More than ever, it’s imperative that your training tools are built for your company and the challenges your employees face.
Looking to find the best LMS for your company? We’ll take you step-by-step towards selecting the right solution to fit your needs.
We will also guide you to better user engagement of a new learning platform to make sure you and your users get the most out of the new system and its learning content.
How to find the best LMS or learning platform for your company
Finding the right LMS/learning platform for you is all about finding the one with strengths that match your company goal and training goals.
So, let’s start thinking about those goals. First, define your company goals. Then, list the training goals that apply to your L&D strategy – and will help you reach the company goals.
What are your key areas of focus?
I want to…
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reduce turnover
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streamline onboarding
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increase sales
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upgrade IT security
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improve management
Work can be hard. Learning new stuff at work shouldn’t be.
Poor User Experience is among the biggest barriers to technology satisfaction. When vendors present their platform, you should focus on UX, UX, UX, and UX. You don’t have to be a UX designer, let your intuition guide you: How do you feel when interfacing with the system? Empathize – what would your users feel?
How to measure the success of your training activities?
This question often goes unaddressed. Success is more than just getting a learning platform up and running. It’s the measurable, specific ways you benchmark the effectiveness of your L&D strategy and its impact on your company.
Use big picture ideas to help with this. For example: Successfully streamlining the onboarding in our customer service department means we’ll be able to reduce time to performance of our new employees and save time on peer-to-peer training from four days to two days, saving 300 USD.
But success is also dependent on user engagement. Which lead us to the next chapter on how to achieve high user engagement and better user adoption of a new platform.
Implementation and user engagement
Often, we spend a lot of time and money on new software, but unfortunately, we tend to underestimate what it requires to bring it to life and make it a part of the learning culture in the organization! So how do we ensure that users use the platform and interact with the learning content once it is deployed? Engagement!
Engagement is the art of making the target group interested in, committed to, or emotionally involved with a given project.
You probably already know that technology and humans together can be tricky! Even the best learning platform in the world is only good if the users, first of all, use it, and second of all, engage with the learning content.
So, below you’ll find a few tips and tricks to what we see as a circular process. We have divided the process into phases: before, during, after (implementation), and repeat. In each phase, you’ll find steps that will ensure you get your users efficiently onboard – and even better; how to make them love it in the end!
1) The earlier your users are engaged, the better
Once you have settled with a supplier/partner/vendor, send out teasers for the user to prepare for something new and exciting. This will make the transition easier and increase motivation and engagement.
2) Dear system administrators… Welcome
It is not only the end-user you should get on board, but it’s also the system administrators. They need consulting and training in the system. And the right features to create interactive learning that’ll engage the users.
3) Let’s get this party started
Have a launch party! Make it a big thing when you launch the new learning platform. Do it your way. Mix and match the learning activities – make them both physical and digital. Bring a huge cake, send out a launching video to all employees, print recognizable graphics from the platform, and distribute it in the canteen or hang it on the walls. Let your imagination run wild!
4) Don’t forget to remind
Also, throwing one big party is not enough. Send the users a kind or funny reminder post about the launching. And repeat. One reminder is rarely enough. Kind and funny reminders will help them adapt to the new platform more easily.
5) The content is the platform’s engine
No engaging content, no engaging users.
First of all, this is no-go: Click – next text-slide – click – next text-slide – click, etc.
A slideshow that consists of text only is not very inspirational, nor engaging. Your users won’t get an efficient outcome and retain knowledge. And they will most likely avoid visiting the platform again anytime soon.
We all learn through experience. By doing! We have to get involved to learn, remember, and apply new stuff.
A few tips:
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Mix and match your learning activities
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Gamify your learning content
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Create small learning bites, micro-learning
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Make test elements, such as multiple-choice questions, true/false, etc.
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Think about the tone of voice
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Use graphics and implement them consistently throughout the learning content
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Test the learning content before launching!
6) Spin the wheel all over again
The above-mentioned steps should be spinning continuously. Keep filling gas aka. learning content on your platform, and keep reminding, communicating, and involving your users.
And don’t hold back with small launching activities every time you add new learning content to the platform. Especially if you add new topics!
Every little step will further help strengthen the learning culture you are building. We hope you find the best Learning Management System for your company with this guide!