E-learning examples: successfully expanding knowledge and competencies in companies

The importance of e-learning for business growth

Electronic learning, or e-learning for short, comes with a wide range of different formats and methods. Microlearning, social learning, video tutorials, blended learning, podcasts — digital learning has hardly any limits.

In this way, it has revolutionized the transfer of knowledge. With its low-threshold offerings, it promotes continuous learning: Two-hour e-learning in the office or at home is more likely to be completed than a two-day seminar in a faraway city. And it is precisely this continuous learning of employees that is of central importance for companies so that they are well positioned for the future. This is because the demands placed on the workforce are increasing as the complexity of the working world increases. Consistent upskilling — the continuous expansion of the competencies and abilities of employees — is therefore essential. For some employees or positions, the need for further training is even greater. Here, it will be necessary to completely redefine competence profiles. Because major upheavals, such as digitalization and automation, are changing the working world so drastically in places that simply expanding capabilities alone is no longer enough. This process is also known as reskilling. It is essential that employees find out about industry-specific developments, new technologies and trends. This is the only way they can develop the skills that will be urgently needed over the next few years in good time.

And it's not just the market that is constantly changing: Companies are also changing. For example, generational change is imminent. New employees are onboarded, other employees develop into managers. Different teams want creative inspiration for their work, a new project requires a change in communication, and, and — not to mention the shortage of skilled workers. In order for companies to successfully address this change, their employees need diverse and extensive skills. In addition to digitally driven future skills, traditional skills such as conflict management are still very popular. Continuous acquisition of skills and knowledge by the workforce therefore ensures the competitiveness of companies in the long term.

With e-learning, employees can easily acquire new knowledge:

• Digital learning is flexible in terms of time and location: Employees can learn when it fits into their day-to-day work.
• Employees can learn according to their previous knowledge and learning speed: chapters can be skipped or repeated as needed.
• Self-directed learning through e-learning creates a positive learning attitude.

A win-win situation, because companies also benefit from digital learning opportunities:

• With current e-learning courses that can be consumed at short notice, employees bring new ideas, methods and topics to the company. That is the basis for innovation.
• Digital learning has low costs: There is no need to travel to and from the venue and stay (s).
• Satisfied, motivated employees who see themselves supported by the company in developing their skills feel connected to the company. This secures the skilled labor base of tomorrow.
  

Would you like to find out more about the added value of e-learning? Then read our blog post Benefits of e-learning.

Examples of e-learning from practice

E-learning offers personnel developers a flexible and effective way to train and develop employees in various areas. The following three areas of development are particularly relevant in practice.

Use case 1: Using artificial intelligence

Many companies are currently planning and testing how they can optimally utilize the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) for their own operational processes. The aim is to increase efficiency in various departments and to develop more innovative solutions. The potential areas of application are wide-ranging: from the analysis of existing customers in the sales department, to the evaluation of large data sets in the research and development department, to brainstorming sessions in the marketing department. In addition, AI-driven tools can speed up text creation and editing and make it easier for creative teams to create images and PowerPoint presentations.

The challenge, however, is to empower employees to use these technologies effectively. After all, employees should not only be able to understand and use the new tools, but ideally identify other possible fields of application.

With e-learning, employees can intensively familiarise themselves with a topic in a short period of time. Interactive learning methods and specific use cases pave the way for easy transfer of new knowledge into practice.

This is what a good e-learning course on AI should do:

• After the course, course participants will master the essential terms and concepts relating to artificial intelligence.
• They recognize a wide range of applications for different areas of responsibility.
• They are able to select and use targeted AI tools to optimize work processes.
• They understand how various AI models work.
• You develop your own ideas for integrating AI into your daily work routine.

The Haufe Academy's e-learning course “Using Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Work” helps your employees take advantage of the benefits of AI in everyday work.

Use Case 2: Build leadership skills

Dynamic, fast-growing companies with a diverse workforce in particular need competent managers. They manage growth and at the same time make a significant contribution to maintaining corporate culture. But even where the “old hands” of the management team are slowly but surely retiring, the successors must build up certain leadership skills.

As an interface between C-level and employees, managers must switch between different roles. As visionaries, they communicate the corporate strategy and actively implement it. In addition, they must be role models who live and promote corporate culture. At the same time, as coaches, they motivate and support their teams, but may also have to make decisions relevant to employment law. In short: Managers must have a diverse set of skills, ranging from principles of employment law and strategic thinking to communication skills and empathy.

In order for them to meet their diverse daily challenges, it is important to continuously train and develop team leads. However, training courses lasting several days are often difficult to schedule in executives' busy schedules. On the other hand, they can integrate e-learning courses flexibly and in short bites into their daily work routine.

These and other topics are highly relevant to the skill set of managers:

• employment law,
• lead agile teams
• delegate tasks,
• conduct job interviews,
• women in leadership,
• crisis communication,
• knowledge of human nature,
• increase team performance,
• Lead change.

The Content Collection”Leadership and leadership“offers over 40 e-learning courses to prepare your managers so that they can change roles at any time.

Use Case 3: Development of soft skills

Employees are often forced to leave their comfort zone during everyday work: for example when they give presentations to large groups, manage conflicts within a team or conduct demanding sales talks. Such challenges can create uncertainty and, in the worst case, impact performance.

Distinctive soft skills such as communication, conflict management and presentation skills help employees to successfully complete their tasks. E-learning courses provide optimal support in building these skills. If necessary, they provide employees with effective methods and relevant background knowledge, even at short notice. For example, how to learn effectively from mistakes, how to make meetings productive or how to present results confidently.

Other examples of relevant soft skills include:

• business creativity,
• the ability to make good decisions
• giving and receiving feedback
• deal with critical voices, unqualified comments or even insults,
• conflict management,
• body language,
• mental health,
• quick-wittedness and rhetoric,
• self-marketing,
• ... and much more.

E-learning courses on personal and social skills empower your employees when it really matters: whether the day before the presentation, in conflict, or for long-term networking. Die Content Collection offers over 40 courses on the subject.

E-learning examples: basic knowledge in various areas of the company

Permanent acquisition of knowledge by the workforce is essential today so that companies can survive on the market in the long term. This applies not only to trending topics: All areas of the company benefit from consistent upskilling. In this section, you will find an overview of the most important topics in which you should expand the basic knowledge of your employees.

Leadership Skills

With internal projects, it can easily happen that not everything runs smoothly: There is often no official project management, deadlines are not met and unclear decision-making processes take time. The person who may have received the project in addition to daily business is facing major challenges. She must make decisions, resolve conflicts, promote communication within the team and at the same time maintain an overview of day-to-day business. And that with a tight deadline, but often without official authority to issue instructions.

In such a case, a quick and effective solution is needed to successfully carry out and complete the project. A compact e-learning course on leadership skills can be flexibly integrated into everyday working life and completed promptly. This shows, for example, how managers without official authority to issue instructions win over people in the company. To this end, employees learn about lateral leadership tools and find solutions. For example, the course “Leadership without a supervisor function” helps to effectively improve informal leadership skills.

Diversity

Dealing with diversity and inclusion is playing an increasingly important role in our society. Because people with different ethnic backgrounds, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, ideology and social background or different physical and mental abilities naturally also meet at work.

Many companies have already recognized that a diverse workforce brings great benefits. Diverse perspectives, experiences and skills improve, for example, innovative strength and problem-solving skills. E-learnings, such as “Unconscious Biases,” are available to raise awareness of prejudices. Here, participants learn to recognize their own unconscious thought patterns and make more objective decisions.

Health

Today's working world is characterized by speed, change, constant availability and high pressure to succeed. But not just in a professional environment — in many areas of life, the motto applies: higher, faster, further. In this environment, health skills are becoming increasingly important. Stress management, emotional resilience, and the ability to adapt are more in demand than ever.  

It is important for employees to learn strategies to deal with stress and pressure and to develop their psychological resilience. They can build up the necessary knowledge flexibly in terms of time and place with e-learning courses, such as the “Resilience” course.

Communication and Collaboration

It is hard to avoid being annoyed by the behavior of a colleague during everyday work. But especially conflicts that have been bubbling under the surface unresolved for a long time can impair personal work performance or even team performance. However, it is not at all easy to factually reflect to the person concerned what triggers their behavior. It quickly happens that the other person feels knocked over the head.

Constructive interpersonal interaction and effective communication are the backbone of successful organizations. They are essential for a positive corporate culture and well-functioning teams. How to give and accept feedback correctly can be learned effectively through topic-specific e-learning and applied directly in everyday life. Courses such as “Giving and Receiving Feedback” also teach, for example, the factors and effects of feedback and how it differentiates from praise and criticism.

Artificial Intelligence, Data and Digitization

There is no way around AI. Technology has now arrived in everyday working life and AI-based, data-driven decisions will play an increasingly important role in the future. It is therefore essential for employees to deepen their digital skills and to deal intensively with AI and AI tools. These future skills of the workforce are an important factor for a company's competitiveness and economic success.

E-learning courses are ideal for quickly acquiring new skills. For example, the course “Using Artificial Intelligence to Adapt Products and Processes” shows how AI can be used to increase the efficiency and innovative power of work processes and products. Learners also train to assess the influence of generative AI on HR, logistics and finances and to identify potential risks such as deep fakes.

Methods and Work Techniques

A new topic or project can also present experienced employees with unexpected challenges. Because sometimes you simply don't achieve the desired, innovative result with the usual working methods. Then it helps to get an overview of various methods and working techniques. True to the motto: Think out of the (tool) box! There are a variety of tools and techniques that can be consumed and learned as small “bites” in an e-learning course, such as in the “Innovation Toolbox” course. In this way, innovative strength can be expanded as a skill in the workforce — the key to successful companies in the long term.

Presentation and Moderation

What combines a strategic approach to process optimization, a new campaign concept and an idea for an innovative product? As creative as the ideas may be — they really have to be convincing! Because what doesn't convince stakeholders won't be realized.

The ability to present ideas and solutions convincingly is therefore essential for employees. Anyone who effectively communicates ideas can convince management and get the team carried away.

An e-learning course can help develop these skills, for example on the subject of storytelling: This technique can help to present complex content in a structured and understandable way and to convey messages convincingly.

Personnel Leadership and Management

Good knowledge of human nature is essential in order to lead teams well and make them successful. It is a key competence of successful managers. Managers with a high level of knowledge of human nature recognize the different needs, ambitions and personalities of their employees and have the ability to react accordingly. In this way, they give their team a good basis to be successful.

For managers who want to effectively develop their skills in this area, compact e-learnings, such as “Knowledge of Human Being in Management,” are suitable. There, for example, they learn what influences human behavior, understand perceptual errors and body language. In this way, they improve their ability to motivate their employees in a manner appropriate to their type.

Personal Development

Mistakes are human. And they are necessary to learn and develop new solutions. But while many people are already harshly judging themselves when they make a mistake in their private lives, the subject is even more taboo at work.

You can train to fail better and learn from your own and others' mistakes. Such changes of perspective contribute to personal and professional development. In e-learning courses, for example, learners learn more about the benefits of a positive error culture and learn how to deal with mistakes constructively. For example, they also learn how to avoid negative actions such as ignoring or punishing mistakes so that they can learn from mistakes. The e-learning course “The Error Culture” supports employees in establishing a positive error culture.

Change and Organizational Development

In order to survive in the market, organizations must be agile and adapt to market and technology-driven changes, among other things. That means: new processes, new team structures, new tools. Over and over again and often at short intervals. Although these are necessary, they keep the workforce really busy. It's no wonder that some employees find it difficult to keep up with the constant changes and feel left behind. However, for the change to be successful, as many people as possible should support it.

E-learnings such as the “Strengthening Change Skills” course provide valuable impulses for dealing with change more confidently. For example, identifying positive facets and using your own strengths in change situations. For example, learners also learn more about the reasons behind resistance or learn how to use emotions in a targeted manner when making changes.

Economic Efficiency

A basic understanding of economic thinking and action is the basis of economic decisions and therefore an essential factor for the success of a company. But employees without commercial or business education may lack basic principles. With e-learning courses, such as “BWL Basics”, the most important terms and contexts of business administration can be acquired in a short period of time. This allows employees to better understand their contribution to the value creation process and recognize, for example, the effects of decisions on the cost structure.

Compliance, Data Protection and IT Security

Compliance, i.e. compliance with laws and guidelines, is a central aspect in every organization. This is intended to minimize risks and preserve the integrity of the company. This offers more extensive collections of e-learning topics that cover a wide range of compliance topics, including data protection, IT security or occupational safety. Depending on the provider, these training courses meet not only business-relevant security topics but also legal requirements. The Haufe Academy offers such a coordinated collection in its Compliance College on.

Basic Knowledge in the area of sustainability

Sustainability is playing an increasingly important role in the business world, especially as legal requirements are gradually being created to protect the environment and human rights. Companies are therefore increasingly required to integrate sustainable practices into their operating processes. that Sustainability College is a collection of selected e-learning courses that provide the necessary knowledge to effectively implement sustainability practices in companies.

Our tips for choosing a good e-learning product

There are a few criteria that you should consider when choosing suitable e-learning courses:

Relevance and quality of the e-learning product

The relevance of learning content is the be-all and end-all of a good e-learning offer. When your employees recognize the direct connection to their daily work, their motivation to learn also increases. Make sure that the content of the courses is tailored to your company's continuing education strategy and the needs of your workforce. A good e-learning provider will help you do this by offering you a wide range of courses tailored to various professional fields and competencies.

The quality of the courses is also crucial. Make sure that the courses are designed by experts and have a high methodological and didactic standard. Practice-oriented exercises and tests should deepen the learning content and support the transfer to everyday working life. Another quality feature is the multilingualism of the courses, which enables international use.

interfaces  

There are two options for providing e-learning courses: Either you use the provider's learning environment or you integrate the courses into your existing learning environment via interfaces such as SCORM or LTI 1.3. Both options have their advantages: Using the provider's learning environment is particularly attractive for companies that are just discovering e-learning and want to start it quickly. Integration into your own learning environment, on the other hand, makes it possible to provide external expertise within existing processes and systems.

Usability of the e-learning platform  

Good usability of the e-learning platform is crucial for acceptance and use by your employees. An intuitive user interface and a clear structure of learning content facilitate access and promote learning motivation. The flexibility of the platform also plays a role: Can the courses be used on different devices? Are there mobile learning features? When choosing, make sure that the solution meets the needs and habits of your workforce.

Die Content Collection supports you in developing and expanding the competencies of your employees with more than 150 e-learning courses at a flat rate. The course collection includes topics such as “Transformation and Digitalization,” “Leadership,” or “Project and Change Management.” It fits seamlessly into existing platforms or can be combined with Haufe Academy's learning environments. Discover the wide range of options that the Content Collection offers for your company.

E-learning examples: Conclusion

The importance of e-learning will continue to grow in the future. Companies that want to successfully train their employees and expand their skills cannot ignore this format. Digital learning offers companies an effective way to train and develop their workforce in many different subject areas. It is important to select the appropriate e-learning product and to tailor the learning content to the specific needs and requirements of the company. In this way, the benefits of digital learning can be fully exploited and the company's competitiveness can be ensured in the long term.