, so they can check how well people are doing with their training. It also shows who may need to have additional training to perform better in their role.”
She adds: “A platform such as Ciphr LMS also enables managers to conduct their own skills analysis to identify any skills gaps they might need to address within their team. This analysis can be viewed at a team level, so a manager knows what’s needed to develop their team. And it can be carried out for individuals, so they can see what training a person requires for their current role. This can also help with succession planning and to help build on any skills they may need for a future role – either within their current team or redeployed elsewhere in the company.”
5. How L&D teams benefit from LMS software
With hybrid and remote working a more popular (and available) option for many employees, your L&D team will want to ensure remote training is available to everyone at your organisation. And that includes those who don’t go into your office buildings every day, as they must have access to the same training opportunities.
The importance of offering online training has increased: not only does it give your current employees the opportunity to upskill, but it may also attract potential candidates for open positions at your company.
One of these reasons is that skills training is one of the top perks that younger workers look for in a new employer. A 2021 survey by Gallup, conducted on behalf of Amazon, found 66% of people aged 18-to-24 put learning new skills as the third-top benefit when checking new job opportunities, behind only health insurance and disability benefits.
So it’s imperative your company’s L&D team provides access to training that’s engaging – ideally through LMS software. It’ll help you to build tailored learning journeys, upload and share training activities, and include self-service access for employees and managers alike. You’ll be able to use this platform to enhance people’s soft skills and technical knowledge, and meet relevant compliance regulations.
LMS software can also be integrated with other tools, making it easier to deliver an engaging and effective learning experience. Think of collaboration functions for those in specific roles or on certain courses, or video conferencing for tuition – capabilities that are part and parcel of Ciphr LMS.
An LMS will also let L&D teams share people data with their HR colleagues, helping your organisation better understand its skills gaps. By collaborating, you can draw from unique expertise and proactively develop your people strategy using your existing (and growing your future) talent pool – giving you a competitive advantage and a great launch pad for ongoing success.
Investing in integrated HR and LMS software enhances communication between these teams, and provides access to meaningful data. Ciphr LMS has features that span the interests of HR and L&D functions: its onboarding module helps businesses create a memorable employee experience from day one, while its skills gap analysis tool identifies learning needs and recommends relevant content when (and where) it’s needed.
While it’ll be up to HR and L&D teams to work together to create appropriate competency frameworks that align with the organisation’s short-, medium-, and long-term objectives, LMS software can take the strain when it comes to carrying out the analysis at an individual or team level.
Related reading:
- Seven objections to investing in learning and development platforms (with exceptional counterarguments)
- Four costly risks your online learning management system can help you mitigate
- Realising your ‘people potential’ through skills gap analysis
- Six ways learning management software helps people teams spend less and achieve more
So what’s next?
When assessing the market for new LMS software, make sure you select the right solution for your business. As well as improving the employee experience, and boosting productivity and efficiency of your workforce, your learning platform should offer a host of other benefits.
Each colleague will be invested in what your LMS software can provide: whether that’s increasing profits or enabling upskilling. The data available in the LMS can help identify skills gaps, too, which will make the company more competitive in its industry – and become a more attractive proposition for potential candidates.
If Ciphr LMS seems like the perfect fit for your business, then book a demonstration of our award-winning corporate e learning platform with one of our experts. You can also download our brochure to learn more.
This article was first published on Digits.co.uk – a Ciphr Company.