How a great elearning platform can boost employee knowledge retention, performance, and your ROI!
Imagine you have a garden. For your flowers to bloom beautifully, you need fertile soil, enough water, and constant care. Similarly, for the knowledge acquired through elearning to take root in your employees' minds and transform into concrete skills, it is essential to have a well-structured elearning platform and targeted strategies.
The Retention Problem: A Hard Fact
Despite the many advantages of elearning, a persistent problem has always been the low retention of knowledge. This means that a significant portion of the investment in training is wasted, undermining the effectiveness of learning and the return on investment for the company.
Why Traditional eLearning Often Fails
Several reasons explain this phenomenon:
- Rigid, non responsive and hardly accessible learning platforms: platforms that do not have a responsive layout and can be navigated with difficulty do not encourage learning.
- Passive content: Online frontal lessons, lacking interactivity, tend to bore and disengage learners, making it difficult for them to memorize information.
- Lack of personalization: All learners receive the same content, regardless of their needs and different starting levels, creating a disconnect between learning and real needs.
- No practical application: When the acquired knowledge is not immediately applied in the field, it is more likely to be forgotten. Learning must be linked to concrete experiences to be meaningful.
The Crucial Role of an LMS
A well-designed eLearning platform like Forma LMS can reverse this trend and become the fertile ground where knowledge can take root and grow. Here are some important features:
- Ease of use for learners (and teachers too): Good LMSs have a responsive and intuitive layout that doesn't complicate life for those who want to learn.
- Ability to manage different materials: From SCORM to HTML pages to videos. This variety is essential to keep the learner's attention alive.
- Personalization: Each employee or group of employees has their own learning style and different paces. Creating customized training paths significantly increases engagement and retention.
- Possibility of integrating other softwares (e.g., web conferencing) and of extending its functionalities: both allow for greater flexibility in creating learning paths.
- Interactivity: Quizzes, simulations, forums, and other engaging activities transform learning into an active experience.
- Flexibility: The ability to access courses anytime and from any device makes learning more accessible, adapting to the needs of an increasingly mobile and dynamic workforce.
Some Examples:
Example 1: A Manufacturing Company
Problem: A medium-sized manufacturing company is struggling to ensure a uniform level of training for all its employees, distributed across multiple production sites. Additionally, machine downtime for classroom training is costly and inefficient.
Solution: The company implements a customized LMS, offering modular and interactive online courses on safety, maintenance, and new technologies. In this way, employees can access courses anytime and from any device, optimizing learning time.
Results: There is a significant improvement in workplace safety, a reduction in machine downtime, and an increase in productivity. Additionally, employees show a higher degree of satisfaction, thanks to the ability to learn autonomously and flexibly.
Example 2: A Service Company
Problem: A service company needs to quickly train its new hires on company procedures and products offered. Traditional classroom training is slow and expensive.
Solution: The company creates a completely digitized onboarding path, using an LMS to deliver introductory courses, video tutorials, and interactive simulations. New hires can thus familiarize themselves with the company and their duties independently and at their own pace.
Results: New hires integrated into the team more quickly, reducing onboarding time and increasing their productivity. Additionally, the company recorded an increase in new hire retention, thanks to a more engaging and satisfying onboarding experience.
Elearning Platforms and The Return on Investment
Investing in an effective elearning platform is not just a cost but a long-term investment. Investing in an LMS and quality eLearning brings numerous benefits, such as:
- Improved skills: eLearning allows you to develop the skills needed to meet market challenges.
- Increased productivity: Well-trained employees are more efficient and effective.
- Reduced turnover: Quality training increases employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Conclusion
When well implemented, elearning is a powerful tool for professional and organizational growth. A state-of-the-art LMS, combined with innovative teaching strategies, can transform training into a positive and lasting experience, maximizing the return on investment
