Benefits of Using a Learning Management System to Promote Continuous Learning - Netchex

Continuous learning is more than a workplace fad. While treadmill desks, sleep pods, and bean bag chairs are questionable at best, continuous learning is proven to promote a positive shift in workplace culture. By encouraging individuals to expand and improve their professional skills, companies can cultivate not only better employees, but happier ones.

What if you could better equip and motivate your workforce? Give individuals the chance to reach their potential while improving efficiency?

The potential is huge, but results don’t happen overnight. Find out how continuous learning will give your employees and company a noticeable boost.

What is continuous learning?

Employees often get only the bare minimum of training necessary to complete their job. There’s an initial orientation, maybe an occasional refresher, and updates whenever policies change. 

However, continuous learning is a fundamental shift to empower employees in adding new job skills and competencies. Employees are in need of a library of multimedia resources that employees can review at their own pace, including:

  • Industry-specific texts
  • Slideshow presentations
  • Training videos 

Additional training may focus on industry concepts, essential software, processes at your company, or broader workplace skills.

Depending on the goals of your business and employees’ personal preferences, the possibilities are endless.

Which employees benefit from continuous learning?

It might sound idealistic, but literally everyone on staff at your company could benefit from a continuous learning program. 

Your most self-motivated employees will appreciate the company’s easy access to a library of premium content that’s free for them to use. Employees with less drive will still benefit from a company culture that encourages personal growth on an ongoing basis. 

While a fantasy football league might perk up the morale of a few employees, everyone can participate in a competition to complete courses with a higher score. Even the employees who don’t “win” top marks are still building skills to improve their career prospects. 

Is there a danger of employees becoming overqualified?

There are only so many opportunities for upward mobility within your company. If an entire department is training for a particular management position, then it’s easy to predict some conflict and disappointment will arise.

In reality, most employees will be interested in skills that help them understand and perform their current job better. Employees who want to cross train and eventually transfer to another department will have additional insight as a result of that background experience.

Some employees will always be sending out applications and looking for their next employer, but a continuous learning program is a benefit that promotes retention of even the most ambitious employees. The more your employees take advantage of continuous learning, the more they’ll appreciate your company’s environment of education and growth.

How does continuous learning benefit employers?

Employee engagement and an agile workforce are two of the most noticeable results of a successful continuous learning program. 

Nobody wants to feel like they’re stuck in a “dead end” job. Continuous learning is an easy way to provide opportunities for career growth at minimal expense. Bonuses provide a short-term motivation, but career-minded employees will appreciate the lasting benefit of new skills and knowledge.

As employees across the company build a variety of skills, the result is a more agile workforce than you could achieve with traditional training programs. Instead of each department being siloed in exclusive and non-overlapping areas of expertise, you’ll increasingly have multifaceted teams with a diverse set of abilities. 

How can you promote learning into workplace culture?

It’s not enough to provide employees with access to a continuous learning database. To get more involvement, there will need to be an emphasis on continuous learning across the company. It needs to be a major component of your workplace culture.

Similar to promoting a performance-based work culture, you can include more peer-to-peer training and informal learning opportunities during the workday.

Encourage individual members of teams to develop their own areas of special expertise, becoming a resource for helping others.

Suggest employees form book clubs, learning about and discussing an area of interest with colleagues. Books don’t have to be technical trade manuals in order to be relevant, but you may be surprised how many employees would love to read and discuss whitepapers about emerging technology in your industry. 

Instead of workplace gossip being the focus of breakroom conversation, you might find an informal think tank exploring new ideas for the company.

How does a Learning Management System promote continuous learning?

Continuous learning through a Learning Management System (LMS) offers a special range of benefits for staff as well as the company. 

At its most basic level, digital archives allow you to consolidate and organize all the training materials used across the company. 

Ensure educational and training content is not only available to all employees at the right time, but that it is up-to-date and consistent ensuring compliance. 

Additionally, employees can now access them online from wherever and whenever—a major plus in the growing remote work world

As employees discover the possibilities and get energized about their own learning, the program can take on a life of its own. Now is the perfect time to start a continuous learning program—and Netchex can help!

Whether getting new hires up-to-speed, developing employees’ skillsets, or updating company-wide compliance, the right Learning Management System can make the process easier and more efficient. With NetLearn, Netchex’s integrated LMS, companies can diminish skill gaps and develop your workforce with consistent online educational content delivered directly to all of your employees.

Watch our video to learn more about NetLearn: