Choosing an LMS for the Future

Any organisation that is serious about learning and development will realise that training strategies can’t ever stand still, lest they be left behind by the relentless progress of a constantly evolving business market. With each passing year, established ideas fall out of fashion as they are supplanted by fresher concepts, while new legislative measures can lead to significant paradigm shifts. 

Compliance and legislation are always being updated to keep up with societal changes, such as ethics, technology, social values, morality and events. Failing to keep pace with these changes could put your company at risk of surrendering its competitive advantage to more agile rivals, or even open the business up to accusations of regulatory non-compliance.

As such, it's vital to ensure your organisation has a learning and development strategy that takes a long-term view and is flexible enough to respond to shifting trends as and when they become relevant. To this end, it's worth considering the role that a learning management system (LMS) could play in this regard, and to think of the benefits that such a system could play in helping your firm stay a step ahead.

Learning and Development: An Ever-Changing Landscape

Even the most well-established best practice guidelines will become outdated sooner or later, especially in a world where the pace of technological innovation is constantly accelerating. A training approach that seemed efficient and cutting-edge five years ago is likely to feel woefully antiquated today, with new innovations such as gamification, augmented reality and interactive video having reshaped expectations of what a modern, learner-centric training experience looks like.

Moreover, companies also need to account for broader sector-agnostic developments that affect businesses of all shapes and sizes. No matter which sector your organisation is part of, it's inevitable that your industry will be affected by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity as business conditions change.

According to results from the NAVEX Global 2016 Ethics & Compliance Policy Management Benchmark Report, 47% of the 1,000 ethics and compliance professionals surveyed said one of their top three policy management challenges was to keep policies up-to-date with new and changing regulations. Failure to prepare for changes in legislation comes with a whole range of consequences – from fines and loss of business to detrimental impacts on supplier relationships and brand reputation.

Preparing for these changes in compliance and legislation requires a full information audit and a culture change. In order to embed a culture of compliance in a world where compliance and legislation are always changing, your organisation needs an automated process. 

The report by NAVEX Global shows that organisations who used an automated system were nearly twice as likely to say they were effective at policy compliance (37%) than those who used manual processes (20%). As such, businesses need to put a learning and development strategy in place that's well-structured enough to be efficient and transparent, but also malleable enough to account for these changes.

This is where a learning management system (LMS) can be utilised in full.

Options for Future-Proof Workplace Training

When looking at ways to future-proof your training methods, it can be difficult to decide whether an off-the-shelf or a bespoke approach would better suit your company's needs.

Off-the-shelf training options don’t generally offer the flexibility associated with a custom-built learning and development package, as they provide a ready-made suite of learning materials designed around industry standards and general needs. However, they can certainly be a useful means of quickly getting your company up to speed with the most recent requirements in your sector and can be cheaper and easier to implement than a bespoke option.

However, there are benefits to a more personalised approach that off-the-shelf options cannot replicate. By working with a vendor to create a tailored learning package, you can devise a system that perfectly aligns with the specific needs of your staff, organisation and business strategy, and perform modular upgrades as and when they are needed. This increased level of control can give your corporate training a level of flexibility that could prove crucial in fast-moving sectors.

How to Choose an LMS

Whatever learning and development approach your company chooses to adopt, investing in a learning management system could make a significant difference in helping to achieve your goals.

LMSs are powerful tools, allowing organisations to track employee personal development and training, whilst also enabling the creation and distribution of learning materials. In essence, they allow you to invest in your staff – giving your organisation a simple and accessible way to ensure the entire workforce is trained for their role and has access to everything they need.

So what makes a good LMS? And how do you choose one which will ensure your business gets the most out of its learning and development resources now and in the future?

All LMSs are different and all have their own special features. Make a note of exactly what you need for your business in terms of compliance training, tracking, reporting and analysing. 

The basic qualities you should be looking for are scalability, ongoing support and future updates. Always ask for a live demo or a trial period, so you can check usability and whether the features are in line with your requirements.

Additionally, the best LMS platforms include features which provide management with reliable company-wide metrics to help them measure the progress of any initiatives they implement. When you’re choosing an LMS, you definitely want to be looking for one that tracks a range of metrics and offers data to help you understand things like engagement, retention and success.

Given how complicated it can be to keep a learning and development policy regularly updated, it can be immensely helpful to know there remains a consistent and flexible infrastructure in place to handle the back-end functions. Your LMS selection process should take into account the infrastructure the platform is built on and how easy it will be to keep this updated and even adapt it to your specific needs.

The best LMS systems can also facilitate the creation and distribution of vital learning materials, meaning staff at all levels can access the information they require from any device or location. This is an important consideration, given the growing popularity of home-based and remote working, so make sure to investigate the level of accessibility amongst your LMS selection.

Ultimately, future-proofing your learning and development approach is an ongoing process without a silver-bullet solution. However, the best LMS will simplify the administrative and practical aspects of this work, allowing business leaders to keep their focus on strategy and results.

Virtual College’s Enable LMS

Virtual College’s LMS, Enable, is an easy-to-use cloud-based LMS which can be accessed on any device, transforming how your organisation provides training, development and compliance. It can be used to support from 2 up to 2 million learners, depending on how many people are in your workforce.

With robust security and minimal set-up, your organisation can get started straight away – creating your own staff compliance training programme via our bespoke services or choosing from over 300 off-the-shelf e-learning courses we have available.

As you can upload and store various resources on the LMS – from SCORM packages and video files to a range of document file formats – your staff will be able to access their compliance training and organisational policies all from one centralised dashboard. You can even set up pre- and post-learning assessments to determine your workforce’s knowledge retention and how effective your learning is. Custom reports can help you track and document the compliance of your organisation.

If at any point you need help, Virtual College offers a UK-based 24-hour service to ensure you continue getting the most out of Enable. We also have a software development life cycle, so we can stay up to date with changing technologies and always bring you the latest features. 

These are just a few of the fundamental features of Virtual College’s LMS, Enable. Why not get in touch with Virtual College and receive a free demonstration to see how an LMS can help with your organisational compliance requirements?

FAQs

What is an LMS platform?

An LMS platform is a digital space where learning and development resources are stored and accessed. Users can find and make use of a variety of resources on the platform, their progress and performance data will be stored, and companies can use the platform to measure their employee’s engagement and success.

What problems does an LMS solve?

The key problem that an LMS solves is that it puts all training and development resources in one place, making it easier to deliver mandatory training to a large workforce that might be working remotely or that require training at different times. Employees all receive the same training which keeps standards high, and the data that an LMS can collect is also a really useful way of measuring the success of an L&D program.

What makes a good LMS?

The definition of a good LMS really depends on what you want to use the platform for. In general, a good LMS is very user-friendly, accessible no matter where you are or what device you’re using, and can be updated easily so that messaging and resources are always up-to-date.

Summary

Businesses are under increasing pressure to future-proof their learning and development strategies. A learning management system can prove helpful in this respect, providing a reliable and comprehensive platform where training and development resources are always kept up to date.

If you’re looking for an LMS that will ensure your learning and development approach remains relevant and accurate no matter what, Virtual College is a trusted provider with our own, top-rated platform. Find out more about Enable Learning Management, or get in touch to speak to us about what you’re looking for.

Any organisation that is serious about learning and development will realise that training strategies can’t ever stand still, lest they be left behind by the relentless progress of a constantly evolving business market. With each passing year, established ideas fall out of fashion as they are supplanted by fresher concepts, while new legislative measures can lead to significant paradigm shifts. 

Compliance and legislation are always being updated to keep up with societal changes, such as ethics, technology, social values, morality and events. Failing to keep pace with these changes could put your company at risk of surrendering its competitive advantage to more agile rivals, or even open the business up to accusations of regulatory non-compliance.

As such, it's vital to ensure your organisation has a learning and development strategy that takes a long-term view and is flexible enough to respond to shifting trends as and when they become relevant. To this end, it's worth considering the role that a learning management system (LMS) could play in this regard, and to think of the benefits that such a system could play in helping your firm stay a step ahead.

Learning and Development: An Ever-Changing Landscape

Even the most well-established best practice guidelines will become outdated sooner or later, especially in a world where the pace of technological innovation is constantly accelerating. A training approach that seemed efficient and cutting-edge five years ago is likely to feel woefully antiquated today, with new innovations such as gamification, augmented reality and interactive video having reshaped expectations of what a modern, learner-centric training experience looks like.

Moreover, companies also need to account for broader sector-agnostic developments that affect businesses of all shapes and sizes. No matter which sector your organisation is part of, it's inevitable that your industry will be affected by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity as business conditions change.

According to results from the NAVEX Global 2016 Ethics & Compliance Policy Management Benchmark Report, 47% of the 1,000 ethics and compliance professionals surveyed said one of their top three policy management challenges was to keep policies up-to-date with new and changing regulations. Failure to prepare for changes in legislation comes with a whole range of consequences – from fines and loss of business to detrimental impacts on supplier relationships and brand reputation.

Preparing for these changes in compliance and legislation requires a full information audit and a culture change. In order to embed a culture of compliance in a world where compliance and legislation are always changing, your organisation needs an automated process. 

The report by NAVEX Global shows that organisations who used an automated system were nearly twice as likely to say they were effective at policy compliance (37%) than those who used manual processes (20%). As such, businesses need to put a learning and development strategy in place that's well-structured enough to be efficient and transparent, but also malleable enough to account for these changes.

This is where a learning management system (LMS) can be utilised in full.

Options for Future-Proof Workplace Training

When looking at ways to future-proof your training methods, it can be difficult to decide whether an off-the-shelf or a bespoke approach would better suit your company's needs.

Off-the-shelf training options don’t generally offer the flexibility associated with a custom-built learning and development package, as they provide a ready-made suite of learning materials designed around industry standards and general needs. However, they can certainly be a useful means of quickly getting your company up to speed with the most recent requirements in your sector and can be cheaper and easier to implement than a bespoke option.

However, there are benefits to a more personalised approach that off-the-shelf options cannot replicate. By working with a vendor to create a tailored learning package, you can devise a system that perfectly aligns with the specific needs of your staff, organisation and business strategy, and perform modular upgrades as and when they are needed. This increased level of control can give your corporate training a level of flexibility that could prove crucial in fast-moving sectors.

How to Choose an LMS

Whatever learning and development approach your company chooses to adopt, investing in a learning management system could make a significant difference in helping to achieve your goals.

LMSs are powerful tools, allowing organisations to track employee personal development and training, whilst also enabling the creation and distribution of learning materials. In essence, they allow you to invest in your staff – giving your organisation a simple and accessible way to ensure the entire workforce is trained for their role and has access to everything they need.

So what makes a good LMS? And how do you choose one which will ensure your business gets the most out of its learning and development resources now and in the future?

All LMSs are different and all have their own special features. Make a note of exactly what you need for your business in terms of compliance training, tracking, reporting and analysing. 

The basic qualities you should be looking for are scalability, ongoing support and future updates. Always ask for a live demo or a trial period, so you can check usability and whether the features are in line with your requirements.

Additionally, the best LMS platforms include features which provide management with reliable company-wide metrics to help them measure the progress of any initiatives they implement. When you’re choosing an LMS, you definitely want to be looking for one that tracks a range of metrics and offers data to help you understand things like engagement, retention and success.

Given how complicated it can be to keep a learning and development policy regularly updated, it can be immensely helpful to know there remains a consistent and flexible infrastructure in place to handle the back-end functions. Your LMS selection process should take into account the infrastructure the platform is built on and how easy it will be to keep this updated and even adapt it to your specific needs.

The best LMS systems can also facilitate the creation and distribution of vital learning materials, meaning staff at all levels can access the information they require from any device or location. This is an important consideration, given the growing popularity of home-based and remote working, so make sure to investigate the level of accessibility amongst your LMS selection.

Ultimately, future-proofing your learning and development approach is an ongoing process without a silver-bullet solution. However, the best LMS will simplify the administrative and practical aspects of this work, allowing business leaders to keep their focus on strategy and results.

Virtual College’s Enable LMS

Virtual College’s LMS, Enable, is an easy-to-use cloud-based LMS which can be accessed on any device, transforming how your organisation provides training, development and compliance. It can be used to support from 2 up to 2 million learners, depending on how many people are in your workforce.

With robust security and minimal set-up, your organisation can get started straight away – creating your own staff compliance training programme via our bespoke services or choosing from over 300 off-the-shelf e-learning courses we have available.

As you can upload and store various resources on the LMS – from SCORM packages and video files to a range of document file formats – your staff will be able to access their compliance training and organisational policies all from one centralised dashboard. You can even set up pre- and post-learning assessments to determine your workforce’s knowledge retention and how effective your learning is. Custom reports can help you track and document the compliance of your organisation.

If at any point you need help, Virtual College offers a UK-based 24-hour service to ensure you continue getting the most out of Enable. We also have a software development life cycle, so we can stay up to date with changing technologies and always bring you the latest features. 

These are just a few of the fundamental features of Virtual College’s LMS, Enable. Why not get in touch with Virtual College and receive a free demonstration to see how an LMS can help with your organisational compliance requirements?

FAQs

What is an LMS platform?

An LMS platform is a digital space where learning and development resources are stored and accessed. Users can find and make use of a variety of resources on the platform, their progress and performance data will be stored, and companies can use the platform to measure their employee’s engagement and success.

What problems does an LMS solve?

The key problem that an LMS solves is that it puts all training and development resources in one place, making it easier to deliver mandatory training to a large workforce that might be working remotely or that require training at different times. Employees all receive the same training which keeps standards high, and the data that an LMS can collect is also a really useful way of measuring the success of an L&D program.

What makes a good LMS?

The definition of a good LMS really depends on what you want to use the platform for. In general, a good LMS is very user-friendly, accessible no matter where you are or what device you’re using, and can be updated easily so that messaging and resources are always up-to-date.

Summary

Businesses are under increasing pressure to future-proof their learning and development strategies. A learning management system can prove helpful in this respect, providing a reliable and comprehensive platform where training and development resources are always kept up to date.

If you’re looking for an LMS that will ensure your learning and development approach remains relevant and accurate no matter what, Virtual College is a trusted provider with our own, top-rated platform. Find out more about Enable Learning Management, or get in touch to speak to us about what you’re looking for.