Learning management systems: organizational talents in companies!
Never before has the success of a company been so dependent on the flexibility and speed with which it reacts to market developments. This requires well-trained employees AND continuous investment in their continuing education and development.
At the same time, companies are subject to legal regulations, mandatory to complete repeated training courses for all employees and must also provide proof of this. This presents HR and specialist departments with major challenges and costs valuable resources that flow into organising continuing education. This includes, for example, managing the offer, communicating with learners or creating organizational measures such as room bookings or lists of participants.
It is also important to manage and offer relevant and attractive content in various learning formats: In addition to dazzling learning solutions from face-to-face and e-learning modules, these can include pure face-to-face formats, webinars, e-learning courses, learning videos and explanatory films, or even immersive learning formats with AR/VR support.
This dilemma of conflicting requirements such as speed and legal certainty on the one hand and complex administration and ongoing day-to-day business on the other hand makes many HR professionals feel overwhelmed. Learning Management Systems (LMS) can provide effective support here.
What is a learning management system?
The answer is far from as comprehensive as the options offered by an LMS:
A classic learning management system is the single entry point for formal, digital learning in companies. It is used to provide learning content, organize learning and enable communication between learners and trainers as well as between learners among themselves. LMS are offered in a wide variety of systems, including SaaS solutions. Deployment via SaaS is particularly simple, effective and saves resources (manpower, infrastructure).
What can a learning management system do?
Learning platforms are multifunctional
It's easier said than understood. So the question is: What exactly can LMS do, what basic functions and types of learning management systems are there and why are they so relevant for employees and companies? LMS typically offer the following basic features:
- Present continuing education catalogues: The learning platform's catalog function presents training offers clearly and individually. Certain offers are activated for specific groups or individual employees. This guarantees that every employee sees exactly the continuing education opportunities that are relevant to him or her.
- Control the registration process: As different as the continuing education offerings are, the approval process can be as different. The system allows you to store an approval workflow for each learning offer, which is automatically triggered when an employee signs up for a course or is assigned a course to them.
- Ensuring communication with learners: If ten employees need to receive course information, it may still be possible to organize this manually. But when there are hundreds or even thousands of learners, that is no longer possible. Course information or processing reminders are sent automatically and always in good time via the learning portal. Many learning management systems also offer the option of organizing virtual learning groups or have a chat function for quick and direct communication between learners and teachers.
- Take over participant management: The learning management system records all registrations and cancellations and can also control the utilization of continuing education offers and create surveys on which offers are particularly popular.
- Provide (legally compliant) learning content: The learning portal can provide documents for face-to-face training as well as e-learning courses or recordings of webinars, explanatory films or learning videos. This also includes legally required content that employees must learn.
- Managing certificates: If a participant has completed and passed a course or a learning path consisting of several learning offerings in the Learning Management System, a certificate can be generated for this. It is also possible to provide certain validity periods for these certificates. If the validity period expires, the system automatically reminds you that the training must be repeated.
- Enable adaptive learning: For example, the system can record how quickly learners work through content and — using integrated tests — recognize what their level of knowledge is. Based on this, it can assign learners content that is specifically tailored to them and thus enables very individual learning.
The basic functions and types of learning management systems presented have one thing in common: They show the learning management system primarily as an organizational tool, as a database with an end user interface, which focuses on managing formal learning in the workplace. When used and implemented correctly, the actual impact of learning management systems is even more relevant for the entire company and its employees.
What does a learning management system do?
Learning platforms are profitable
The benefits of the LMS are already apparent from its functions and possible uses. However, from a company perspective, from a personnel development perspective and from learners, there are advantages that focus in particular on their ability to act and future. Companies and personnel development benefit because:
- the number of employees to be trained can be as large as you like,
- costs such as travel costs for face-to-face learning can be reduced or saved,
- learning content is automatically assigned to employees,
- learning success checks are carried out without additional effort,
- completed learning content is proven in accordance with the law,
- up-to-date, location-independent and relevant learning is ensured at work, in the home office or on the go, and
- the consistent quality of learning content is ensured.
Auch learners benefit: They receive suitable and relevant learning opportunities at the time of need, i.e. whenever it is needed, for example to be able to complete a task. With the learning management system, employees can learn on their own, at the optimal pace and in the way that suits them best. At the same time, the portal is an opportunity to create learning groups or “learner communities” in which learners exchange ideas with other learners without interruption and with little effort.
Organizational talents on the way to the future of learning
Learning management systems are multifunctional, profitable and comprehensive tools for corporate learning.
They relieve the HR department, which, by using an LMS, can focus on content and the effective development of employees instead of managing continuing education. LMS organize the learning of the future in companies, help to reduce costs, save time and free up important strategic work that is often lost in day-to-day business. They are the organizational talent at the side of personnel development — an investment in the future viability of companies.
