Since the turn of the millennium, the level of e-learning uptake has dramatically increased, with recent estimates suggesting by as much as 900%.
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Over the same period, employers have seen the amount of time needed to train their workforce decrease massively.
Today, digital training typically requires 40-60% less employee engagement time than a traditional classroom based session.
Still not convinced by e-learning? Retention rates from an e-learning session are on average between 25-60%. For classroom training this drops to just 6-10%.
As e-learning continues to improve and the results become more and more impressive, the question many employers ask is ‘how do we encourage our staff to use e-learning?’ A very valid question – exactly how do you drive e-learning uptake across your organisation?
Embrace a new training culture
This isn’t as disruptive or scary as it might sound. If e-learning is placed at the very heart of the business’ operations, it can be hugely effective.
Shifting from tiresome and long winded classroom sessions benefits both the employer and the employee, and enabling staff to self-serve e-learning content through an online portal makes it easily accessible by all.
Supportive senior management and heads of department are key, helping to drive e-learning uptake in through their business unit. And setting up a competition between different teams can work wonders for uptake!
Pre-launch
Don’t wait for the day the e-learning course is available before preparing your learners – pre-launch.
Make sure learners know that a course (or a series of courses) is coming, what is expected and what the deadline will be. This gives your team an opportunity to schedule time to complete the e-learning and not feel under pressure when it lands on their desk for completion.
Create a great learning environment
What’s the setup? Are your learners in a busy office? Is it easy for your learners to hear the audio and see the screen? Do they have any way of indicating that they are training and shouldn’t be disturbed? Is it acceptable for all calls to be stopped to them and emails forwarded to a colleague?
Make sure your office offers a suitable environment to maximise the benefits. Create spaces that are conducive to effective learning by providing headphones and comfortable seating in quiet areas of the office.
Anything that you can do as an employer to make it easier and less disruptive to complete e-learning will be appreciated by your workforce and will encourage uptake.
Monitor and react
Don’t assume everyone will have completed their required training. Follow up with encouraging reminder emails – individually if needed, and use software to run reports on employee completion and compliance.
We’ve built a tool within Blue LMS which does just this. Our CPD Tracker module is available to Blue LMS customers and gives employers complete visibility of learners, helping them to amend training pathways and identify those falling behind.
E-learning is effective, informative and fun. Get your managers behind the scheme and there’s no reason why it can’t work for you.
To find out more, say hello to Me Learning. Browse our course library , email enquiries@melearning.co.uk or call 01273 499 100 for a solution that suits you.