6 Signs Your Organization Needs an LMS

In most cases, organizations typically have a training and onboarding plan in order to properly teach employees specific skills or safety regulations related to their position. Many organizations encourage or require continuing education throughout the entirety of the employee lifecycle. It keeps them on top of current trends, continuously honing their skills, and in some industries, it is legally mandated. A business Learning Management System, or corporate LMS, is a good way to organize your company's training content and courses and to expand your slate of offerings. However, you may be wondering if your company actually needs one? Chances are it does, and here are a few reasons why.

1. You Want to Track Employee Progress

With an LMS, you have a centralized system that stores information about which employees have taken which courses, when, how they did and any issues that may have occurred. You can even get a good idea of the employees who could be potential future leaders in the organization. Similarly, you can identify employees who may need more training in certain areas. Without this type of system, tracking could be disorganized, with each team leader keeping his or her own records. These records could be incomplete, inaccurate, and easy to lose. A centralized system lets you use the same metrics company-wide for employees across departments and divisions.

2. You Need a Company-Wide Solution

Some organizations leave it up to each department to decide how and when to train employees. However, a company-wide education solution ensures consistency. Furthermore, an LMS is cloud-based and offers anywhere, anytime access to learning, including on mobile devices. That means your night shift employees can take courses when they're at work just as your day shift employees can. Similarly, remote employees can access content from anywhere. So can employees who work in different locations around the country or the world. The same goes for your course instructors. They can design and access courses from anywhere. They're able to easily monitor enrollment and student progress anytime, anywhere.

3. You Prefer Consistency in the Information Taught

An LMS provides a single source for course material, content and instructions. Employees on different teams or in different departments won't be taught potentially conflicting information the way they might be if these departments developed independent programs. With a centralized system, your company offers a cohesive approach in areas such as onboarding, compliance, collaboration and job training. You also have the opportunity to develop consistent quizzes and tests across the entire company.

4. You Need a Way to Show Regulatory Compliance

If your company is in an industry such as communications, construction, medicine or oil, it probably has to meet various legal requirements. Learning management systems are a way to train employees, assess their knowledge and report compliance with these legal standards.

5. You're Spending Too Much Money on Employee Training

For many organizations, a learning management system means serious cost savings. For instance, you may be spending lots of money on facility rentals, instructor payments and employee traveling with your current employee education setup. Meanwhile, learning management systems can greatly reduce the need for your employees to travel. In addition, your company no longer has to bring in the same expensive instructors every year to address a different crop of employees. Also, an LMS minimizes the time human resources personnel and team leaders spend ensuring employees get the necessary education. HR and team leaders can instead focus on tasks that are more relevant to their job.

6. You'd Like to Empower Your Employees

Learning management systems offer the opportunity for employees to learn at their own pace and in their preferred way. Courses can be textual, audio-based, graphics-based or a combination. You can even deliver training in short chunks over several weeks to keep employees engaged versus a day-long seminar/lecture that may have workers antsy before lunchtime. You can also offer a slate of courses and give employees the choice to take the two courses that appeal most to them. That gets them more invested in their learning, and as time goes on, you can expand and update your offerings. If employees struggle to understand the material in a course, they can review the course or portions of it until they understand the material. With a "traditional" seminar approach, instructors lecture and show PowerPoint slides to convey information. It's a passive process that doesn't require much employee thought or engagement. Learning management systems upend the traditional and often ineffective way of delivering educational content. They're naturally designed to embrace employee participation. They're a streamlined, savvy and cost-effective way to train employees. They can make life easier for everyone in your organization. Interested in learning more about Learning Management Systems and how they can help your organization streamline educational content? Request a demo to speak with one of our experts and see how an LMS can revolutionize learning within your organization.