10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs to Adopt eLearning

4th January 2021

10-reasons-business-adopt-elearning

Table of Contents

Ever since learning guru Elliott Masie coined the term “eLearning” in 1999, the concept of teaching through a digital platform has grown considerably to become an industry in itself. By 2026, the global eLearning market is set to exceed $375 billion.

Businesses are some of the biggest users of eLearning. From employee onboarding to product training, eLearning is increasingly the preferred method of companies to provide knowledge and develop skills that are necessary for success.

The Biggest Reasons to Adopt eLearning

Here are the 10 biggest reasons why eLearning is becoming ubiquitous in the world of business and why you should also adopt it, whether you’re going to use it for internal or external training:

Necessary for The New Normal

There’s no denying the fact that COVID-19 has had a massive impact on just about every facet of life, especially the way business is done. More people are working remotely to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus. Meetings are done over teleconferencing technology and schedules have been upended with employees reporting and turning in work at varying hours of the day.

In-person training is no longer viable these days. If businesses want their workforce to stay competitive, it is imperative that they adopt eLearning to continue employee training programmes during a pandemic. Online learning via learning management systems (LMS) is the only practical method for in-depth, effective development that respects the health and safety of entire organisations, at a time when face-to-face interactions are rendered impossible.

Distance learning won’t be just a trend either. More businesses are realising that they can stay productive even with mostly remote operations, and employees are getting more comfortable with their own schedules.

More Cost-Efficient Training

Traditional training programmes can be very costly. Employees generally have to spend their time attending training sessions instead of focusing on their actual day-to-day tasks. Training outside of office hours usually entails having to go on expensive trips to conferences and workshops. Full-time instructors have to be hired to conduct training. Course materials have to be procured and printed for each trainee.

eLearning vastly reduces extraneous training costs. Companies can let their employees take courses on their own time with their own registered devices, or they can host virtual group sessions without having to book venues and transport entire departments. Learning and development consultants can be contracted to advise on course creation without having to lead trainees every single session. Courses only have to be developed one time and then deployed for the whole organisation to access instantly via an LMS.

Strengthens Professional Partnerships

As eLearning activates external training, this initiative indicates to partners that your business is willing to invest in their success. It is a show of confidence in the partnership that it will deliver results.

As a sign of trust, partners are likelier to exhibit loyalty to a partnership that devotes resources to their well-being. A culture of learning and exchange is developed between the parties as well, leading to an even stronger business relationship where both parties can be more communicative with each other. This also serves as a solid foundation for developing future partnerships.

Extends Branding Influence

Whenever companies have to work with other parties to sell their offerings, it can be a challenge to maintain consistency in the brand messaging. Convincing partners to take extended time out for in-depth product training is just as difficult, as it would mean greater cost and effort on their part.

The convenience of eLearning opens up the possibility of selling internal training courses to channel partners that traditional training can’t easily accomplish. Partners are more likely to be persuaded to take training when accessibility is no longer an issue. What happens next is that these second and third parties have a greater understanding of the primary business’ brand and can execute marketing and sales strategies correctly.

Ensures Business Continuity

Although one of the goals of training is for learners to retain knowledge, there will be times when learners have to refer to resources to recall important information. eLearning provides an easily accessible knowledge base that registered users can rely on.

Workers, partners, and even customers can simply log on to the LMS for solutions to any issues they might have regarding a process or a product. Operations can move forward with as little downtime as possible when answers to potential problems are at users’ fingertips. People don’t have to ring up support hotlines or dig through physical manuals, which can be barriers to business continuity.

Improved Partner Performance

The ultimate benefit of eLearning for external training is that partners will perform better at their roles. It’s the same principle as arming employees with the skills and knowledge that are necessary to achieve internal company goals.

Partners that are fully equipped to handle product distribution, sales, and advertising thanks to high-quality and convenient eLearning programmes will be more productive and require less support. They can respond to issues customers raise more quickly, as they won’t have to go up the supply chain for every question. More customers are satisfied, increasing the overall customer retention rate.

Increased Productivity

Training in general boosts productivity, as skilled and knowledgeable workers, can do work in less time than untrained ones. eLearning gives businesses an avenue to further boost that productivity, as it is innately innovative, using cutting-edge technologies to deliver training in ways that centre each learner.

Video content, for one, explains complex concepts to visually inclined trainees. Mixed reality devices put workers into immersive simulations. Interactive multimedia in microlearning modules makes for fun and digestible training.

The numbers back up these claims. IBM’s The Value of Training report states that learning technology usage leads to average improvements of 19% in staff satisfaction/engagement, 17% in customer satisfaction, and 14% in increased productivity through learning interventions.

Improved Employee Retention

When employees feel like their companies either don’t provide them with the foundation to succeed at their jobs or give them opportunities to grow, they will leave for greener pastures. In fact, 70% of employees say they are at least somewhat likely to leave their current employer for another that focuses more on employee learning and development.

With eLearning, workers are given access to varied, high-quality educational resources that they can use at their own pace. The investment put into online training signals to employees that their leaders care enough to build them up and that they have a future with their company that is worth staying for.

Built-in Measuring Tools

Measuring impact is absolutely crucial for any training programme. eLearning makes that process so much more streamlined due to its digital format that can automatically log every action performed through the online training platform.

A good LMS can generate detailed reports that can track anything from course completion rates to evaluation scores. The key advantage of these built-in measuring tools is that it’s also easy to tie data to relevant KPIs.

Highly Scalable

Budget constraints greatly limit the scalability of conventional training methods. Whether it’s scheduling multiple sessions in venues or producing physical materials for learners to use, in-person training can be cost-prohibitive if it’s done across different teams and with external partners.

In contrast, eLearning lets even the most budget-conscious businesses scale their training efforts with ease. The technology is software-based and only requires devices that can connect to the Internet, so courses can be deployed en masse at no extra cost.

There are also LMS vendors that offer cloud-based solutions, so there isn’t even any need to install special software or hardware or run any on-site maintenance.

Embrace eLearning Today for Your Business

eLearning is extremely beneficial for both in-house and partner staff development. From cost reduction to process optimisation to growth facilitation, there are plenty of appreciable gains to be made by adopting this leading-edge training methodology for your business. Moreover, eLearning reflects the changing needs of the modern digital workplace and prepares you for the post-pandemic age.

Evolve your training programme today with the help of Wahoo Learning’s total Learning solution. Our powerful customisable and open-source LMS comes with a suite of Wahoo Learning add-ons and training programme management services to expand functionality and reduce the need for internal resources. Contact our training programme experts to book a demo today.

Share

Get the latest news

For all the latest news and industry insights simply sign up today - it’s spam free!

Related Posts

You may also enjoy

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Why Online Training Fails: 10 Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)

Maybe you have launched a training program and it’s not reaching its goals, or you are looking at launching a training program, you are aware of some significant challenges and you don’t want it to fail. Whichever group you fall into, this blog is written to help you understand what can make your training program fail and the steps you can take to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.
Businessman in Control of White Rock: A Promising Startup Concep

What is Customer Training?

In this blog, we will explore the concept of customer training in B2B businesses, its benefits, and how to create an effective training program. We will also discuss the challenges businesses face when implementing customer training programs and how to overcome them, providing you with insights and strategies to create impactful customer training programs that drive business success.
Customer Relationship Management, Businessman use tablet with global structure customer network technology, Data exchanges development. customer service, social media. digital marketing online.

A Guide to Successful Channel Partner Management

Implementing effective channel partner management strategies is essential in order to be successful and navigate the significant challenges presented by managing channel partners, such as the misalignment of goals, inconsistent messaging and inadequate communication. Whether you’re just starting a channel partner program or looking to optimise your existing program, this blog will provide valuable insights into how to manage channel partners successfully, some of the common challenges faced when managing channel partners and practical strategies to overcome them.
Surreal landscape with a split road and signpost arrows showing two different courses, left and right direction to choose. Road splits in distinct direction ways. Difficult decision, choice concept.

Outsourcing vs In-House – Which is Best for Delivering Your Training Program?

In the early stages of training programme development, planning how you intend to support, maintain and manage it is the key to its success. For this, there are generally two options: outsourcing to a specialist or keeping it under one roof in-house. However, deciding how to move forward isn’t clear cut. Many factors can impact the decision. We are not about to tell you to outsource to us. It’s about us helping you explore your options and make the right choice for your requirements.
Achievement and Business Goal Success Concept - Creative business people with icon graphic interface showing employee reward giving for business success achievement.

How to Ensure Channel Partner Success

To build a successful partner channel program, it’s important to carefully manage and nurture the vendor/partner relationship throughout its journey. Several key components must be considered to ensure a successful channel partner program, which includes understanding your channel partners, providing a top-quality onboarding process, ongoing communication, and measuring success.  
Knowledge transfer. Business knowledge management. Building wood blocks on table.

4 Popular Training Delivery Methods (and where to use them)

While more companies recognise the benefits of providing a training program to their teams, it is important to acknowledge and evaluate the different methods available. We’ve written this blog to explore what methods of training delivery are available, the benefits of each one and where they are best used.