November 5, 2020
4 min read

What Is A Learning Management System (LMS) and Why Do I Need It?

Written by
Wong Meng Chern

An LMS platform allows businesses to adopt a systematic measurement of crucial data which can be used to align L&D initiatives strategically with business objectives.

As we welcome the future, the multifarious functions within an organisation are increasingly digitalized. This, of course, includes HR. The global pandemic has accelerated this change, transforming work culture as we know it. This phenomenon has also revealed how instrumental a Learning Management System (LMS) is in managing this change throughout the workforce.

What is a Learning Management System (LMS) platform?

(In a previous article, we explained more abbreviations common in the HR field.)

Nowadays, forward-looking companies aren’t just looking for a platform robust enough to churn out mass corporate training effectively and efficiently. As data becomes a universal language, it has become equally important to measure the metrics. An LMS platform allows businesses to adopt a systematic measurement of crucial data such as rate of employee productivity, engagement and retainment.

Previously, we discussed how learning and development (L&D) impacts business objectives. In this article, we will show how an LMS platform can help your organisation address its pain points when it comes to L&D, and how it aligns strategically with business objectives.

Motivate your Employees by Engaging with them

Did you know that companies with highly engaged employees make 2.5 times the revenue of other businesses?

A learning experience platform takes you beyond just a typical Learning Management System (LMS). It has become increasingly important for organisations to meet the goals and expectations that employees have towards L&D in their careers.

With over 38 million users, Cornerstone OnDemand’s LMS platform helps employees identify what they are interested in learning and recommends them content informed by advanced machine learning. By setting realistic goals and upskilling themselves, employees will not only be able to perform in their current job but also their next job.

Given the ease of career mobility and high turnover rates across industries, employees are more likely to choose employers that are committed to their learning and development. When this expectation isn’t realized, they will go somewhere else that can provide better them with better opportunities to grow and develop their careers.

Forget Manual Work for Learning Processes

Traditional methods of managing the learning process such as using Excel Spreadsheets, constitute a lot of unnecessary human error and sunk time. This is especially the case for mid-market companies who are trying to grow and scale their businesses.

An LMS platform upgrades the workflow by automating this process. HR practitioners will no longer have to expand manual effort in sending Excel sheets back and forth. Instead, more time and energy can be invested into value-adding tasks.

No more headache for content

There are three ways for you to build a content library.

  1. In-house Content Creation by a professional L&D team. All you need is a friendly platform to upload and update the courses easily.
  2. Outsourcing Content Creation. You should have a strong platform to support various learning formats. Beside SCORM, content providers also use AICC and xAPI format.
  3. Curating libraries from content that is already integrated into LMS platforms.  

A learning management system (LMS) allows users to upload their own content and update the versions accordingly; the platform also supports various integrations with content providers as well as external libraries that are already integrated and updates automatically within the system. We discussed more on designing a content strategy in a separate article.

Boost Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

As employees enter an organisation, they not only learn from each other in their cohort but also obtain valuable lessons from seniors and experts in the organisation. Some LMS platforms like Cornerstone OnDemand’s Learning module have internal communications channel built in to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing.

By encouraging interaction between employees of different backgrounds and experience, you can create dynamic groups of people with similar interests even if they are not from the same department. The best way to motivate innovation is to create a diverse platform where employees working across different functions are able to collaborate and share knowledge.

Risk Management

A study from Harvard Business Review shows that effective L&D sees a 22-59% decrease in safety incidents.

Every company faces some degree of risk while conducting their daily operations. Certain rules and regulations are put in place to make sure that these risks are managed effectively in an organized manner. These regulations are usually known as compliance. Businesses must comply for both safety and ethical purposes.

Often, employees are required to complete the latest version of whatever training their industry must comply with. LMS platforms provide robust compliance management that helps learning administrators ensure that compliance is monitored closely.

Conclusion

We have discussed a few ways that an LMS platform could benefit your company. In order to achieve the targeted objectives, however, it is crucial that both the organizational goals and employees’ expectations are aligned with the L&D strategy. Misalignment will cause conflicts of interest and create problems that even the best LMS cannot fix.

Here at TalearnX, we want to help your organisation achieve its fullest potential through an empowered workforce. Reach out to us today so that we can understand and offer you the latest Human Capital Management solutions to overcome your pain points

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