Organizations understand that retaining top talent is critical to their success and longevity. Several factors threaten the ability to keep employees from leaving, among them salary, poor management, and perhaps too commonly overlooked, a lack of adequate training.
When employees feel that they haven’t been properly trained, their confidence in their ability to perform their jobs at a high level suffers. When an employee is frustrated with their own lack of ability as it relates to assisting a customer, solving a problem, or navigating technology, the likelihood that they’ll begin to look for another job increases.
Well-trained employees are more likely to represent their organization to the best of their ability, ensuring that those who interface with them are engaging a high-quality experience. It’s in the best interest of every company to ensure that their employees have the confidence to perform their job at a level that keeps them engaged and excited.
The use of a learning management software (LMS) tool is one significant way that employers are investing in their employees. Let’s examine some ways that using an LMS tool can increase employee retention in the long run.
Personalization
An LMS system is able to be personalized for each employee’s role. For example, customer service specialists are provided courses and materials relevant to learning and growing in their position. This not only gives them the tools they need to be successful in their role, but also allows them to choose and work towards stretch opportunities. So if that customer service rep also has a passion for product, they might be able to take a few trainings to explore that avenue.
Identifying Learning Gaps
On big teams, it can be hard for managers to notice gaps in their employees’ abilities. The status quo remains the status quo and opportunities for improvement can go unnoticed. An LMS system is able to identify and assess where a skills gap is present, and will provide more training specific to that learner.
Helping Material Stick
Because learners are using an LMS tool at their own pace, they are able to learn, relearn, and test on material as often as they’d like. Every one of us has different learning curves, and with a LMS each employee can train until they feel confident. Without this tool, all team members are expected to learn in the same way at the same conference or in-person training.
Using Data to Support Your Training Strategy
Data is one of the clearest ways for us to analyze and assess what is working and where there are opportunities to improve. Traditional training may include a post-training survey, but that does little to assess long-term retention of information and isn’t very insightful into the training itself (surveys are notoriously inaccurate). LMS tools create clarity with data that tells the whole story from what learners are gaining to what trainings need to be reworked.
Accommodating Learning Styles
Everyone learns in a different way. LMS tools are able to meet learners where they are, for example with “real world” training through videos, online learning for those who do best in a self-taught, self-paced environment, or audio, for those who prefer to listen.
Gamification
The use of gamification in eLearning is on the rise, and proving to be successful. Gamification isn’t just a buzzword, it has a scientific effect on the brain. When people participate in gamified learning experiences, they release cortisol, which makes them pay attention, and dopamine, which is the same neurochemical that’s released when we get a reward. Increasingly, LMS tools are including gamification as a way to get employees’ brains on board with learning.
Flexibility
The beauty of an LMS is its flexibility. Employees can learn on their own schedules, at their own paces, and from whatever device is most comfortable for them. When an employee is sick or on vacation, they can easily get caught up on what they’ve missed. And companies save time by not having to pull an entire team or department out of work to attend a live, in-person training with an instructor.
The use of an LMS tool is one of the smartest ways an organization can invest in their people. Well-trained employees feel confident and empowered, and because of this, their productivity increases, along with their likelihood of staying with the company.
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Jessica Barrett Halcom is a writer for TechnologyAdvice.com, with specializations in human resources, healthcare, and transportation. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay and currently lives in Nashville, TN.
