Businesses have learned that learning management solutions are the key to an efficient training process without weakening an employee’s confidence.

Gone are the days when businesses expected their employees to be upskilled independently. This led to constraints in delivering the right customer experience as employees weren’t skilled enough to meet the requirements.

Businesses now take the initiative to train and develop their employees to meet market demands and stay ahead of the competition.

So, what are learning management solutions, and how can they help businesses train their employees? Let’s learn more about LMS in this blog.

Table of Contents:

What are Learning Management Solutions?

Learning management systems/solutions are integrated software platforms that provide the framework for developing, executing, analyzing, and evaluating training programs and results.

An LMS aims to deliver training and development to employees so that they can support a business’s growth, success, and, eventually, revenue.

Why Do Businesses Need Learning Management Solutions?

Here are four valid reasons why businesses must adopt learning management solutions:

1. Minimized Training and Development Expenses

Old school corporate training solutions are expensive and don’t offer the required flexibility. In contrast, modern learning management systems minimize travel, facility, instructor, and learning material costs, among others.

As new-age learning management solutions are entirely online-based, they can greatly cut your employee training and development expenses. You won’t have to bother about printing 200 employee training packages or arranging hotel rooms for your trainers.

Your LMS will house all of the educational materials your students will need. An LMS is thus a simple choice in terms of cost savings.

2. Meet Compliance Laws

You don’t have to worry about compliance laws when using the latest learning management solutions.

Many businesses are mandated to provide employees with specific sorts of training based on their industry. This could include basic safety and conduct training tailored to their job or specialty. Industries can vary from Oil and Gas to Communication to the IT sector.

Compliance laws are modified from time to time, and revising your training course to keep up with the changes can be demanding and time-consuming. However, modern corporate training solutions enable you to easily add new regulatory requirements to your online training course, allowing you to stay updated with regulations.

A learning management solution can thus assist your company in meeting legal and regulatory obligations, which is critical for customer satisfaction.

3. Track the Progress

Learning management solutions allow you to track your trainees’ progress through each stage of the training process and guarantee they are achieving performance requirements and milestones.

You can monitor real-time data on your trainee’s progress in spreadsheets to assess the situation better. If a trainee fails to complete an eLearning program effectively, you can provide the necessary assistance and tools to help them enhance their learning experience.

With the help of a reporting and analytics tool, you can also discover where an employee is having difficulty and resolve the issue to provide a seamless learning experience.

4. Ensure Accessibility

New-age corporate training solutions make employee training and development more accessible. People can be trained from anywhere using gadgets such as smartphones and tablets, making them extremely flexible as well.

Due to the pandemic, many businesses have been forced to or have decided to close their doors and embrace a remote working culture. With the right learning management solutions, you can ensure that your employees are constantly trained and developed, even in a remote setup.

Thanks to the virtual classrooms of LMS, your employees can log in and get the right training from anywhere. This provides them the accessibility to learning resources and flexibility to learn regardless of their location, which results in a better-trained environment.

Top 6 Features in Learning Management Solutions that Improve Employee Engagement

Although an increasing number of organizations today use learning management systems (LMS) to stimulate growth and learning among their employees, many of them still find it difficult to discover the features that would motivate and engage their employees more effectively.

If you’re facing a similar dilemma, here are the top features that your LMS should have to ensure better employee engagement.

1. Microlearning

Today’s workforce is tech-savvy and comfortable receiving information in small, bite-sized modules through multiple digital channels such as smartphones and social media platforms. This makes microlearning one of the top features and a growing trend in most LMSs.

When it comes to employee training, organizations can leverage an LMS with microlearning capabilities to get the best out of the evolving learning mindset of today’s employees.

As the name suggests, microlearning is a unique structure for content and courses that call for bite-sized nuggets or smaller lessons and shorter assessments. An example of this would be dividing an hour-long lesson into 12 mini-lessons.

The simple reason that micro-learning is effective and helps to drive employee engagement is that it plays to the fact that our brains naturally work by processing and storing small chunks of information at any given time.

2. Gamification

Gaming is another feature that acts as a key determinant in adopting an LMS. Gamification techniques with real-life rewards help to incentivize employees to use their company’s LMS more frequently.

Gamification is essentially taking activities that take place on a day-to-day basis and applying game concepts to them. A little gameplay (plus rewards) through your LMS could help you considerably increase the engagement rates of your workforce.

Organizations can leverage this feature by incorporating interactive game elements into their training modules. Additionally, by rewarding employees with points, certificates, badges, and other similar incentives for course completions, organizations can further drive employee engagement to a whole new level.

3. Social Learning

Organizations today have a herculean task of catering to the learning needs of a multi-generational crop of employees, including the millennials.

Sparking a conversation amongst them is arguably one of the most effective ways of generating engagement. Adding a social element to your training program also allows you to take advantage of a number of other engagement metrics, including:

  • Knowledge sharing
  • Newsfeed activity
  • Asking questions

Additionally, social media is one avenue that is largely dominated by the young workforce. It presents a great opportunity for organizations to leverage an LMS with effective social learning functionalities to offer their employees the increased incentive to share, collaborate, and network with their colleagues and teammates.

Further, integrating social learning into your LMS enables you to encourage quick communication and effectively cater to the evolving learning needs of today’s employees.

4. Mobile Accessibility

As the reliance on mobile devices is rapidly increasing, learners today want the flexibility to complete training tasks from anywhere, anytime. Further, to provide personalized learning paths, an LMS must allow self-paced learning, and it can only do so with mobile accessibility.

It is, therefore, important to have a mobile-first LMS platform that allows employees to access modules from anywhere. Your employees would benefit immensely from this convenient mobile-ready option because everything’s easier when available on smartphones.

5. Employee Collaboration

As per a survey, 88 percent of the young workforce prefer a collaborative work culture that includes discussion boards, content sharing, and the ability to view or give ratings for courses and lessons.

An LMS with features to encourage employee collaboration can offer multiple benefits, including increased employee participation, community-building, and saving a lot of time for training instructors.

6. Robust Analytics

Choosing an LMS with built-in reporting and analytics features/tools can help you analyze employee learning patterns, behaviors, and much more, to provide actionable insights to improve your overall training programs.

Having a great analytics tool can also enable your organization to customize the training to effectively engage employees and deliver content based on their individual needs, preferences, and priorities.

Factors to Consider when Choosing Learning Management Services

Based on these commonly made mistakes, companies should consider the following factors when investing in their LMS:

1. The Specific Needs of Every Type of Employee

Each type of employee, front-line, middle management, C-level, people-facing, technology-oriented, etc., will have unique L&D requirements. You need to consider if the LMS service you pick is flexible and scalable to suit the distinct needs of each user group.

Essentially, the LMS service should cater to employees’ different technical and soft-skill levels at different points in their careers at the company.

Your LMS should accommodate individual and group learning sessions as needed. It should also support in-office, remote, and hybrid learning environments.

2. The Personalization Requirements of the Content

Speaking of personalization, every learner has a unique learning style. While some are visual, others are auditory. While some learn better through detailed text, others respond very well to games and quizzes.

The LMS service chosen must have the features needed to customize the learning experience. You should be able to create and share different types of content based on the audience and the goal of the training.

If you have employees working across different time zones or within unconventional team structures, the LMS must be able to support their learning needs.

Consider the differences in training requirements for teams and individual contributors as well. The LMS service must allow the creation of personalized learning paths that support employees at their learning stage and career path.

3. The Access Needs of Different Teams and Employees

L&D has gone beyond the conventional boundaries of boardrooms. Today, more employees take up corporate training and skills development either from their homes or when on the move.

Teams such as sales, event management, or security will find mobile training ideal when in the field. Research shows that when companies make training accessible on mobile devices, it increases productivity by 40%.

McKinsey calls this “mEducation,” an L&D solution available to learners anywhere, anytime, through 2G/3G/4G/5G.

Your LMS service should support mobile learning and offer options for downloading content for offline viewing. This can help your employees access their lessons and skill-development tasks wherever they are.

In the age of the digital nomad, such an LMS service can help organizations gain a tremendous competitive advantage.

3 Options Available for Companies Looking for LMS Services

There are three things a company can do when considering investing in an LMS service:

1. Create Your Corporate LMS

Instead of choosing learning management services, you could build one from scratch. Building a bespoke LMS service for your organization can give you the highest degree of customization possible. Your LMS service can be anything you need.

However, building an LMS can take a lot of time, money, and effort, which many organizations may not have. Additionally, companies must have a high degree of technological savviness to manage such a custom-built LMS service.

If your organization is not tech-centered, the LMS can quickly become a legacy system that ceases to benefit your firm. From software integration issues to data security concerns to scalability problems, there may be many costly issues to contend with.

2. Purchase an Off-the-Rack LMS Service

Another option for companies is to purchase an off-the-shelf LMS. Such a service can be great if they’re on a tight budget or need simple features for their L&D programs.

This type of mass-produced LMS can be implemented very quickly, with the least technical training, and can be perfect if you need a short-term LMS service.

On the other hand, an off-the-shelf LMS service can offer the least degree of personalization. The LMS may possess only a handful of features and may put a wrench in your corporate training and upskilling plans.

So, despite saving a few thousand dollars at first, you may spend more than your budget later trying to upgrade the LMS service you do have.

Other issues with off-the-shelf LMS are infrequent updates and security patches. Plus, the service may not be as scalable as you need, making it necessary to find another LMS service later.

3. Choose a Third-Party Learning Management Service Provider

The final option companies have is to hire a third-party LMS provider who offers a customizable LMS at an affordable cost.

An LMS is an integral part of a firm’s technological repertoire. Having a bare-bones model off the rack may not give you the competitive advantage you seek in the long run.

Similarly, a custom-built LMS may drain your resources too much, making it unsustainable in the future. A third-party LMS provider forms the perfect middle ground that organizations can benefit from.

It’s best to select an LMS service provider that offers a fully managed, open-source LMS. This ensures you have the highest degree of customization and quick software updates thanks to open-source technology.

Since these LMS providers often work with multiple companies, their solutions are also budget-friendly. They offer installation support and can help you scale your LMS needs as your company grows and transforms.

Plus, if you have any concerns or challenges, a customer service representative is always available to help.

Top Learning Management Solutions You Can’t Miss!

Let’s explore the top five LMS vendors, so you can find the right solution for your organization’s needs.

1. Hurix Digital

Hurix Digital is a popular cloud-based LMS vendor that offers a range of features to help organizations create, manage, and deliver their training and development programs.

One of the standout features of Hurix is its customization options. With Hurix, you can tailor the LMS to your organization’s unique needs, including branding, user roles, and course content.

The platform also provides an array of content creation tools, including support for a variety of media types and assessment options. Another pro of Hurix is its scalability.

The platform can accommodate organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. Additionally, Hurix Digital offers mobile compatibility, allowing learners to access digital content on the go.

  • Provides detailed analytics on learner progress and engagement, allowing administrators to track performance and make data-driven decisions.
  • Includes collaboration features, such as discussion forums and chat rooms, to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing.
  • Supports multiple languages, making it accessible to learners worldwide.

2. Moodle

Moodle is an open-source LMS that is widely used in educational institutions, businesses, and other organizations around the world.

Developed by Martin Dougiamas in 2002, Moodle provides a flexible and customizable platform for creating and delivering online courses and employee training programs.

One of the major advantages of Moodle is its affordability, as an open-source platform, it is available for free, making it an accessible option for organizations with limited budgets.

However, there are some downsides to using Moodle. While the system is highly customizable, this also means that it can be complex to set up and configure, especially for users with limited technical expertise.

  • Supports a variety of learning activities such as quizzes, assignments, and discussions
  • Provides communication tools such as forums, messaging, and video conferencing
  • Integrates with other systems and tools such as social media, calendars, and e-commerce platforms

3. Canvas

Third on our list of the best LMS vendors is Canvas. It is designed to support online and blended learning environments in educational institutions and businesses.

One of the main features of Canvas is its user-friendly interface, which is easy to navigate for both teachers and students.

Canvas also offers a range of customization options, such as themes, plugins, and modules, allowing users to tailor the system to their specific needs.

It also provides an open API, allowing developers to integrate the platform with other systems and tools.

While Canvas does offer a free version of its platform, it is limited in terms of features and support. For organizations that require more advanced features or support, the cost of using Canvas can be relatively high.

  • Offers communication tools such as messaging, video conferencing, and web conferencing
  • Scalable and reliable as a cloud-based platform
  • Provides a range of accessibility features for students with disabilities

4. D2L Brightspace

D2L Brightspace is known for its focus on student-centered learning and its flexibility in accommodating different teaching and learning styles. It uses adaptive learning technologies to personalize the learning experience for each student.

Moreover, D2L Brightspace is designed to support competency-based learning, which focuses on developing specific skills and knowledge rather than simply completing courses.

Not to mention, it allows users to deliver a wide range of learning activities and assessments, and tools for communication, collaboration, and analytics.

While D2L Brightspace is designed to be user-friendly, there may be a learning curve for educators and students who are new to the platform.

  • Supports gamification features that enhance student engagement and motivation
  • Offers multilingual support, making it a good option for global use
  • Includes collaborative tools for communication and group work

Final Thoughts

Businesses have taken over the process of training and developing their employees to meet market demands. Learning management systems have been indispensable in the process of managing the training and upskilling of employees.

Learning management solutions like Hurix Digital can help your business train employees more effectively. We will assist you in implementing a robust LMS for your company. You can personalize and adapt the LMS to meet your business requirements. With a custom theme and style of your choice, we will match the design and feel of the LMS to suit your corporate branding.

Your competitors have already implemented an LMS. Now’s your time to do the same and do it better.

Get in touch with us to start a conversation and use the best LMS solutions for your project.