E-Learning Can Solve HR Challenges And Increase Employee Satisfaction

Competition is part of the corporate life today. While employees are vying for the job of their dreams, organizations are also trying their best to retain talent within the organization. To make sure that employees are suitably engaged at work, we have to ask ourselves – what do they most desire from their workplace? In addition to the compensation, job security and career advancement opportunities, Learning and Development opportunities are one of the top expectations that corporate employees now want from the workplace.

The benefits of adopting technology-based learning for creating and delivering employee training spells good news for all – especially the HR function:

• It is easier to assign appropriate courses and keep track of learner progress on a Technology-enabled Platform, such as a Learning Management System. The effort is minimum as the process is entirely automated.
• The learners can take up courses as per their schedules, so there is no need to plan trainings that fit into the schedule of all employees.
• Reports on learning uptake as well as built-in assessments can be generated automatically from the learning management system and utilized for planning for perks and compensation package of the employee.

However, there should be appropriate strategies in place to make sure that the training is impactful and the technology-aided solution provides learning that is interesting as well as effective:

• Many employees believe that corporate training lacks color or warmth and is often didactic in tone. It is a fact that most of these trainings deal with serious subjects and therefore are often text extensive. But it is imperative that a technology-enabled self-paced e-course, it is important that the content to grabs the attention of the learners and does not overwhelm them.   Even if the courses are information heavy, there are ways of making the content interesting and engaging. For instance, we can gain the learners’ attention by giving a bit of information, through an informative graphic or even a short animation and asking thought-provoking questions on the subject. This makes sure that the learner is ‘hooked’ on to the subject – with some beginners’ knowledge and questions to make them think more. 

• Another dissatisfaction of employees is that courses often fail strike a familiar note and they fail to connect with the subject. Since the topic remains unfamiliar and there are no ways identified within the course that link it to what they already know, the course fails to make the required impact. For this, scenarios can be built to familiarize the learners with the topic and bring it to context – in order for them to understand and relate to it well.
  
  
• E-courses within best learning management systems do not have to be just text or graphics based. Interactivities can be inserted within the course to provide a powerful tool of learner engagement. A lot of different interactivities can be woven in – from simple slide transitions to audio-visual based interactions. Many a times in a bid to make the e-course look slick, developers insert a lot of interactivity that can make a course unnecessarily complex – thereby overwhelming the learners. Simplicity is the rule of thumb to be followed when designing interactivities in e-courses.

• In classrooms as well technology-aided platforms, corporate learners today expect to enjoy certain amount of freedom – in terms of access and the choice of learning material. A variety of courses can be made on the corporate learning management system – both custom courses as well as off-the-shelf content.  In custom courses, two separate versions of a course can be created to suit novice as well as advanced learners. The version for novice learners can be detailed while the other can cater to advanced learners by skimming introductory topics and dwelling more on new topics introduced. This makes sure that novice learners are well-informed and advanced learners are not bored with details they already know. This seemingly simple strategy can provide personalized learning for a mixed group of learners and cater to the needs of all. 

HR Function Strives to create Employee Satisfaction and it is a continuous process. With e-learning solutions, it is now possible to provide the learning opportunities that not only enhance the job-on-hand but provide knowledge/skills for career advancement as well. Through some strategic thinking and incorporating innovative ideas, HR team can create learning solutions that not only provide knowledge, but help creating overall employee satisfaction as well.