“Education must be true, complete, clear and solid” (Jan Comenius)
A staff of highly qualified employees is a guarantee of fruitful activity and rapid development of any company. However, it is not always possible to form a team of professionals of the same level in a large company. In some cases, it is more expedient to hire promising, interested workers, and in the process of adaptation to provide them with the necessary knowledge base.
The management of the organization approaches the issue of training employees in different ways: it sends them to training centers, hires mentors to provide the necessary of knowledge to dedicated groups of employees, forms training centers. However, the use of these methods does not affect the productive capacity of the company in the best way: losing precious time, money, training “wrong” employees, the organization slows down its growth rates and yields in leadership to stronger competitors.
Today there is an effective method that provides simple, affordable and effective tools for corporate training – e-learning, or e-learning. High-quality implementation of the e-learning system in the company allows achieving high results of productive activity, solving the issues of professional development and education of personnel, as well as spending a minimum of time and money. Let’s consider the advantages of e-learning and determine the best ways to implement the system in an organization.
Keeping pace with the times: e-learning for personnel development
The electronic format of corporate training in companies today is not their own know-how or a luxury item. In parallel with the creation of Internet technologies and the launch of a huge number of educational portals, the e-learning system is growing rapidly and exists in the modern world of medium and large business.
Unlike the traditional form of education, the e-learning system has many advantages:
- Professional development, provision of valuable, highly specialized knowledge occurs without interrupting employees from the main workplace
- Choosing a suitable training system allows the company to optimize the financial costs of personnel education
- E-learning covers huge areas and areas of business (trade, finance, management and others)
- Electronic education provides an opportunity for individual lessons, independent study of the material in the required volume
- During the training process, participants can consult with business trainers online
- The curriculum contains sets of exercises and practical tasks with the involvement of multimedia solutions, which makes the learning process interesting, increases its understanding, assimilation and memorization
Many Russian companies successfully use the e-learning system. For example, large industrial corporations “Sibneft”, “Norilsk Nickel”, Sberbank of Russia, Ministry of Railways, “Severstal”, the network company “Siberian Health”, the center of medical services “INVITRO” and many others.
For example, Sberbank has implemented a powerful corporate training program for specific officials “Introductory Course on Banking Products”. The course contains individual training materials, as well as a powerful platform for gaining knowledge – tools available to employees online.
The project concentrates all the developments of the e-learning system for the period of using distance technologies in the company. The program is one of the most effective and large-scale corporate training systems in the Russian Federation (according to the Center for the Development of Multimedia Materials (TsRMM)).
E-learning for personnel training: stages of system implementation
How do you know that your company needs an effective e-learning system? Basically, modern companies at some stage of their activities are faced with the following problems:
- Development of non-standard production processes that require timely and mandatory study by staff
- Territorial randomness of the company’s branches
- Limited time to learn new material
- The overwhelming number of employees who received education in the traditional form of training
- Minimum budget allocated for staff training program
- There is a large number of employees in need of training.
The presence of one or more factors indicates the need to use e-learning in the company.
What should the manager take? Putting aside doubts, follow the steps of gradually introducing an e-learning system into the company.
1. Analysis of e-learning tools
There is no standard and uniform way for introducing a distance learning format into an organization – tools and programs must be adapted to the needs of a particular organization. At the initial stage, the company requires a clear building of a detailed scheme of e-learning, consisting of three main modules:
1. Autonomous system of management of distance learning (LMS “Learning Management System”)
2. Educational material (content, e-courses)
3. Author’s materials
The company faces the task of creating a large-scale knowledge base for employees to access tools, the implementation of which will help to use the e-learning system without restrictions. The basic tools that employees can use in training are:
With the use of e-learning, corporate training is acquiring a new format. A whole ecosystem is formed from a separate educational event, in which high-quality educational material is concentrated and access to powerful tools for effective training of an employee and his growth up the career ladder is open.
At the stage of moving from full-time education to distance learning, communication plays an important role. There is a chance that the employee will not be able to figure it out on his own, being left alone with the electronic course. Communicating with the group and discussing thematic issues, he will better understand and assimilate the nuances of the material.
2. Choosing an LMS that matches the objectives and goals of the company
The e-learning management system must be selected taking into account its capabilities and development prospects in the company. A huge number of functions is not the main thing. It is important to master the methodology, basic modules that will solve the problems of training company personnel today.
For example, if a company plans to connect entire groups of employees to e-learning, it is necessary to pay attention to the auxiliary tools of the system, which solve the issues of convenience of working with e-courses, have programs for training in offline and online modes.
Popular and demanded LMS systems in Russia today are:
- “Laboratory Multimedia” company (labmedia.su)
- iSpring (ispring.ru)
- CTI (cti.ru)
- Mirapolis (mirapolis.ru)
- Competentum (competentum.ru)
Representatives of some of the above companies will take part in the largest annual exhibition in the field of HR & Trainings EXPO 2017 (expo.trainings.ru).
When determining the best system for a particular company, you should consider LMS from a practical point of view, evaluate the provider’s capabilities and weigh technical characteristics of the program. An important factor that simplifies the operation of the system is the availability of the supplier of tools for quick adaptation of the system in the company, as well as the functions of convenient configuration, ease of use, availability.
Pay attention to the pricing policy of the system: e-learning helps to optimize costs, but does not act as the main “absorber” of the company’s financial resources.
3. Electronic personnel education: the planning stage
A correctly chosen LMS system solves training problems, organizes training processes and performs many functions designed for the following activities:
- Attracting specialists of various categories to training programs
- Creation of individual programs providing comprehensive training depending on specialization, professionalism, employee experience and previous training
- Development of a culture of quality self-learning in the organization
- Planning various training events
- Fast, effective help to achieve business goals
- Obtaining voluminous analytical data based on training results
Remember! E-learning tools are not a toy for employees, but a subject for effectively solving business problems! Ignoring the purpose of the system and the use of its functions by personnel for personal purposes should be stopped immediately.
4. Electronic education in the company: implementation and promotion of e-learning
At the initial stage of project implementation in the team, it is necessary to appoint an HR manager who is responsible for the operation of the system and to form a team, having correctly formed its working functions. Information about distance learning is disseminated between heads of departments, branches, managers – their support is needed in attracting employees to a new course, in creating training groups, as well as for correctly communicating the goals of the project.
By the time the key moment of launching the e-learning system comes, the company should have formed all the stages from the beginning of the development of the program to its implementation:
- E-learning goals identified
- Outlined the prospects for the development of the project in the company
- Resources dedicated to purchasing all learning tools
- Partners identified
- An integral PR team has been formed
- The LMS management system is configured (meets the set business tasks and goals)
5. Assessment of the effectiveness of the system
Monitoring of the results of e-learning work reflects the correctness of the choice and formation of all stages of the implementation of the system in the culture of the company. Distance learning is successful in a company if such changes are identified:
- The company’s budget allocated for the implementation of e-learning is optimized and justified
- New training opportunities have appeared, the audience of listeners and those wishing to participate in the project has expanded
- The introduction of new technologies has led to an increase in the rate of assimilation of the material
- Professionalism has increased, the approach to work among employees has changed
- Workflows are delivering great results
If the final results of distance learning are not encouraging, correct some of the stages of its work. Clearly define the target audience, identify whether the training program meets the requirements of the staff. E-learning will not be effective if it is delivered separately from other educational programs in the organization.
Successful e-learning implementation is the right approach to organizing a powerful learning system
If there is no talk between employees about the new training system implemented in the company, and the students enter the course “by order and at certain hours”, we can assume that the launch of the program has failed.
What to do for successful e-learning?
- Run a pilot project that addresses a simple business problem
- To attract, properly motivate company experts and personnel
- To provide heads of departments with convenient training system tools to control the training process
- Analyze the results
- Engage in internal PR of the project: the latest news, team achievements, advertising of training courses, video messages – these events should work and be interesting for the team.
Each company builds an individual line of e-learning implementation using unique programs and technical solutions. Has your system crashed and employees are not interested in the training course? Do not despair, perhaps the problem lies elsewhere.
Open the training course and take it yourself. Yawn at the tenth minute of viewing? This means that the quality and presentation of the material is of poor quality, therefore, the result of such training will be zero. To grow professionals, you need effective programs and high-quality tools, with the help of which every employee of your company will show maximum results!