10 awesome benefits of elearning in the workplace
Before you create or improve your workplace digital learning and development strategy, make sure you’re clear on the opportunities elearning presents to your business. There are a number of elearning benefits that can help large organizations create a healthy learning culture while improving performance across the board. Here are 10 awesome benefits to having elearning in the workplace!
10 benefits of elearning in the workplace
1. It’s expected
Effective, relevant workplace learning is sought after and expected by modern employees. 96% of people turn to their phone in moments of need, and 76% of employees say that Google is their preferred choice for workplace learning. Digital or online learning is no longer a separate or special entity, it just is what we now do – including at work.
The modern employee is savvy, hunting out answers to questions, and hungry to learn. In fact, they are most attracted to work at organizations that offer good learning and development opportunities, over other benefits. In fact, workplace training as an investment into personal development ranks among the most sought-after benefits you can offer. But it’s quality, not quantity that’s in high demand.
“96% of people turn to their phone in moments of need, and 76% of employees say that Google is their preferred choice for workplace learning. Modern online learning is sought after and expected”. Explore these and many more stats on the profile of a modern learner.
2. It’s scalable
With digital learning, a piece of workplace training content is produced once and then can reach all for no extra cost. Because it can reach all employees (and customers and partners too); a digital approach to corporate learning means you can onboard employees faster, meet compliance regulations more quickly, and increase productivity and performance at scale. The timescales are radically shorter compared to classroom-based approaches.
However, just because you can reach all employees with one solution, doesn’t mean you should go with a one-size fits all approach. An added benefit of online learning is that you can tailor and personalize it so it targets individual needs and roles, at high scale. Read on for more on this.
3. It’s nimble
L&D teams can rise to meet emerging business challenges swiftly via well-honed digital performance-enhancing solutions, especially if they have established, successful platforms and processes in place to do so. Rather than waiting to produce an entire training course on a new initiative, modern digital learning teams swiftly curate, create and deliver meaningful resources, on the job tools, and explanations online. They are smart with how they blend approaches to meet demands and are able to move quickly and meet real business needs.
4. It’s localized
With the right learning technology platforms, digital learning can easily be adapted and translated to meet the localized needs of global and varied audiences. You can enhance how learning interventions and performance-supporting content reaches and engages wide audiences in relevant and meaningful ways. Global elearning can be applied to organizations with employees dotted across the globe, providing localized content which remains consistent in its messaging. To achieve this, you should opt for technologies that enable you to easily swap out elements, be delivered in multiple languages, and provide personalized pathways.
5. It’s targeted
In a standardized workshop the level and delivery of content is fixed. Modern learning technologies however, enable you to produce personalized or adaptive solutions that target an individual user’s role, needs and skills gaps. Modern digital learning can respond to how an individual interacts with content and/or how they score in questions. This means you can serve up tailored corporate elearning which revolves around individual needs – be it some specific learning, a fitting exercise to help them practice, or signposting them to some useful steps to take to expand their experience.
6. It’s always available
People learn on the fly, in the moment, on their commute – basically when they can or when they want to. Digital learning and training courses are always on. More to the point, it can be delivered in bite-size pieces that allow it to be used flexibly, and with the right technologies, on any device. With the average employee having just 20 mins a week for workplace learning, digital solutions let you think outside the box on how you can best help busy people develop their skills.
7. It’s empowering
Opportunity for workplace learning and development is the #1 reason people want to work at an organization. Technology puts learning and development in the hands of your end users. Boost hiring and retention of talent by providing helpful and ‘open’ solutions to personal development. Get your strategy right, and your digital learning offering will give employees choice around when they learn, on what device, for how long.
Take it further, and it can also offer them freedom around what they learn, and how they learn it. After all, employees involved in their own development are more engaged and more productive. But your strategy needs to be smart and user-centric and not just throw a smorgasbord of content out there for employees to wade through.
“If you don’t have a permission to learn, if you don’t have the psychological safety and the trust to do things differently and potentially to fail, then you’re going to be resistant to doing the change” Digital-first learning strategies, Learning at Large Podcast with @samt_el #elearning #podcast
8. It’s people-powered
Above all else, people learn from people. We learn by asking, sharing, telling stories, swapping resources and tips. 50 years ago this was done by turning to the person next to us or calling a friend. Now we do this prolifically online via social networks or even by the way we tap in questions to Google. Elearning shouldn’t be ‘instead’ of grassroots knowledge, it should capitalize on it and give experts in various fields within an organization the chance to contribute to content, share tips and offer up stories.
The most successful workplace initiatives are also those that go viral – they are shared, discussed, and spread by users themselves. So rather than ‘top down’ workshops, tap into the benefits of people-powered or employee-driven learning with the help of smart technology platforms and elearning tools.
9. It’s measurable/Fixable
With learning analytics available within most modern learning tools, digital learning solutions enable you to easily see how your learning projects are performing. Digital learning initiatives enable you to track engagement, devices used, drop-off points, user comments and lots more. Not only does this give you handy stats to share with stakeholders, but your team can also take action to tweak, fix and really hone the learning solution to meet its targets.
10. It’s holistic
Learning doesn’t usually happen in a silo or from one single intervention. Neither do we perform a skill in a vacuum. xAPI learning technologies enable you to connect the dots between all kinds of resources, experiences and activities that make up an individual’s learning journey. You can help guide users from one learning resource to another – be it elearning, discussions, downloads, webinars – even if they sit in different places. And, you can also track what employees are using and form opinions around what to promote to others. One size certainly doesn’t fit all, but neither does one ‘form’ of learning. Digital helps you open up!
Summary
When done right, corporate elearning can be a valuable asset to your learners, and your business! With the pros majorly outweighing the cons, it’s no surprise that more and more companies are modernizing their digital learning strategy by having elearning in the workplace.
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