Training Online
Meeting L&D Needs By Training Online
Keeping a business at the forefront of an industry takes constant work—revamping the brand, upgrading software, improving products. But what about employees? After all, the whole is only as strong as its parts and employees are the backbone of a business. Without employees trained to keep up with the latest trends, a business is destined to fade into obscurity. That is why you as a business owner must also update your employee training system.
Nearly 77% of American companies utilize training online through eLearning and online education platforms. The transition to online learning is not surprising, as the need to be mobile and technological is growing exponentially each year. The corporate eLearning market itself is expected to grow nearly 13% every year for the next five years. But how can investing in an entirely new system help you?
Current Trends in Training Online
While learning and development plays an integral role in the success and growth of a company, it can often be costly and inefficient. The 2015 Global Human Capital Trends found that 85% of respondents classified L&D as “important” or “very important”; however, they also found a significant gap in companies lacking preparedness to meet this growing need.
Employees are increasingly demanding more educational opportunities, but many companies don’t have the resources. Since L&D is the top HR function aiding in retention, businesses often lose great talent to organizations that offer more L&D opportunities. This creates a vicious cycle for businesses struggling to keep and attract employees.
By offering further educational opportunities, competing businesses can pull away talent by providing a route to level up in their company. Providing courses that teach the necessary skills and knowledge to reach a higher position lets low-level office workers work their way into the executive world, rather than slowly grinding up the ladder. For young talent, this is far more appealing than approaching work like their parents’ generation.
To address this, companies want solutions that are convenient and cost-effective, and training online has become the answer. HR departments are looking for ways to streamline L&D processes to make it simple and easy for a low cost—and that is where training online comes in.
Benefits of Training Online
The technology learning market increased by 27% in 2015, making it a $4 billion industry. The reason for this? Technology spurs innovation, and technology learning reimagines the confines of the traditional classroom. Utilizing training online has significant benefits in a growingly mobile, screen-based world.
Branding
First and foremost, by utilizing online training, you can completely customize the content to your needs. Rather than paying for generic lesson material, you can present your employees with something streamlined and branded to your company’s culture. As well, as your company grows, you won’t have to worry about expanding past the means of your training tools. An online platform is scalable to your business’s growth.
Affordability
Implementing eLearning also saves money, teachers, physical space, and learning materials. Rather than having to pay a team of instructors to present a course, the material is made available to employees at their own time. This saves billable hours that would be lost by pulling people off the job.
Mobility
When it comes to training online, mobility truly is the gift that keeps on giving. Because an online training platform is entirely cloud-based, workers can access it using any mobile device, be it their cell phone, tablet, notebook, or whatever. They are already using their mobile devices as the primary form of work communication so why not make it their means of training.
Feedback
Updating to an online training platform also gives your business access to vital feedback. This can come in several ways. First, it can easily be linked to talent management processes to track employees’ success. Thus, the training can easily be correlated to their success, which is useful for HR data and reporting.
But from the employees’ standpoints, they can also submit their takes on the training material. With the old-style, in-class training session, maintaining attention was a hurdle to overcome. But with an online program, employees can submit their opinions on how to improve the material. This could run the gamut from making the material more advanced to including more engaging visuals.
Content Customizability
Then there is the wide variety of customizability. With an online platform, you can add a range of multimedia content to help your workers learn. If the training is dull, the trainees are more likely to mentally clock out than absorb what they’re meant to be learning. Including some humorous videos, interactive visuals, or even a few games can help learners engage and further retain their training.
As well, training online does not have to be restricted to one purpose. There is a wide variety of offerings in the training online sphere, from onboarding a new hire, to quarterly safety compliance training, skills training, customer service and sales development, company policy and legal, technology skills, and even executive and promotion based lessons. Just upload the material and your employees will have access to it.
Conclusion
Training online is increasingly popular with employees primarily as a way to manage their development. After online training, employees respond with higher engagement and retention due to the interactive nature of multimedia platforms like videos, audio, games, simulations, and blogs.
Offering a full catalog of online training material also enables employees to take extra courses if they would like. They can promote their development within the company, which retains the best talent. These employees have access to new skills, strategies, and training that boost their productivity and the overall performance of the business.
While the demand for learning and development is growing significantly, training online with eLearning platforms is increasing at an even higher rate. Employees can access online programs anywhere, anytime, and with any topic. Training online makes growth, development, and success just a click away. Upgrade your training program today!
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