Many businesses take a fire-fighting approach to performance management, waiting for problem areas to become apparent before attempting to ‘extinguish’ them with learning interventions.

While identifying learning needs and delivering training to meet them can be challenging, this approach means staff are perennially on the back foot – and leaves a lot to be desired in terms of results.

Using eLearning can help to eliminate fire-fighting, enabling staff to instead focus on proactively identifying problem areas and strategically delivering training which will have the most impact on performance and growth.

1. Harness the wide range of ready-made eLearning content available today

‘Ready-made’ (also known as ‘off-the-shelf’ or ‘generic’) eLearning courses are available covering virtually any business-critical subject imaginable, including our own wide range of Compliance, Health and Safety and Performance Management eLearning courses.

Because they are ready-made, the subject matter expert and instructional designers’ time has already been paid for, keeping cost-per-learner low. This also means that organisations can move from identifying a learning need to delivering relevant training to staff within minutes.

Don’t be put off by the term ‘generic’, which simply refers to the base content that forms a course. Think of it like buying a printed book, which is also ‘generic’ after all – only, unlike a book, content can be customised, branded, and delivered to thousands of staff on the day of purchase.

2. Deliver a consistent learning experience to all staff

Whether using off-the-shelf or bespoke eLearning content, one benefit of eLearning is that it ensures all members of staff are on the same page when it comes to training, a consistency which helps when creating – and analysing – a corporate culture.

If done right, this can enhance your staff’s sense of belonging, whether they are office-based or remote, and ensure fairness and equality within your organisation.

In subjects like compliance, it’s essential that training is up-to-date with the latest laws, policies and regulations. Using eLearning means that courses can be updated and rolled out across organisations rapidly, with a consistency that is essential in measuring and auditing results.

3. Track and monitor course completion results to inform strategic decisions

A huge benefit of eLearning is how quantifiable the results are, enabling the identification of those who have or haven’t completed mandatory courses with a full audit trail of training activities.

Being able to compare course completion rates and assessment scores against key performance metrics makes it possible to monitor the ROI of eLearning and identify those subject areas in need of further learning intervention.

VinciWorks’ Astute eLearning Platform takes this a step further, with the ability to create triggered reports to notify key staff members of areas of concern by flagging up low assessment scores or failure to complete certain courses, enabling them to take proactive action to enhance understanding of the subject in question.

4. Offer training to your users whenever and wherever it suits them

Some people prefer to learn alone in quiet environments, and some find it much easier in a busy office, surrounded by people; some prefer the morning, and some don’t really become receptive to new information until later in the day.

eLearning makes effective training available for all of these people, as it can be taken anywhere the learner has internet access and a computer.

With Astute, which is also fully responsive, access to eLearning is even possible on mobiles and tablets in addition to personal computers, further expanding the learning possibilities and enabling staff to learn when and where it suits them best – and allowing learning and development staff to enrol learners onto courses from their pocket as soon as they identify a learning need.

5. Provide ongoing opportunities for growth and development to your staff

Productivity improves when people have opportunities for growth and feel that they are reaching their potential.

While investing in eLearning is a great way to ensure compliance and deliver just-in-time training on key management topics, by building up a catalogue of courses and making them available on-demand to learners, you also give them the opportunity to reach and expand their potential.

Using an eLearning platform like Astute, learning administrators can setup a catalogue of eLearning courses which users are free to browse and self-enrol onto with no further intervention required from the administrator. This empowers learners to improve their own skills in areas where they need it, without overloading them with training.

6. Automate the entire process of learning administration

Training an organisation’s worth of people offline requires enrolment on courses, arranging transport, accommodation, communications, analysis of results, production of reports, and countless other time consuming administrative tasks.

With eLearning, there is just as much information to be processed, but because everything is digital, it can be automated, greatly reducing the administrative burden placed upon staff.

When developing Astute, we focused on automating eLearning administration, enabling administrators to spend less time on ‘busy work’ and more time on value-added tasks such as strategically identifying areas in which training could most impact business performance.

eLearning administration tasks automated by Astute include: user administration, enrolments and re-enrolments, communications, issuing certificates, production and delivery of reports, management of refresher schedules, and many more.