Share on facebook Share on linkedin Share on twitter Banking Sector – Training Opportunities & Strategies. Will LXP or LMS be proved more powerful?

 

The banking sector has only one thing as constant and that’s called “Change”. This industry has been going through major transformations over the last couple of years due to economic reforms, changing demographics and technological advancements.

 

The customer base for this industry is highly tech-savvy, short on time and always looking for competent and personalized services. To meet the requirements, there is need to establish a productive workplace that is free of human errors, security threats and bring premium banking & financial products or services, thus it is imperative for banking sector to implement an LMS platform to build upon essential competencies to achieve desired goals for the end-users. You need to build upon a strong & highly skilled team to remain innovative and quickly adjust to the outside changes.

 

Thus, this gives rise to the training needs in this industry which are to be commenced and completed as soon as possible for better outputs.

 

Training Opportunities, the banks need to address

 

• Regulation changes & Compliance Constraints
• Ensuring Standardization
• Workforce at multiple locations
• Supplementing Existing Courses

 

Employee engagement is must in learning and development (L&D) programs for any organization. Survey data from Find Course, released in 2018, shows that around 42% of companies indicated that employees who are highly engaged in L&D programs are also highly engaged with their organizations overall. A 2017 Gallup study, meanwhile, said that top-performing companies in employee engagement almost double their chances of success, as compared with companies with low employee engagement.

 

In a way neither the LMS nor the LXP is necessarily be called as the best choice for a particular bank, however, lets understand what makes each solution distinct to make accurate comparisons and choosing right training platforms.

 

LMS Approach

 

The traditional LMS help the banks from administration to delivery, reporting and evaluation of training & learning initiatives. In this model, administrators will assign the trainings to their employees, and they will be notified to access the materials and complete the training.

 

LMS will then collate data which may include key details such as assessment scores, training completion status. Proving compliance can be achieved easily, thanks to the easy-to-access and robust reporting features of an LMS. Also, this is particularly important for a heavily regulated sector, where compliance is a crucial aspect of a bank’s survival.

 

 LXP Approach

 

An LXP is new platform that brings different functionalities on a single platform. It helps banks ensure continuous learning through quick and convenient creation & deployment of training modules. LXP promotes more of learning engagement, employees are empowered to choose as what they want to learn. Also, this robust platform comes with functions that encourage collaboration and content sharing.

 

With more of the employee engagement, benefit that brings to banks revolves in three key aspects: Talent management, Productivity and Customer Service. At the end of the day, banking is all about being responsive to their customers. This follows that when employees are invested in the success of the bank, you can expect them to serve the customers at their best.

 

Skill Based

 

Uses a skill-based model, mapped job roles including skills assessment

Flexible to be used for Corporate Trainings

 

Used Based

 

Recommend content, based on user’s content consumption patterns

Great for creating huge libraries for B2C model

 

Machine Learning Driven

 

Indexing of content enables easy search and usability

Recommendations improve as the learner spends more time on the platform

 

As per the “Centre for Learning and Workplace Survey”, a staggering 87% of employees want a shared format for learning, while around 79% prefer web resources. The banks are going through technological revolution, witnessing fast-paced changes in products, services, customer education needs and regulatory frameworks. Thus, banks need to make a decision as whether LMS or LXP will be more handy to meet all business requirements.

 

Benefits to be achieved using these Learning strategies

 

• Lower the turnover of both skilled and early-career employees
• Reduce the high training costs of new employees
• Identify employees with specific skills and compliance gaps
• Decrease the time spent on on-the-job training
• Reduce the pressure to control and lower expenses due to the market volatility
• Meet high costs of compliance in a very regulated environment

 

G-Cube LMS is designed and ready to deliver all the business needs of the banking sector. The fully features LMS caters to all learning requirements of the employees and thus ensuring good customer service for the end-users.

‘Channelize’ your eLearning Strategy

 

According to Statista, Youtube has 2.1 billion users in 2021 and according to the company, their users spend an average of 1 hour on the platform daily. Netflix on the other hand has 203 million+ paid subscribers and the company has seen 21.9% growth over last 12 months. eMarketer estimates that Netflix accounts for 25.7% of daily digital video time among US adults. This means that the average US adult spends 30 minutes a day watching Netflix.

 

 

These overwhelming numbers, do make us question the strategy behind such extraordinary user engagement? Is it just good content that keeps their audience glued or makes them come back for more or is it something else? Experts are of the opinion, that it is the suggestion engine that is driving the numbers, along with the presentation of that suggestion.

 

 

Youtube and Netflix are not just video streaming platforms anymore. They have now become content suggestion engines with the radical advancement in machine learning and artificial intelligence. These platforms are analyzing the user’s interaction with the content on the platform to suggest relevant content as per the user’s preference. The suggested content is further segregated into various categories based on the user’s past views on the platforms, their choice of language, geographical positioning, peer’s choice and so on. The user’s visit is incentivized by this service the platform is providing and their engagement with the platform increases with the sense of hyper-personalization. Netflix rakes in USD 1 billion each year by ensuring strong customer retention with the use of recommender engines, or the channel approach.

 

 

Now imagine, having the same strategy implemented for your learning delivery. Given the user’s behavior on these OTT platforms, one can safely bet on the effectiveness of a similar channel-based user interface on a learning platform. In 2018, Josh Bersin said that research has found out that employees have on an average 24 minutes to dedicate to learning. Learning providers have to strategically make most of this time and also create an affinity towards learning. The Netflix-like channel-based UI on a learning platform revolutionizes the way a learner receives content and consumes it. They not only receive the most relevant content in one glance, but the admin can push the most important courses, assessments, videos etc according to priority.

 

 

Sayan Guha, Product Head – Learning Technologies, G-Cube is a big advocate of this channel-based approach and says ‘When we talk of the Learn Tech industry, the scope is unimaginable for using the channel approach for learning personalization. Based on the learners’ interest, training history, and content consumption choices, the recommender algorithm can throw in incredibly useful training suggestions which will most definitely increase engagement and effectiveness of training. Our channel-based approach is driving high learning adoption for all kinds of learners, from leadership to sales teams to customers.’

 

 

How does channel-based approach facilitate learning?

 

• It helps categorize the learning content automatically based on keywords which also helps in keyword-based content search. For example – When a learner types/search a keyword- for example, ‘mobile hardware items’ they will find, anything related to it available on the LMS, even from the ‘recently uploaded’ or ‘about to expire’ items on their channels. Having this feature helps learners save time and effort.
• The channels are rule-based which means that once a new learning content is uploaded on the platform, the content will get automatically segregated in the relevant channel.
• Learning courses, assessments, certifications which must be completed within a certain date or have to be renewed can be highlighted in separate channel with alerts to the user.
• As the channels are programmable, admin can edit the channel placement through simple drag and drop to put the channels on the top whose content needs attention from the learner.
• Learner can see the recommended content based on their job roles, KPIs, past learning records and peer activity, all segregated into separate channels. Just like Netflix, G-Cube’s LMS home page looks different for different profiles as the learner can see content relevant to their profiles and recommendations.

 

 

AI advancements has taken over all aspects of digital experience of human beings – starting from how we listen to music to how we navigate our way to work. That is the level of efficiency and comfort your learners deserve in their learning journey as well. To know more about the programmable channel-based G-Cube LMS, write to us.

How the Learning Management System Lives on!

 

“LMS is dead”—this statement came out more than a decade ago, in 2009–10. However, not only did the LMS survive; it also thrived by leaps and bounds. In 2017, Josh Bersin had written an article for Forbes stating: “Companies are starting to move away from their Learning Management Systems (LMS), buy all sorts of new tools for digital learning, and rebuild a whole new infrastructure to help employees learn.”

 

Four years after this prediction, FortuneBusinessInsight.com reported:

 

The Global Learning Management System market size was USD 10.84 billion in 2020. The global impact of Covid-19 has been unprecedented and staggering, with LMS witnessing a positive demand shock across all regions amid the pandemic. Based on our analysis the global market exhibited a significant growth of 23.8% in 2020 as compared to the year-on-year growth during 2017–2019. The market is projected to grow from 13.38 billion USD to 44.48 billion USD in 2028 at a CAGR of 18.7% in the 2021–28 period. The change in CAGR is attributable to this market’s demand & growth, returning to pre-pandemic levels once the pandemic is over.

 

The statistics confirm that even after the death verdict, the LMS demonstrated resilience against the market opinion and transformed itself in terms of features, functionalities, and technologies. Rapidly, it developed and embraced new technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and consumer-level user-friendliness to maintain its supremacy. The modern LMS has adapted itself to create personalized learning paths for employees, AI-based suggestions to increase learning uptake, and most importantly, it created a collaborative environment for learning, even in a virtual space.

 

With the growing technology, management processes, and performance expectations, the need for new knowledge, skills, and even human behavior has evolved. Organizations cannot compete in this business by using old styles of work; it dawned this realization upon not only large corporations but also medium and small-sized companies. Most organizations have a growing need to empower their employees, customers, partners, and freelancers with knowledge, and in this age of information boom, they need a better system every second year to keep up.

 

In an article that came out in 2011, Ellen Behrens predicted that instead of the LMS dying out, it will significantly change in the years to come—most likely to continue including successful ways of providing access to learning across the world, smart ways to measure it, and last, implementations of social features that allow both association members and non-members (learners) to interact and connect.

 

There was a time when L&D specialists, analysts, and learners complained about the LMS gradually turning into a tedious and irrelevant application. However, the LMS providers did not fail to take notice of these complaints. According to Mr. Ankush Jagga, Business Head of Products & Growth at G-Cube: “We have served millions of learners in last 20 years and we have been constantly conducting surveys among the learners and the training providers to figure out what is needed and what needs to be eliminated from the LMS. So, at the end of the day, learners get a fantastic experience. Every quarter, we release new version of our LMS on the basis of the surveys and the opinion leader’s thought.”

 

Ten years down the line, Ellen Behrens’ prediction has come true. With digitization, jobs are changing rapidly, and skills required to adapt to this change are less mechanical and more human. Corporate training has thus become less about sporadic skill development or compliance training. The modern organization demands a culture of continuous learning and upskilling for the employees. To address this need, the 21st Century LMS has thus not become a manager for training and content but, rather, a coach to motivate the learners.

 

Just like humankind, software and applications also evolves. They take new shapes to adapt to the environment. Darwin’s theory of the “Survival of the Fittest” applies not only to humans but also to technology. So, the LMS, just like other software—CRM, ERP, HRMS, etc., have actively listened, made changes, and remained relevant and meaningful to the organizations.

GCube’s BFSI LMS: Must have Mobile-First Features

 

According to a study by Mordor Intelligence, ‘The mobile learning market is expected to register a CAGR of 21.45% over the forecast period 2021-2026.’ With the pandemic moving people out of office, this was inevitable but our experience with some of the largest BFSI organizations in Asia Pacific, helped us realize this sooner. Not showing-off but we already did build a Mobile-first LMS for our clients long back.

While one of our clients needed a mobile-first LMS to enable faster onboarding of its 40,000 strong sales team; another banked on this technology to help in virtual sales. It is not just them but organizations that rely on mobile learning solutions saw a 16% boost in productivity and improvements in creativity and loyalty of their employees.

With reports of the global mobile workforce being set to increase to 1.87 billion people or 42.5% of the global workforce in 2022, up from 38.8% in 2016, workers have become increasingly mobile, which includes their primary work device. Now, it is important to understand that building a mobile version of a learning management system is not just changing the UI. It requires well-researched and thoughtfully applied features to ensure security and connectivity.

Here’s how we did it.   

Sensitive Content Security   

Mobile devices are personal devices with a public network connection. Thus, the content like internal data, processes, reports, fund values, customer information and even training manuals vulnerable to online abuse. To secure sensitive content on the device, the GCube BFSI LMS comes with Personal Information Encryption. Screenshot is disabled for all content.

Information Security Readiness

Security requirement in BFSI sector is much higher than in any other industry. So, the mobile LMS comes with multi-factor authorization for log-in. We also integrate with Mobile Device Management suites that secures your mobile LMS app for distribution withing your authorized employee base. This protects your app from external abuse or malicious activities. Additionally, it provides a mechanism of privacy for anybody who are accessing sensitive content on the app.

Customer Service & Sales Enablement

A very large section of the customer service and sales workforce in the BFSI sector is dispersed and works on the move. To enable them the Mobile LMS comes with ready guides for Complex Products and SOPs. The BFSI LMS has a very specific suite to also enable virtual sales.

Adept to Lesser Infrastructure

The dispersed workforce in the BFSI sector poses yet another challenge for technology access and that is lack of standard infrastructure. While in some cases the issue is of lower connectivity and in some other case, it’s a less sophisticated device. The LMS has been built to be conducive to these devices and makes content available in secure, downloadable format to tackle network problems.

For monitoring this dispersed and mobile workforce, we are developing a fleet management feature as well with geo-tracking and geo-fencing solutions.

With mobility and security at the heart of our R&D philosophy, GCube has won more than 100 awards for the learning technology innovations made over the last 20+ years. To know more about our solutions, please write to us.

Facial Recognition is not a Remote Assessment Fairytale Anymore!

Aviation is a dynamic industry and trust us, when we say that we understand the multi-layered issues of training and assessment in an industry where the workers are continuously on the move. In a set up that is so highly regularized and rightly so, training is not a casual upskilling exercise. The training in aviation is incomplete without the assessment and the authentication of the learner during this assessment which is remote in many occasions due to the dynamic nature of the industry.

Traditionally, the authentication of the person appearing for the remote assessment was being done through designated username and password, and also two-factor authentication but the loophole remains that it does not have proof of authentication. Thus, to ensure secured proctoring of these assessments, GCube proposes Facial Recognition, and we implore you that you hear us out as we shall be surely answering all the questions of high cost and accuracy issue.  

As a client posed the problem, we got into action to research the challenge and that is how we arrived at the facial recognition solution to make proctored assessment process seamless and efficient with practically zero imprecision. However, like with technology, facial recognition has been presented with challenges in its capacity but, the FR solution in GCube’s Aviation LMS has countered and resolved most of the following challenges by integrating a robust system.

High costs involved in facial recognition: Facial recognition involves continuous clicking and matching of the images with the ones in the database. Every passing second involves 24 frames, so a session of 30 minutes will increase the cost manifold. GCube’s solution counters these exorbitant costs by clicking the pictures of the learner at irregular intervals (which cannot be predicted by the learner) and matching it with the database. In addition, the FR now is offered as a service by providers like AWS and Google Vision so there’s no need to build a separate infrastructure. This way the costs are greatly controlled without affecting training and assessment.

Improved accuracy: Another challenge that used to come in the way of using facial recognition is accuracy. As the current facial recognition systems are trained on larger data the accuracy levels have increased following the very basic principle of machine learning. Of course, add to this the availability of high-end camera equipment at reasonable pricing which has improved the FR technology by many folds.

Privacy – the bone of contention in the field of FR:  For a long time, facial recognition has dealt with the issue of privacy. This has however been solved in the GCube facial recognition suite by matching with the reference image and erasing the rest of the captured data except in case of a discrepancy. In case of any discrepancy below the mismatch threshold of 70% between the uploaded photograph and the snapshot, the following error messages, dependent on the upload will be registered:

·             MF – Multiple Faces Detected

·             OF – One Face Detected

·             NF – No Face Detected

The snapshots which do not cross the mismatch threshold are stored for the proctor or mentor for their approval along with the original photographs the learners have uploaded. The proctor or the mentor can then access the report workflow and deal with them accordingly.

Thus, we have now made Facial Recognition an accessible technology and not a fairytale from the future.  

With over 100 industry awards in learning technologies, G-Cube would love to share more information with you about our facial recognition solution engineered specifically for the Aviation industry. Please do write to us here.

Volvo Eicher’s Itube: User Generated Content for Training Revolution

Multi-media learning has been accepted to create better retention for a while now and L&D has seen the uptake of audio-visual learning for decades. However, the pandemic fast-forwarded our worlds and things changed rapidly.  According to Think with Google, 58% learners are using digital video to learn new skills in the post-pandemic world.

Given the blue-collared nature of work in the auto industry’s manufacturing units and service centers, watching and learning is an absolute necessity and thus the value in using video as a medium is clear. When Volvo Eicher approached GCube for a learning solution that will work for their dispersed workforce with variable educational background, we immediately identified the need for video-based learning. However, given the volume of content needed and variety of learners we were catering to there were two major challenges:  

• High costs of video production with proper content localization.
• Time taken to create the same.
  

Thus, ITube was built. ITube is a video sharing platform integrated in the GCube LMS for Volvo Eicher which is a channel-based video platform built exclusively for the client’s workforce much like the more commonly used counterpart, Youtube. The platform curates user generated content which are naturally localized, low cost and also come from in-house Subject Matter Experts.

 How did ITube solve the above stated challenges?

Leveraging localized and user generated video content: Itube resolves the time and cost issues by allowing their workers to create videos. Effectively deploying the user generated video content model for sharing knowledge. This not only brings down the cost but also crunches the hefty process of content generation from 15 – 20 days to just a 5-minute exercise. Suppose there is a need for short format videos on various parts of trucks. That will be a lot of videos with a very high production cost and also will need experts. But here, a senior worker can create a video on their respective work area and upload it for other juniors to learn from. The same can be done for topics related to features, offers, objection handling, addition or removal of parts, upgrades, after sales support and many other areas which become beneficial for the entire force.

Quality check through content moderation: Though Itube grants the content creation rights to all users, it gives singular authority to a moderator to ensure quality control measures remain in place. The moderator curates the user generated video content and after passing the quality check process they are uploaded to the video platform.

Concrete strength to the internal stakeholders for training:  Itube helps the internal leaders to increase their contribution to quality of training. Plus, it comes with a string of benefits like organizing contests for the HR teams from a content development standpoint. This adds strength to best practice sharing within the company.

Itube also comes with a live-broadcast-to-active-audience feature which increases engagement and retention.

How ITube created better learning strategy through videos?

1. With users generating video content, the first positive impact was on the number of knowledge videos spanning across a variety of categories, that were created every month. There are more than 350 videos on the platform with almost next to nothing development cost.
2. The basic fact that these videos were created by friends, colleagues, peers or seniors immediately raised the number of views, average duration of video consumption, and engagement levels of the knowledge content. As on 1st May 2021, the total users on the platform are close to 11,500.
3. Localization of video production provided a distinctive demographical edge as content was created from different regions, using different languages, and keeping in mind the preference, culture and sensibilities of the audience in that area.
4. This further allowed content distribution and penetration to the furthest corners of where Volvo Eicher ran operations.
5. By using the metrics from ITube rewards could be given to the best video content creators, providing gratification for their efforts and motivating others to get involved.
   
   

Itube is a revolutionary video training content platform that was specifically designed keeping in mind the unique characteristics of the automotive Industry. It has already delivered on its promise to Volvo Eicher with the total number of users of the platform going up to 7300.

With 100+ industry awards, and 45 new clients onboarded in the last financial year, we at GCube would love to share more about everything Itube can do for your company. Do write to us at info@gc-solutions.net.

Making Pharma LMS GxP Compliant

 

A regular admission of our Pharma Solutions team is that they get requests from clients for an LMS which complies with GxP requirement. And it is interesting to see that even with such a large demand base, there are few products that are customized to their needs. While the need is such, traditionally the LMS and the DMS/QMS are maintained separately and the perennial client complain remains that this leads to higher overheads and vulnerabilities in compliance monitoring.

From our exploration as an LMS provider trying to figure out the optimal solution for GxP in training systems, the challenges identified were as follows:

• System maintenance, risk analysis and record keeping
• Regular system checks and a plan for business continuity
• Information security guidelines being followed based on rules of the country of operation
  
  

Based on the same we have a list of recommendations for your Pharma LMS to ensure long term GxP compliance.

System Qualification for IQ, OQ and PQ validation

For a manufacturing unit to claim to be compliant to GxP, one has to have the information of IQ, OQ and PQ and the concurrent validation available for the LMS. and creating a system qualification of the software becomes an important step to ensuring future GxP compliance.

Service Patch Records and Risk Analysis

Like any software, your LMS has to be updated regularly. However, to remain compliant, it is important that records of all service patches and risk mitigation steps are recorded on the LMS to show to Auditors that all possible steps have been taken to avoid major incidents.

System Checks and Business Continuity Planning

The LMS should come with a process for regular checking of the system. It is also required to have alternate documentation available in case of a single point or multiple point failure of BCP.  It is always advisable to store SOP and Quality guidelines in a backed-up server or the Cloud to remove on-premise vulnerabilities to knowledge or break in process. This storage also needs to come with the highest levels of security but should be accessible so work can continue at other facilities in case of one facility being affected by any major incident whether man-made or a natural disaster. There are many different options to select from including but not limited to AWS and Azure. Auditors love a good Business Continuity Plan that is secure and scalable.

Information Security Guidelines

The regulatory bodies are very particular about Pharma companies demonstrating that the InfoSec guidelines related to the country or region. While choosing an LMS it is important to acquire one that has ready documentation available to avoid any kind of non-compliance incidents been reported during a GxP audit.

While these are standard procedures required for the pharma industry, clients face major time loss trying to get these customizations done to their LMS. We suggest being proactive while looking for an LMS, rather than reacting after getting one.   

At GCube, we have 20 years of experience and 80+ industry awards in learning technologies. To know more about products and services, please do write to us. 

Automotive Industry Update: Learning Management Systems Should Be Industry Focused

Hiring an electrician to do a plumber’s job, could lead to someone or something getting zapped. Similarly using a corporate learning management system (LMS) to deliver training to the personnel at your auto dealerships can bring about dissatisfactory results.

To understand the learning needs at an automotive dealership, we looked at the variables that make our auto industry clients’ dealerships unique.

1. Diverse and non-homogenous skills and education of the work force
2. Unrelated departmental goals at first glance
3. Skewed trainer to dealership ratio
4. Lack of structured training before shop floor exposure
5. Unavailability of logical linking of training and performance

Our study suggests that for automotive dealerships the choice of LMS needs to be industry specific in order to overcome these issues. The following key features are what sets the Auto specific LMS apart from the rest of the lot. Read on.

On the job training and evaluation

At most dealerships, a new hire goes from completing their joining formalities to the shop floor directly. Under these circumstances where there is no formal training, it is important to have an LMS which has inbuilt forms, checklists, and tools. This helps mentors or seniors to keep track of everything they need to share with a trainee, and to evaluate a trainee’s performance while on-the-job.

Predictive analysis of individual’s performance to annual sales trends

Almost every role, whether customer facing or not, has an impact on the brand and reputation of a dealership, which ultimately impacts the annual sales trends. Therefore, an LMS which connects trainings attended to performance in their job roles, and then extrapolates that to find trends impacting sales, gives the leadership a way to predict training needs.

Simple user interface for diverse workforce

There cannot be different learning management systems for different departments at a dealership. Therefore, the LMS of choice must have an interface that is easy to use by an undergraduate mechanic with 20 years of on-job experience with automobile engines. With smartphones and tablets, it has become extremely easy to get a knowledge device into the hands of the employees, but the delivery of knowledge must be easy to handle and understand.

Sales and service enablement tools

Customers want great service and at a price point that makes sense to them. Whether the customer is purchasing a new vehicle, exchanging an older model, or getting one serviced, the employees talking to the customers should have knowledge, expertise, and customer service skills. Some things can be imbibed through training, but some things like market prices, loan rates, parts availability, etc. needs a ready interface that provides this information to the employee. An LMS that gives the flexibility to set up chat-bots, comparison charts, and calculators to enable point-of-sale assist is a blessing.

Integration with management systems

Integration with the CRM or dealership management system allows the LMS to fetch performance data and link it to the trainings attended or available. This also creates a visual chart or dashboard to be available to view and manage the extended workforce.

Optimum training resource utilization

When the ratio of trainer and dealerships is not optimal, the trainer has to travel extensively. Having an LMS that can track trainer calendars for availability and scheduling, and other resources such as room availability really helps. The LMS should also have an OTP feature for when the trainer starts a training. It should be able to capture attendance via an app and should also be able to deliver proctored assessments. If the LMS can provide all these insights, then it becomes easy for leadership to track the cost-benefit ratio of this method of training delivery.

In an industry that is in a constant state of flux, being able to empower and enable all the personnel at a dealership to put their best foot forward is essential. The right learning management system can help provide stability to employees and prepare them for handling the changes the future may bring.

We at GCube, have 20 years of experience and 80+ industry awards in learning technologies; and would love to hear your thoughts, queries, and suggestions. Please do write to us.