Companies that invest in employee skills can expect incomparable advantages over companies that have not. The gap between the two will only continue to rise.
But how do companies efficiently and effectively upskill employees on digital skills and more?
Digital training has been the go-to training method for modern companies looking for ways to invest in employees in ways that they’re receptive to. eLearning is one of the best ways to reach employees where they want to learn.
Custom eLearning solutions are the best way to transform employee training for the company and employees. It makes everyone’s life easier and has all the conveniences of how people want to live today: flexible, self-paced, autonomous, dynamic, etc.
Instead of being confined to a rigid curriculum or sessions that you have to stop everything to participate in, eLearning delivers all the benefits with fewer drawbacks. Custom eLearning solutions provide more flexibility in how training is delivered to employees.
So, join me in this post about how custom eLearning solutions help transform employee training.
Understand the Limitations of Traditional Training Methods
Traditional training methods have long been the go-to approach for employee development. They’ve even been molded into more modern methods by adding digital methods but still keeping the same format. Instead of instructor-led training (ILT), it’s common to see virtual instructor-led training (vILT).
Just because things used to be that way doesn’t mean they should continue that way. Traditional training methods come with their fair share of limitations. One of the main drawbacks is their one-size-fits-all nature. These methods often fail to consider individual needs and expect everyone to go at the same pace.
My biggest pet peeve about any live training, whether digital or not? I can’t attend to my biology without missing content. Not understanding something? A trainer can only do so much because they have a schedule to keep to. Exhausted because the content is too heavy? Too bad you’re stuck for the whole hour.
Custom eLearning solutions address many issues with live training by providing personalized training experiences. Employees are free to pause or stop where they are, attend to their needs, or put them aside if something more important arises.
Traditional training methods have limitations, but eLearning solves almost all of them.
The Power of Customized eLearning Solutions
One of the key advantages of custom eLearning solutions is that they’re self-paced and can be well-planned to be more condensed and chunked. It doesn’t cost an organization much more to offer three 20-minute eLearning courses than one hour-long live training session.
I don’t know about you, but after 30 minutes of sitting in live training, I have train brain. That means my brain has turned to mush, and I can’t focus. Do you think anyone else is any different?
By tailoring content to meet your organization’s and employees’ specific requirements, eLearning ensures that each individual receives the information they need in a more condensed and well-thought-out format.
There are also a lot more options for engaging employees through eLearning. You can include many things in eLearning that aren’t possible in traditional training methods. eLearning can incorporate gamification elements (which can sometimes be good), video, interactive elements, software simulations, and more.
No matter what options you choose, eLearning is always self-paced and can be taken whenever and wherever employees feel like it. Mobile device waiting for an appointment? Sure thing. Ten minutes available between meetings? Go ahead and start on that eLearning course!
Training in the digital era means no more hour-long blocks in the middle of the day where no work gets done.
There’s also the huge benefit of eLearning being infinitely scalable. The more employees trained, the cheaper eLearning is. Training sits in the learning management system (LMS) or learning experience platform (LXP), and as many employees as you want can access it anytime.
The power of customized eLearning solutions continues to accrue. But what are some other ways eLearning can transform employee training?
Tailoring Content to Meet Organizational Objectives
Every organization has unique goals and objectives for employee training. Custom eLearning solutions enable companies to align training programs with these objectives. We wrote a post with five ways to tailor corporate technical training, which apply well to eLearning.
In fact, it’s a lot easier to tailor content to meet organizational and project objectives with eLearning. Creating an eLearning course for each role of a new application is easier than creating quality live training and running all the sessions to offer that training.
It’s a lot easier to incorporate scenario-based learning in eLearning, which is a great way to make training more memorable and effective and tell the story of the training rather than just talking at people.
While there’s a place for balancing custom learning with off-the-shelf training, custom eLearning offers tremendous benefits when necessary. It’s all about working with an experienced instructional design consultant to determine the best option for your objectives.
A tailored approach enhances knowledge retention and increases training effectiveness. Employees no longer must try to apply generic information and concepts to their work. Instead, the training applies to them directly and deeply, so it’s extremely relevant.
Relevance is king AND queen of training. When employees can see the direct relevance of the training to their roles and responsibilities, they are more likely to actively participate and apply what they learned in their day-to-day work.
Enhancing Training Effectiveness with Custom eLearning
Custom eLearning solutions go beyond simply delivering information. When built well, they can create immersive learning experiences that engage employees deeper. For example, software simulations are among the most effective ways we’ve found to train employees on applications.
eLearning is the perfect delivery method for delivering interactive and realistic software simulations. It’s more effective than other methods because it provides real practice and allows employees to practice in a safe environment.
The closer training is to reality, the more effective it is. eLearning is the perfect way to create realistic scenarios and environments that help employees relate the training to their jobs.
Developing Critical Thinking Skills with Scenario-Based Learning
I’ve never once been to a live training event with good scenarios that lay out a good situation. The closest things to it are sales training and role-playing with others. That’s fun and good practice, but it’s not necessarily a great way to learn initially.
With eLearning, you can take role-playing and go well beyond it. It’s easy to write a scenario where a customer and a salesperson are going back and forth talking. A pause can happen when the employee learns what the salesperson is doing well or not.
Show, don’t tell.
This is exactly what scenarios are great at, and they’re easiest to show in eLearning.
Using scenarios makes training more realistic and encourages critical thinking skills. It helps employees develop the ability to solve complex problems while assisting them to learn the content.
By engaging employees in realistic scenarios, scenario-based modules prepare them for challenges they may face daily, ultimately improving job performance and decision-making abilities.
Wrap Up
Custom eLearning solutions are the preferred way for employees to learn in today’s digital age. It has revolutionized employee training by making it easier to offer tailored, engaging, and effective learning experiences.
There are many drawbacks to traditional training methods that eLearning can help resolve. eLearning is a great training method that will help transform an organization’s training programs into drivers of success rather than time sinks.
Isn’t it about time your organization explores the benefits of eLearning and sees how it will transform employee training? Investing in custom eLearning solutions empowers employees to reach their full potential and stay ahead in today’s fast-paced business landscape.
Schedule a free consultation to discuss how our custom eLearning solutions can help your organization take employee training to the next level. We specialize in technical training for software applications and would love to help your employees learn the technical skills they need to excel in their roles.