How to Maximize ROI for Your LMS
As a manager in any corporate setting, one of your most important tasks is ensuring the organization you work for experiences maximum ROI in many different areas. You are the active go-between for corporate board members’ investments and the products those investments acquire to propel the organization forward.
One of the most significant areas within your control regarding ROI is the LMS platform used for onboarding employees. While no direct calculation method exists to measure an exact ROI, some general practices surely help maximize that ROI.
Assuming you remain instrumental in the daily implementation of your organization’s LMS platform, you can exercise these practices. These are the top five tips for maximizing the ROI of your company’s LMS.
1. Introducing the LMS – Don’t Force It to Work
There’s no advantage in forcing an LMS platform to work or trying to make your employees engage with the program. Many managers make the mistake of forcing engagement to paint a more positive picture for corporate regarding the success of the platform.
However, we’d be willing to bet money that any sensible board member would rather find issues in the platform and have them fixed. This is a better scenario than purchasing a platform and attempting to force-feed it to your team.
Rather than stress about whether corporate responds negatively to adjustments being made now, think about how they’ll feel in six months when the program isn’t retaining new hires. The beauty of using an LMS system is the fact that it’s designed for trial and error, to unroll beta-testing until the final version is ready to implement.
Be honest with yourself about the cons of the platform; otherwise, changes can’t be made to bring significant improvements. Aside from not allowing corporate investments to work smart, you’d be doing a great disservice to the learning potential of new employees. Remember – growing pains are okay and are often the only way optimization occurs within an organization.
2. Focus On Improving the User Experience
Focus on making sure your employees have an opportunity to take part in a platform with a unique user experience. Sticking with the theme from the previous tip, not all functionalities of the LMS will align with the business practices or culture of your organization. This is when making adjustments and tweaking the platform come into play later.
However, it’s still important that the employees testing and using early versions of your platform still obtain a valuable learning experience. Make sure there’s hassle-free navigation so they can move freely from module to module.
The LMS interface should be enhanced for a more user-friendly environment so you can make the best of the resources you have. Regardless of whether course content needs small or large changes, there is still significant information to be conveyed within early versions of your LMS.
You can still brand-mark your platform in a way that defines your corporate culture and identity. This is one of the most important parts of the learning curve for new hires anyway. The end result is an increase in comfort, and more significant levels of familiarity as your new employees are still able to develop an identity within the organization.
Self-help resources can go a long way if there’s still a lack of relevant content. Frequently asked questions, help desks, and tips and tricks sections make the learning experience more efficient and effective.
3. Provide Instructionally Rich Content
Providing high levels of engagement through eLearning can always pose a significant challenge. Implementing instructional, sound, easy-to-navigate content that’s relevant to an employee’s position will make their time on the portal more productive.
If your platform still needs additional content after testing, encourage employees to sign up for online courses for credit that can be redeemed later on. This will encourage them to continue to advance their careers and learning.
4. Increase Engagement Through Social Media
The newer generation of corporate workers gravitates more toward Facebook, Twitter, and on-demand access to information on the internet. This self-paced web training is becoming more of a staple regarding more current LMS portals.
Allowing employees to engage in a variety of learning styles will give them a better appreciation of the platform. They may also develop more of an interest in the content offered through your LMS.
Over time, employees have shown more of an interest in having multiple ways to learn and access course material. This also enhances their opportunities to engage in post-learning methods and sources.
Social learning also encourages team members to work with their peers and seek feedback from fellow employees. This justifies the ROI with more effective learning and information sharing methods.
5. Use Surveys to Let Learners Measure the Experience
Arm your employees with effective ways to rate the platform and provide feedback regarding your LMS’s content and flow. This allows you to gauge how well your new hires are receiving and digesting the information. It also gives you more bang for your buck regarding the ROI for your portal by studying what changes could be implemented to improve the learning process.
When you receive honest feedback from employees directly engaged with the learning process, you get first-hand knowledge of your target audience’s view of the workflow. No algorithm or amount of data and analysis can match the value of an honest opinion from a user.
After each module or course, allow the employees to take part in a survey that allows them to rate their experience of the portal. Once they finish everything in its entirety, please encourage them to provide a more comprehensive review of the entire program.
Each of these solutions for maximizing the ROI on your LMS either costs minimal amounts or nothing at all. Monitoring the early stages of your platform is one of the best, if not the best, ways to gauge the program early and make changes as soon as possible. The faster your LMS is optimized, the sooner you can start to experience the true maximum ROI on your final product. Contact us today for your free consultation.