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What is an LMS and how can it transform employee training programs?

Find out how a LMS can improve employee learning over traditional training methods, and say hello to on-demand learning.
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Published 9 Feb 2023
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Updated 8 Jul 2024
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6min read
What is an LMS and how can it transform employee training programs?

The best way to empower your team is by making sure there is a good learning management system in place. If you want to become the best in business, that is.

After all, knowledge is power. If you’re aiming to cultivate a learning culture in your company, having a learning management system (LMS) is key. As your team upskills, their professional development links back to opportunities for your business to scale and grow.

But what should you look for if you’re considering a platform for the first time? What makes a good LMS? Do people even use them anymore, or is it just a corporate gimmick?

Let’s unpack what you need to know.

What is a learning management system (LMS)?

Did you know that one of the earliest forms of a LMS system is believed to have been a teaching machine invented by psychology professor Sidney Pressy in 1924?

A good learning platform should provide your team with access to digital learning, no matter where they are based.

From training courses for new employees on standard procedures like closing the till, to sales training, compliance training, office ergonomics or customer service — the options should be endless. After all, you’re investing in the future of your workforce.

Unlike traditional training programmes which are often rigid and location based because of their in-person nature, a LMS provides easy access to digital learning experiences and content that can be easily updated.

Find out how to use a LMS to transform your employee training program

Why are learning management systems beneficial for businesses?

Using a learning management system is part of an effective long term strategy to ensure employees continue to develop and learn at all levels.

Its use isn’t limited to large companies with big budgets. Small business owners also invest in them to fill knowledge gaps and remain competitive. After all, having your employees continuously learn is a gift that keeps on giving.

If you find yourself wondering whether or not your team was able to keep track of their learning materials, a LMS can easily help you monitor their progress towards learning goals.

More cost effective than traditional training programs

While classroom-based training can be fun and help you expand your business network, adopting an online learning solution is more practical and cost effective.

Gone are the days where you would need to hunt for a venue, the perfect instructor and think about the logistics needed to get everyone in the same venue.

Improve employee retention for top talent

One of the main goals of many small businesses is to stay ahead of competitors. One way of doing so is by making sure your team is constantly upskilling.

Using a LMS can help you give your team easy access to online training materials they need.

It creates a full circle which ultimately leads to your business automatically gaining more value — both from a long term retention strategy, and employee satisfaction as your team becomes more eligible for promotions.

Learn on demand

With BAU tasks to prioritise, giving your team access to e-learning courses can help them manage courses in their own time.

This way, they can keep up with any ongoing customer training, upskill their technical expertise, or undertake partner training easily without feeling the heat.

Create your own learning content

A powerful LMS can help you create structured learning for your employees, and build a library of content that you can draw on for the courses. You can gauge and keep track of learner progress as well by adding a quiz at the end of each course.

When can a corporate LMS be used in the employee lifecycle?

Make use of a LMS from day one of your new employee joining, with select course materials for onboarding training and compliance purposes.

With Employment Hero, you can build custom pathways, upload your own content and keep track of their learning progress.

Find out which point of the employee life cycle you should be using a LMS

You can expand their access to online courses to include learning and development programs that cover their professional interests, meet business needs, and include mental health and wellbeing courses.

How do you choose great corporate LMS platforms?

The key to choosing the one for you is to consider the amount of time, capacity and budget you have.

Chances are, if you’ve got a lot on your plate you’ll want to choose a LMS system that you can plug and play with little fuss. Next, you’ll want to consider your training needs, training processes and whether or not you want to give your users access to mobile learning.

For the expert coders among us, there are also ones which you can fully configure — from the source code to integrations. But these tend to be more time consuming.

What are the different types of learning management systems?

Let’s just say you won’t run out of options. There are a few types of LMS systems you can consider implementing.

Cloud-based LMS

If you want a simple plug and play system, this LMS system is for you. It’s the least time consuming out of the options, and as effortless as you can get with ongoing post-implementation support.

Also known as a SaaS LMS system, a cloud-based LMS is one of the most popular options and is usually hosted by your provider. It also offers a range of integrations for you to optimise it fully to your needs.

Employment Hero’s LMS works closely with GO1’s learning platform, which means you can easily create training content and tag what training goals and categories they link to.

Installed LMS

If you’re looking for something that can give you control over how and where you host your data, this option is for you. Installed LMS systems are locally hosted on your hard drive.

The biggest perk of a locally installed LMS is the security net it offers as you get to fully customise every aspect of it – but the major drawback is how time consuming and costly it can get.

Open-source LMS

As the name suggests, an open-source LMS system gives you the freedom to modify the original source code behind the system. It leads to a fully customizable solution but it can be very time consuming as well.

Custom built LMS

If you’re after something custom built without having the hassle of coding your software from scratch, this one is for you.

There are a few steps in the process from design to implementation: you’ll need to think about what you want to get out of the platform, its look and feel, migrate any learning data you want to repurpose and the integrations you want. After that, you’ll want to try out a soft launch in order to start testing it.

What features make a good LMS?

What are some common LMS features?

Here are a few key features of a good LMS system you should look out for.

Blended learning

A good LMS system should provide different learning activities – after all, everyone has a different learning process.

Having different learning styles will also help keep your users engaged. Make sure that your LMS has different content styles such as:

  • Videos;
  • Reading assignments; and
  • Interactive activities.

Ability to track learner progress

There’s nothing worse than being confused, wasting time wondering where you left off, or being unclear of whether you have completed a particular training program or not.

Visibility on completed assignments and courses, as well as how far into your online course you are adds to a great user experience.

Employment Hero’s LMS empowers you to develop your people, track their progress and test their knowledge easily.

Ability to create courses easily

It’s a no-brainer, but a great LMS system should make course management and creation easy for both the learner and trainer.

Employment Hero’s LMS allows users to easily create and upload their own content.

Custom learning paths

Learning paths allow training managers to bundle up courses and set up the order in which the user can take them. This feature is particularly useful if you have a large content library.

Employment Hero’s LMS offers the ability to build custom learning pathways.

Empower your team to continue learning with a LMS that can give them on demand access to course materials

Looking for the best LMS software in town?

Now that you have an idea of what the best learning management systems look like, we think it’s a great time to mention that Employment Hero’s plug and play LMS platform is one for you to consider.

Not only does it boast a user-friendly interface, it delivers a learning environment and experience that caters to different types of the learners amongst us.

See how you can fully customise it for your learning content management system needs and get a demo booked in with one of our team. You won’t regret it.

In the meantime, why not check out some other ways you can upskill your workforce:

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