An LMS is a Learning Management System, designed specifically to create, manage and distribute training to staff internally and/or to customers and clients.
Most modern LMS are cloud-based platforms hosted by the software company but there are still some stand-alone LMS that are maintained on the company server.
So why should your organisation have one? Let’s look at the benefits –
1. Accessible Information
Information is key for any organisation, having an LMS allows you to store all of your company training in one place. It allows the users to access it from anywhere at any time and allows management the ability to record and track data easily.
2. Personalised Learning
A good LMS system can create individual and team training which can be customised to learner categories, making it more relevant to your organisation which will create better engagement and be more up to date.
3. Reporting and Tracking
An LMS system has the ability to automate reporting, reducing the risk of human error. It can also allow tracking, which can help management understand how their teams are performing and progressing.
4. Keeping Training Up-to-date
With a modern LMS you can even have built-in version control management, allowing you to easily report on employees with out of date knowledge and migrate them to updated training. You can update your training as and when required and push out updates so your learners will always complete the most up to date version of the training. Avoiding out-of-date training from older systems, it is quick and easy to update digitally.
5. Onboarding, Induction & Compliance
Many organisations are required to ensure their employees complete yearly compliance training. A modern LMS system allows you to do this digitally and record and retain their results for auditing and reporting purposes. Some can also automate re-takes as and when required. You can also add in your onboarding and induction training to streamline your training and have it all in one place.
6. Consistency Of Training
Using an LMS system to deliver your training can create consistency in the training offered and the way it is evaluated. Setting standards to employees and offering the ability to grow and develop.
7. Feedback
You can add feedback surveys and questionnaires to a modern LMS allowing you to gather information for employee engagement surveys and better understand the motivators and pain points of their learnings. Also adding feedback on training, to improve the experience for future learners.
8. Create Interactive Learning
Some LMS systems allow you to create different types of training such as adding events, videos, interactive polls and Q&A’s to create better engagement and mix up the style of the learning for a better user experience.
9. Selling Training
There are LMS systems that include ecommerce tools or have the ability to integrate with external ecommerce site links that will enable you to package together training for clients or customers and sell as a subscription service.
10. Cost & Time Effective
An LMS can be very cost effective for your organisation, saving you thousands on external training and allowing you to create customised training relevant to your organisation. It can also save you time by not having to do things manually and by having it all in one place and easy to set up, you can pretty much get going straight away.
As you can see from the above benefits, moving away from traditional methods to a modern digital LMS can reap rewards and save your company time and money, whilst making reporting easier and efficient and training more accessible.
These are just some of the benefits of having an LMS. There are many LMS systems on the market, each having different features, planning what you need and what it must have vs nice to have, including what your budget is, will help you narrow down your search.