A learning management system (LMS) is a software platform that helps businesses automate the creation, management, monitoring, and reporting of digital staff training programs - at scale.
Companies that use a learning management system have better-trained and more efficient staff - that they can retain for longer.
In this article, we answer the question 'What is a learning management system?' and help you discover the vast benefits an LMS can provide for your business.
Companies know that training for their employees is essential.
Not only does it improve productivity by 37% and help you meet regulatory requirements, but it also helps to create a positive company culture.
The trouble is that mandatory training is time-consuming and repetitive - because you must deliver the same information to every employee.
Only some companies have a dedicated learning and development function, so it's often left to the HR or IT teams to take care of - alongside their primary responsibilities.
These teams know they need to deliver mandatory training but don’t have the time to dedicate significant time or energy towards it.
Research by Evidente shows that HR managers are so bogged down with operational activities like employee reviews and talent acquisition that training is often de-prioritized.As a result, 80% of HR managers need help to overcome their company's internal skills gaps - and organizations miss out on an important way to build and promote company culture.
Even when HR and IT teams can find time to do mandatory training, they’re often forced to repeat the same dull PowerPoint slides or unwieldy PDF documents.
This manual approach to mandatory training is time-consuming for everyone involved and a poor experience for the recipients.
Don't worry; there is another way - delivering training with an LMS like XtraMile.
Instead of long, boring, and repetitive training, the e-learning module in XtraMile combines video and text to help you quickly produce engaging training in bite-sized chunks.
Research by Forrester shows that delivering training like this is substantially more engaging for audiences than stale slides and tedious PDFs.
Breaking the content up into easily digestible pieces helps people learn the core concepts more quickly and retain information better in the long term.
By using a learning management system (LMS) to automate their training initiatives, companies can quickly achieve their learning and development goals, including;
If you've been struggling without an LMS - like XtraMile - in your organization, you probably already have a vast training backlog.
So, let's look at some of the most popular types of training you can deliver more efficiently and more effectively than ever using a learning management system.
There are several different types of training that a company or institution could use an LMS for, including things like:
While these are all valid use cases for an LMS, we will focus on using a learning management system to deliver mandatory internal training programs in this article.
This type of internal training often needs to be delivered to all employees to ensure companies meet their employer obligations - but it can become tiresome and repetitive.
Mandatory training also allows your organisation to promote its own way of doing things as part of a consistent company culture.
Within reason, there is no limit to the types of mandatory training programs you could deliver using a learning management system, but common examples include;
But how do you know if a mandatory training LMS - like XtraMile - is right for your organization?
If you're new to using a learning management system, you might be wondering if your company is ready for a dedicated LMS.
There is no ‘right size’ for adopting an LMS - companies of all sizes use them.
However, typically, we see fast-growing companies benefitting most from implementing an LMS for the first time.
As soon as your company grows across multiple departments and offices - using a dedicated LMS to deliver mandatory training becomes increasingly important.
Companies at this scale need to offer a variety of training - but repeatedly delivering and managing that training means enormous amounts of time-sapping admin without an LMS.
There is no upper or lower limit to the number of employees you can have using an LMS.
But, if your company adopts a learning management system, which people in your organization should own and manage it moving forward?
Typically, we see two roles that tend to take responsibility for an LMS within their organization - HR and IT leaders.
For HR leaders, the main focus is on things like hiring, firing, onboarding, and disciplining staff, but their responsibilities don't end there.
They've also got to worry about ensuring every employee receives adequate training in company policies, procedures, and things like sustainability.
Because they're so busy, HR leaders can be forgiven for not putting this mandatory training at the top of their 'to-do' list, but they know that it's vital because of external pressures like:
Currently, these HR leaders - and their teams - are using piecemeal solutions cobbled together from standard office software like PowerPoint, spreadsheets, and shared drives.
However, doing it this way is time-consuming, difficult to track, prone to errors, and doesn’t offer a great experience to those receiving the training.
Adopting a learning management system changes all this and makes training easy for HR leaders in 3 key ways:
Easy course creation - using dedicated course authoring tools and AI course generation options eradicates the manual work required to create internal training content.
Easy tracking - instantly understand who has completed training and follow up automatically, removing the need to chase people up or manage unwieldy spreadsheets.
Easy management - get total end-to-end management of your entire internal training program from one central platform. Say goodbye to fragmented systems and processes.
Like HR leaders, IT leaders often have to wear multiple hats within their organization.
This means that as well as rolling out new software, managing the IT infrastructure, and keeping company data secure - they also have to worry about training.
The stakes are getting increasingly higher for IT leaders when it comes to delivering effective training, particularly training on data security and compliance. Key drivers include:
Failure to keep on top of this could lead to significant fines being imposed on the company or a loss of trust by their customers.
This means that IT leaders need to deliver and track business-critical training across the entire organization.
The current solutions - the same motley crew of slides, spreadsheets, and shared drives used by HR - aren't fit for purpose at scale.
With the stakes so high, IT teams typically choose to use a specific type of LMS dedicated to compliance and security awareness training.
However, XtraMile is purpose-built to handle all types of mandatory training - including compliance and security awareness.
Centralizing their mandatory training in a unified company-wide LMS like XtraMile means that IT leaders can take advantage of all the time-saving and compliance benefits without maintaining a separate system.
An LMS - like XtraMile - offers a faster and better way to manage mandatory training. If this is your aim, there are several key features you should be looking out for, including:
This is not an exhaustive list, but it should help you think more clearly about what some of the best mandatory training-focused learning management systems can offer.
What key outcomes can you expect to see once you start using an LMS in your company?
Whether you’re an HR or IT leader, leveraging an LMS - like XtraMile - to help you deliver mandatory training has several distinct benefits that will positively impact your entire organization. These include;
Simplifying training - using a dedicated system helps to take the thinking and ‘guesswork’ out of creating and delivering mandatory training in your company.
Create courses in less time - thanks to generative AI technology and advanced course authoring tools, you can cut the time you spend creating training material by up to 70%.
Making compliance easy - robust reporting options and progress tracking let you see who has completed mandatory training at a glance, helping you keep on top of compliance.
Streamlined onboarding - automatic training enrollment options mean you can bring new staff up to speed in minutes - and create a slick experience to impress new employees.
Made for training - instead of wasting time using an ensemble of tools and documents to deliver training, you can target training improvements efficiently with a specialist platform.
Quick training roll-out - dramatically cut the time it takes to deliver training across your organization, speeding it up by as much as 8X.
Instant certificates - recognize the hard work put in by staff who complete your training by instantly issuing certificates - and also use them as part of your record keeping.
There is no substitute for using the right tool for the job, and the benefits that a mandatory training-dedicated LMS offers companies are clear.
Unsurprisingly, 80% of HR managers struggle to address internal skills gaps in their organization - especially if they’re trying to conduct training at scale without an LMS.
Research shows that mandatory training is seen as a time-consuming and highly manual process by many HR and IT leaders - and it doesn’t get the time and attention it deserves.
Despite this. both HR and IT managers must get their training offerings right, however.
Not only will they see a 37% increase in productivity across the organization, but they’ll also meet compliance targets and help instill a sense of company culture.
Choosing XtraMile as your LMS will help your HR and IT trainers save at least 70% of the time they previously spent on mandatory training by automating the whole process.
Ready to see how XtraMile works? Sign up for a free demo today.