When running a business, you want to ensure that your employees are as trained and knowledgeable as possible. And while hiring the right candidates is important, there are steps you can take to ensure that they are well-equipped for the job–like taking training courses. And while there are countless training courses, choosing the one that is the best fit for you and your business is of utmost importance.
When most people think of eLearning, they think of online courses that offer no direction or advantages. Instead, you’re left with less money in the bank and employees mindlessly clicking through the lessons, just praying for it to end. And while you could send all of your employees to in-person training, this can be costly and a time sucker. No one wants to spend hundreds of dollars to send their employees somewhere to sit in a classroom where they also won’t retain any of the information that is fed to them. That’s where eLearning comes in.
eLearning can save you time and money while also improving productivity, increasing employee retention, and more. Not to mention it saves you time and money so that you can focus on more important things. Whether eLearning is something that you are familiar with or a brand new concept, we’re helping break down the reasons it’s beneficial to organizations like yours.
Explore 8 Reasons eLearning Provides Compared to the Traditional Method of Learning
Although many companies have turned to the traditional method of learning for decades, we’re seeing more and more opt for eLearning options. In fact, 90% of companies offer their employees some kind of virtual learning, and the global eLearning market is expected to reach $350 billion by 2025.
Not sure if it’s right for you? We’ve rounded up eight reasons that it provides many advantages compared to the traditional method!
1. eLearning is Cost Effective
While in-person learning has pros and cons, one of the biggest advantages of eLearning is its affordability. When using traditional training, you have to factor in costs such as the time off needed, the instructor’s pay, any travel that may be required, and physical costs such as textbooks. When you take a look at the cost of training software, you’ll find that oftentimes it is a quarter of the price and can be used for multiple employees, thus saving you money. It also gives employees a chance to revisit lessons as needed.
2. eLearning is Interactive
For many individuals, learning a new skill or piece of information comes much easier if they can experience it visually. This is why so many people struggle in school. When you’re given a boring textbook to read, you may find that you don’t absorb the knowledge the way that you would if you were to experience it in a different way.
With eLearning, the instructor has the ability to use a variety of materials to teach. This can include videos, graphics, online clips, and more–all of which are known to increase retention. In fact, in
a study posted by Inc., it was found that 65% of the population are visual learners. It was
also found that students retail 25-60% more through online courses. This means that your audience is more likely to be more engaged in the teaching and have a higher chance of understanding what they are being taught.
3. Allows for a Custom Approach
As we just mentioned, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to learning. Everyone is different, which is why it’s crucial to customize your teaching approach to ensure that everyone is retaining the information needed. eLearning allows your employees to go at their own pace, rewatch lessons as needed, take notes when they see fit, and meet the deadlines that work best for them. Because of this, a
study done by LinkedIn shows that 58% of workers prefer to learn this way rather than do so in person.
4. eLearning Saves Time
There’s a reason that many online courses are shorter than in-person classes. While it may initially seem as if you’re not going to get the same amount of information in a smaller period of time, you can still learn everything you need to know. No one has the time to be sitting in hours of classes, especially when you’re trying to run a business.
If you’re choosing to go at your own pace, you also have the freedom to take courses during your free time and/or while on breaks, giving you bite-sized pieces of information that are easy to digest and much easier to understand in less time. On top of that, if employees are already familiar with the material, they can go through it as a refresher or as a chance to test their knowledge.
5. eLearning is Flexible, Especially For Remote Organizations
If we learned one thing in 2020, it’s that a lot of work can be done remotely. That’s why 26% of American workers do so remotely now. The projected number of remote employees is supposed to hit 36.2 million by the year 2025. All of this to say, gone are the days where employees need to be under one roof for work and training.
For many companies, this simply means no longer having an office to which employees report to daily. Why pay the rent when you can save that money and use it elsewhere? Because of this, you may have a hard time getting all of your employees in one place for training–especially if a good portion of your employees live in different states. With eLearning, you can ensure that your workers are educated and have the skills that they need, all without having to leave the comfort of their own homes. This saves you the headache of bringing everyone together and helps make their lives easier.
6. Aids in Employee Retention
As a business, your goal is to make money and keep your employees with you for years to come. This not only saves you money, but it also helps prevents you from constantly having to hire new talent and train new individuals consistently. If there is one thing that will boost employee retention, it’s giving them the opportunities to learn and grow their skill set. This shows that you trust them, value their efforts, and see their potential. These will help strengthen their connection with you as an employer and make them more likely to stick around longer.
7. eLearning Provides Scalability
No matter what industry you are working in, thanks to the advancement of technology and the trends that we see, demands within a business are constantly shifting. For example, social media algorithms are ever-evolving, and if you are working in marketing, you have to keep up with these changes in order to stay relevant. This goes for many other aspects, too. When tailoring your courses, you want to do so with these changes. This is known as scalability.
Because you will need your employees to continuously learn new skills and adapt to changes that may occur in your industry, you need to tweak your courses along the way. This helps ensure that you’re giving your employees the most up-to-date information while also giving you a chance to measure their progress and see what needs to be changed as time goes on. If you feel that things are changing too quickly for you to keep up, you can give employees short, regular tests to keep them focused, educated, and on top of any shifts within the industry.
8. eLearning Allows Organizations to Track Progress through Analytics
One of the most valuable tools a business can use is analytics, which goes for eLearning. As we just mentioned, giving regular tests allows you to analyze how your employees are retaining the information. If most employees fail assessments or do not finish lessons, you can break the information up further to make it more digestible or make tests more frequent.
Partner with an eLearning Design Company
Here at
Clarity Consultants, we offer a wide variety of
eLearning design services for your organization. This includes ILT and HTML conversions, video game design that helps maximize engagement, graphic design, multi-media production, and more. This allows us to handle the nuts and bolts of building your courses so that you can feel assured that they will be ready for your employee’s eyes while you focus on your daily responsibilities.
As you can see, eLearning is not only beneficial for you as a business but helpful for your employees as well. The more you invest in them, the more likely they will stay with your company for years to come. And when you have employees that are engaged and ready to learn, you’ll find that their productivity levels increase, ultimately leaving you with a successful business.
