Employee training is crucial for employee growth and professional development. It not only helps employees to meet the demands of the job but increases their motivation and engagement. Training never stops – it should be a continuous process for all employees. Without continuous learning opportunities staying relevant and on top of evolving digital trends is difficult. There are many advantages companies experience from employee training, such as more productivity and greater retention.
Training employees can be a huge expense, especially for small companies. This is where e-learning can make a difference. E-learning saves time and money. It also enables companies to train remote employees in a structured and consistent manner. Employees can access online courses from anywhere and at any time as long as they have access to a stable internet connection and a mobile phone.
Purpose of employee training
The global e-learning market is predicted to grow to more than $370 billion by 2026. This is mainly due to the convenience and flexibility it offers employers. Employee training has an impact not only on employees but on a company’s bottom line. It can increase employee engagement, motivation, and retention. Employees become more productive and less likely to make mistakes. Here are some of the main purposes of employee training.
- It helps employees to stay up-to-date on new technologies. When employees learn how to use new technology effectively it offers a company a competitive edge.
- Employees can stay current when it comes to best practices. This helps to reduce risks, ensure compliance, and increase productivity.
- It creates opportunities for the professional development of employees. They learn new skills that can help them in their careers. Learning experiences help to motivate them and this increases employee retention.
- Employees need less supervision when they become more competent. They learn how to take responsibility and don’t have to rely so much on support from others.
- When employees can make the best use of tools, equipment, etc. it minimizes the waste of resources. This lowers the environmental impact of training.
Advantages of online employee training
Cost-effective: Online training is cost-effective in comparison to in-person training. All an employee needs is a device like a computer or mobile phone and internet access to complete a learning course. This saves time and reduces the need for special venues, printed materials, special instructors, etc. Some studies show that e-learning can reduce the learning time of employees by up to about 60%. E-learning works particularly well now that more employees work remotely. They can access online training at any time which helps them to reinforce and retain information.
Self-paced learning: In a traditional setting, instructors present material to the class at the pace acceptable to most learners. This doesn’t allow individuals to choose the pace at which learning is comfortable for them. When employees have access to online learning, they can learn at a pace that suits them. This can make learning more enjoyable and effective. It shifts responsibility to employees who can facilitate their own development and learning becomes more learner-centric.
Interactivity: One of the problems when it comes to e-learning can be a lack of interactivity. Today e-learning platforms can offer the type of tools and features that help to promote interactive learning. These may include quizzes, surveys, polls, and discussion groups. Real-life scenarios and game elements can help to convey specific skills in a relatable way. Giving employees access to bite-sized videos or breaking content up into chapters makes it more accessible and actionable.
Collaboration: E-learning encourages collaboration between employees from different departments. Unifying all training resources on a single platform makes it easy to share resources.
Analytical reports: Companies need to find out as much as they can about how employees interact with training materials. The use of analytical reports enables them to scale the effectiveness of their training programs.
How to choose an e-learning platform
Companies need to decide whether an e-learning platform saves time, and money and increases employee productivity. They need to define their training goals and what they want to achieve. This will help them to choose a platform that aligns with the outcomes they want.
Companies also need to consider what type of training content they want to use and how they will organize and structure it. This will help to determine the features and functionalities they need from an e-learning platform.
Budget is another important consideration. How much can they afford to spend on a platform and what are the upfront and ongoing costs?
Here are some factors companies need to consider when choosing an e-learning platform
1. Ease of use
There shouldn’t be too steep a learning curve for employees when using e-learning solutions. If it’s too hard to use, employees will resist learning. Sometimes too many features can just make a platform harder to navigate. Companies must carefully evaluate user experience (UX).
An online learning platform must have an intuitive, user-friendly interface. Controls must be easy to use and navigation should be clear. Good organization of content is necessary for employees to easily find what they need.
2. Technological requirements
When evaluating an online learning platform, companies need to consider technological requirements. Online courses often contain a great deal of video content. Videos are large and difficult to store, categorize, and share due to their size and complexity.
- When watching educational videos, the quality of the videos and the speed at which they load is important.
- Companies need to think about the range of internet connections and digital devices employees use. This is particularly important when employees work remotely.
- An online learning platform should support classes that happen in real-time and learning that takes place at times convenient to individual participants. An online learning course usually consists of a mixture of both types of learning content –synchronous and asynchronous.
3. Accessibility
As wide a range of employees as possible should have access to learning content. This should include those with disabilities or those who speak different languages. Offering employees mobile-friendly training content enables them to access it even while on the go. This gives them more flexibility when choosing when and where to learn. They can use their time more effectively.
4. Customization
Companies should have the opportunity to customize online training to suit their particular needs. They should be able to use different forms of content in courses, such as webinars, videos, images, and podcasts. This helps to make courses more engaging and suit different styles of learning. Customization of a video player can also help employees to control how they view content.
5. Integration
An online learning platform should support integration with other software/applications that companies already use. Incorporating learning into current workflows makes it more effective. A learning management system should be able to ‘talk to’ other systems. Application program interfaces (APIs) allow companies to integrate all their internal systems.
6. Interactivity
Employees learn more when they learn actively rather than passively. This involves the use of interactive features to support learning. Employees should be able to do quizzes and receive feedback. They should be able to click a call-to-action button and download further material such as an ebook. They should have access to a wide range of content and links to additional resources. Quizzes, surveys, annotations, calls-to-action, and other interactive elements are essential to make the e-learning experience more engaging. Quizzes with multi-choice questions enable companies to test the performance of employees.
7. Scalability
Companies need to evaluate the ability of the platform to scale if necessary. The hosting capacity must be suitable for both current and future needs. There should be easy ways to add new users or courses. If a company continues to grow, it should be able to handle more users.
8. Security
Online learning experiences should be safe and secure. Individual students require this and it is also necessary to comply with regulations about keeping confidential information secure. A security breach can cost a company in terms of revenue, brand image, and reputation.
A security feature like single sign-on (SSO) enables employees to access more than one application using the same credentials. Encryption, password protection, and authorizing use on specific domains are other security features that help to protect confidential information.
9. Analytics
Companies need to know how employees are doing with online training. They need detailed insights into what resources they use most. They need to see what training videos employees watch, how long they watch, and when they drop off. They can see where they get stuck and where there may be gaps in their knowledge. Information like this allows them to make strategic changes.
Access to in-depth analytics enables companies to observe employee behavior and fine-tune their online training. Instructors also have insights they can use to evaluate student performance and can offer more assistance to specific students if necessary.
10. Support
An e-learning platform must offer employees the support they need when they need it. They should have access to a support team to give them answers to questions. The support team should be available via email, chat, or phone. Employees can be directed to useful resources to help them answer their questions.
Cincopa for e-learning
Cincopa is one of the best platforms to create an online learning course. Companies can use the platform to manage, design, and host courses. They can easily record, upload, and arrange videos and other media into user-friendly online courses from a single platform which helps to streamline processes and save money.
Course organization: There are numerous video templates companies can use. For example, a tutorial video template segments videos step-wise but keep them in one single gallery to retain the flow. Combining media in galleries offers employers a way to systematically structure online courses. Employees can then consume content in a linear way.
Searchability: Adding meta-tags, titles, and descriptive information to videos can help with content organization. Employees can find the right content at the right time. This can be particularly useful with bite-sized content that offers specific information they can use in the right situation.
Customization: Users can customize the video player with their logo, brand colors, fonts, and a watermark. They can use multimedia content such as videos, images, and audio to support different learning styles and enhance engagement.
Content delivery network (CDN): Cincopa has a content delivery network (CDN) with distributed servers. This enables it to deliver consistent video streaming quality and speed at scale. Employees can have seamless learning experiences no matter where they watch or how many of them watch a video at the same time.
Responsive design: It doesn’t matter what devices employees use to watch videos. Responsive design allows them to have the same experience whether watching on the screen of a computer or a mobile phone.
Live streaming and video-on-demand (VOD): Live streaming makes sharing up-to-date content possible in real time. Companies can live stream content and convert it into VOD. Employees can select VOD content from a database and watch it whenever they choose. They always have relevant content at hand.
Embed code: An SEO-friendly auto-generated embed code allows users to embed videos on their websites.
Accessibility: With features like captioning and transcripts, employees can access online training even if they speak another language, have a disability, or simply want to watch in a public space.
Integration: Cincopa integrates with many of the software solutions companies already use. They may use them for purposes like email marketing, e-commerce, communication, and learning management. Software solutions it integrates with include Zoom, MailChimp, Slack, Zendesk, and Moodle. With Cincopa’s LMS plugin companies can create media-rich e-learning web portals.
Interactive options: Some of the interactive options available on Cincopa include the ability to segment videos into chapters. This allows employees to immediately access the chapter they need without having to go through a whole video. They can complete quizzes, and polls, make comments, and share.
Security: Cincopa offers security measures such as encryption, password security, domain lock, and single sign-on to help companies secure their online learning content.
Advanced analytics: Cincopa has analytics that enables companies to see exactly how students digest content. Video heatmaps identify where viewers pause, skip, or rewatch content. They help employers to track, understand, and improve learning content.
Start building an effective, e-learning course to boost your onboarding and employee training with Cincopa’s free trial. You’ll have access to advanced analytics, interactive tools to keep your viewers engaged and the option to invite collaborators to work with you.
Conclusion
Employee training is extremely important and it can be done in a cost-effective, reliable way with e-learning courses. Choosing the right online learning platform is essential. Employees will be able to improve their professional development and enjoy comprehensive learning experiences. Employers will reap the benefits such as lower costs and higher productivity.
