Effective Learning Management – in 8 steps
If you wish to offer your workforce effective learning programs, you need effective learning management, comprising a solid, user-friendly infrastructure and engaging course materials.
Why you need effective Learning Management
Given that training budgets dropped over the last decade, you’d think it was an optional part of business management. It may very well be, but only if you think success is optional too.
It’s difficult updating the skill sets of even a single team. Now, imagine scaling those efforts across a business with thousands of workers. That’s why businesses need effective Learning Management Systems (LMS) to deliver and track employee upskilling and education.
You need to improve corporate learning to keep up with the times. Constant technological developments mean employee skill sets are becoming obsolete more quickly than ever.
Figuring out how to improve learning management in your organisation can seem daunting, but the aim of this article is to help you address all the main considerations, in 8 simple steps.
1. Get to grips with basic learning management infrastructure
To get the most out of learning management platforms like Learn365, you need to understand basic learning management infrastructure. At the very least, your system should include:
- Registration and access management
- Course selection and customisation
- Educational materials and training exercises
- Grading and progression
These features should be as user-friendly and intuitive as possible, or else people might not use them. Most learning management platforms function like hubs where employees have individual profiles to select courses and track their progress.
2. Identify learning goals aligned with business objectives
Whether you use OKRs or SMART Goals, your business objectives should be reflected in the training you provide to employees. Say you want to increase the rate of return customers. The completion rate for staff undertaking customer service training modules can be a really handy key result or sub-goal.
Instead of fiddling about with spreadsheets and learning data manually, use LMS tracking. Platforms like Learn365 can monitor enrolment rates, completion times and other learning data to calculate goal progress in real-time. Employees use personal dashboards to self-report progress and engage with course materials.
3. Data collection and analysis
For continuous learning you need data-driven insights. Establishing how to improve learning management without data is like running with your eyes closed. You’re bound to hit obstacles you could’ve easily seen coming. LMS data is a great start, but you should also survey your employees about their learning needs. The skills they want, the support measures they need, and their experience with your current training systems, for example. That way, you’ll get plenty of quantitative and qualitative info to analyse for trends and actionable insights.
4. Support employee growth with personalised learning
Employees have different learning needs depending on their role, strengths, weaknesses and career goals. That’s why you need to offer flexible learning pathways to drive professional development. People who get forced onto a track they don’t like tend to jump off at the next stop.
5. Provide engaging and interactive content
For all this talk of how to improve learning management, don’t forget the actual content. Boring material won’t capture anyone’s attention. Fortunately, whether you’re providing skill-based learning or general knowledge resources, you have plenty of options at your fingertips.
For example, Learn365 offers access to a huge library of pre-built course content from leading providers. This makes it easy to tailor courses to your exact business needs.
6. Take advantage of automation and LMS features
LMS platforms like Learn365 provide the tools to structure and fine-tune courses. The main way an LMS improves learning management is by automating a lot of the time-consuming tasks for both learning administrators and employees.
You can use Learn365 to streamline learning by:
- Implementing a single sign on for your existing digital workplace
- Highlighting new training opportunities for your employees
- Enabling remote learning to support hybrid work
7. Pick the best integrations for your business
Learn365’s integrations ensure that the LMS will be compatible with your existing virtual infrastructure. These include:
- Full Microsoft 365 integration
- Data-syncing with your existing HRIS and HCM systems
- Microsoft Teams integration
Organising your learning management in Microsoft Teams is especially useful because you can use Teams’ collaborative features to support live lectures and workshops, as well as record and transcribe them. Not to mention Teams has a whole host of its own integrations to customise things even further.
8. Create a learning culture for your organisation
The last step to effective learning management goes beyond any virtual system. Creating a learning-focused work culture means encouraging and rewarding learning and personal development.
Provide the flexibility to pursue training. Make employees peer mentors. Reward meaningful progress with visibility and career development. Doing these things makes learning culture self-sustaining because your people help perpetuate it.
Find out more about Learn365 – Learning Management built in Microsoft 365
Now you know how to improve learning management, it’s time to start laying the foundations. Just remember, you’re bound to find areas for improvement as you go. The point is to keep improving and do a little better each iteration.
Built on Microsoft 365 platforms, services and generative AI technologies, Learn365 is a cloud-based platform that enables organisations to deliver learning where people are already logged in and active – in Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Viva Learning, or on their mobile devices.
Larmer Brown is a Reseller and Services Partner for Zensai, the human success platform incorporating Learn365. We offer specific expertise and support around the implementation of Learn365, including consultancy, training, implementation and technical support.
If you would like to receive a free demo of Learn365, contact our LMS Sales Team.