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.

Reducing of Time to Productivity

 

Large product portfolios with varying level of complexities for new teams with different levels of skills and knowledge. Have we been able to state the most basic issue of your life as BFSI leader? Our gut feeling is that we have. Longer time to productivity usually always means lesser time at peak productivity due to compliance mandates and certifications in your industry.

Thus, the basic and foremost requirement of any BFSI organization is to achieve shorter TTP and here are 5 steps to do the same. All you need is the right LMS.

Step 1: Pre-joining Engagement

The idea is to identify the skills and abilities of each individual right at the time of joining so there is no wastage of time and effort. The information can be captured on the LMS which can then deploy trainings according to the levels at which the employee currently is. A pre-joining training kit which may contain information about the organization, leadership, payroll etc also helps the employees settle down faster with the company with a sense of belonging.

The pre-joining involvement through the LMS creates the opportunity to deploy all the basic training modules related to the company’s products and key phrases or industry jargon so that your new-hires can hit the floor running. Of course, these will be material which are available on the public domain and are not proprietary documents. 

Step 2: Creating Personalized Learning Path

With information gathered and basic training deployed in the previous step, an effective LMS can then assign automated training to a new hire to bring them at par with others in their batch or even move someone to advanced batches if they are ahead of the others. Keeping in mind the different skill levels, talents and learning styles, a good learning management system can create a learning path for individuals based on multiple factors and help them to find what they are good at and truly enjoy doing. This in-turn helps them achieve peak performance faster.

As the learning is mapped to the job role or product an individual is handling, the LMS can throw up timely notifications required for certification or guideline updates which otherwise leads to confusions and loss of productivity.

Step 3: Create Immersive Learning Experience

The number of products in BFSI is extensive and often riddled with complexities that employees must navigate and be able to explain in simple language. This means they require in-depth understanding of the product, which is easy to deliver through interactive media via an LMS. Trainees are offered life-like simulations for scenarios, understanding of product combinations and with inputs from sales teams for real questions asked by customers. What they get is an immersive experience and are more confident to achieve peak performance faster.

Small learning nuggets can be sent to the employees at regular intervals, automated through the LMS. This ensures continued and reinforced learning which reduces knowledge loss and creates better customer experience.

Step 4: Segregate Experience Employees from new ones

Segregation of training programs and content based on who the audience is effectively reduces time lost in futile training or retraining. An LMS is again key to this step to achieve desired results. For example, the same product needs to have two deliveries. For basic level folks who need more detailed explanations and an advanced level for whom it can be a quick upskill intervention. As your LMS already has the learning data of each individual, it can help you identify the right kind of training required for a particular individual who is at a particular level of understanding or experience.  

Step 5: Make Learning an Agile Process

A company that has a tradition of agility will always find it easier to handle bumps in the road. Like most things, training processes and systems also experience fatigue and become outdated very quickly. BFSI companies need to invest in an LMS that are built to handle and respond to update needs in an intelligent way. A good LMS will allow deployment of changes, alerts to roles who need to learn or get certified, and also give leadership visibility to the status of certifications, especially those that fall under the compliance umbrella.

Knowledge is very liquid and relative, especially as the typical time in a role gets impacted by attrition, role change or promotions. Leaders need to be able to get more time per resource at peak productivity and the right LMS can be an ideal partner to help organizations achieve their Time to Productivity goals.

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.

Fostering Continuous Learning Culture: Shifting Focus towards Implementing New-age Corporate LMS

In today’s fast-paced environment, companies are utilizing corporate LMS platforms to embrace continuous learning culture and remain competitive. For individuals, continuous learning is all related to browsing the web to watch webinars, read posts, or enrolling in a certification program. For workplace culture, continuous learning is about improving employee engagement, knowledge retention, and accelerating organizational performance. Online corporate learning programs cater to the pertinent needs of globally dispersed audiences by enhancing their skills and creating new growth opportunities.

Organizations adopt a continuous learning culture to keep their employees abreast of the latest LMS technology. So, modern LMS for corporate training plays a significant role in creating a learning culture through a plentiful of ways. These include-

• Content accessibility- Anytime and anywhere

To embrace continuous learning, modern LMSs support the availability of personalized training content across different mobile devices- laptops and smartphones. Mobile learning has gained huge traction in the past few years, with the rise of tablets in the corporate world.  Using a mobile LMS, learners can access relevant training material at their own pace of time, while at home, in office, or while on the go.

• Performance tracking- Real-time feedback

The leading corporate LMS providers deliver e-learning solutions to bridge skills-gaps, boost workforce performance, and enhance business productivity. Modern LMS integrates with other enterprise systems such as HRMS, CRM, and others to fetch employee data and create Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Based on the KPI scores, the LMS automatically aligns personalized training for diverse training goals- compliance, sales training, onboarding, and so on. Also, corporate managers can provide real-time feedback to their employees rather than waiting for annual appraisal cycles. As a result, employees can efficiently work on their weak areas continually, thereby saving costs and boosting overall productivity.

• Game-based learning- It can be fun

When training becomes dull and boring, it is essential to introduce engaging gaming elements with e-learning courses. Modern LMS supports the gamification feature by including interactive elements such as scores, leaderboards, and badges. Consequently, organizations embrace a fun-filled learning culture by encouraging employees through rewards, driving peer-to-peer collaboration, and gaining a competitive edge.

• Measuring success- Overall training impact

One of the significant benefits of modern LMSs is to bridge skills-gaps, boost engagement, and measure training effectiveness. By measuring different parameters such as skills metrics, training completion rates, test scores, and more, organizations can measure the overall impact of training on employees. So, this continuous measurement of training success ensures that learning caters to the bespoke needs of all.
A workplace learning culture is not a one-time done practice. With evolving training needs, the learning culture also needs to be continuous as well as personalized. Undoubtedly, continuous learning is reshaping the modern training landscape. New-age best corporate LMS adopts a game-based, mobile-aided, and performance-driven learning approach to provide a dynamic experience that hooks every learner. The traditional training model is falling away, and companies are shifting their focus to deliver training that is on-demand, personalized, and technology-aided. So, a continuous learning culture not only boosts your employee growth and retention but also aids businesses to grow and succeed.