For companies looking to incorporate a new training program, the advantages of e-learning greatly outweigh those of face-to-face or classroom learning. Advancement and efficiency are extremely important to businesses today, and many organizations are turning to e-learning to save money, time, and energy. Here’s a breakdown of some of the benefits companies can gain from implementing an online training platform (and why your company should position itself as an e-learning company in order to attract top talent).
E-Learning Is Cost Effective
An online training system reduces many costs that would normally be associated with classroom training, including travel, learning materials, venues, and catering. With outdated training methods, updating and reproducing learning materials is costly and time-consuming. Online training platforms let you update important text packets and lesson plans quickly and easily, and since they remain online, you can save on printing costs. Given the savings a company can see after implementing an online employee training program, ROI is one of the clearest benefits of e-learning for businesses.
E-Learning Improves Performance and Productivity
People are always looking for opportunities to grow. Online training allows employees to quickly get up to speed on new processes. One major complaint about traditional training methods is that the time consuming nature of the programs takes away from valuable
time that could have been spent on other work. With training management systems, employees can participate in their online courses at any time—including at home or during down time at work—so learning doesn’t have to conflict with other important or time-sensitive job tasks. Online training platforms also allow employees to revisit key information right when they need it.
E-Learning Is Convenient and Flexible
E-learning means no boundaries. One of the key advantages of e-learning is that employees have the ability to participate in online courses from anywhere with an internet connection. This eliminates a lot of energy spent coordinating where and when a course will take place. Gathering a whole team of employees together in one place is never easy, and never efficient. E-learning gives both management and employees more flexibility to complete important “just-in-time” training as requirements change.
E-Learning Allows Timely Feedback
Employees are able to get real-time feedback during an online training course. And because everything is connected online, management can also get up-to-date analyses on how courses are performing, and they track the progress of individual employees. Another bonus for management? No manual evaluations of coursework. If you want to include quizzes in your training, all course authors need to do is provide the correct answers, and the learning management system can automate the grading and evaluation.
E-Learning Provides Easy Access to Information
We all know that referring back to sloppy hand-written notes taken during training sessions is not the most effective way to retain information. Online training helps take paper out of the equation altogether. E-learning materials are stored online, so employees can access important resources any time they encounter a question or difficult situation. And really, isn’t that the point of the training anyway?
E-Learning Improves Retention
E-learning companies get the opportunity to create fun and engaging training courses through the use of videos, interactive slides, and even games. These intriguing courses lead to better results by helping employees retain more of the information learned.
E-Learning Personalizes the Training Experience
Not every employee learns the same way. Even though the course material is consistent for all users, e-learning allows each individual learner to control the pace of the course. Because of the flexibility e-learning provides, users can also take the course in an environment more conducive to their learning style.
The advantages of e-learning are plentiful. But here’s where businesses may be the most interested: the bottom line. E-learning helps companies create a higher quality, more effective training experience for employees, at a more affordable cost. When employees can be more excited about training, their engagement carries over into the rest of their work, and when that engagement is multiplied across entire departments, the bottom line is impacted. A company’s ROI might be the most surprising—and most apparent—advantage of online learning.
