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Business eLearning that Produces Results: Top Trends and Practices for Companies
October 2, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has taught companies and organizations there’s no escaping the desperate need to invest in learning and upskilling strategies — not only to achieve increased productivity, but also for optimal AI leverage and to realize crucial competitive advantages.

Learning and development programs consistently yield positive results for companies and organizations of all sizes. Researcher Maia Josebachvili, in an article titled “How to Understand the ROI of Investing in People,” found that a job previously done by six people — whether it was an engineer or a salesperson — could be done by one person if that person is trained properly. [1]

Her research revealed that “the difference between average and slightly optimized People Practices for one salesperson over the course of three years totals $1.3 million in net revenue.” The bottom-line results stemmed from several factors, such as that a poorly trained employee would leave his or her job within the first two years of employment, requiring the expense of hiring and training a new worker.

The payoff is magnified by the coronavirus pandemic’s upending of business functions, forcing most employers — and especially those in the white-collar sector — to enable their workforces to do their jobs remotely. Some economists predict the U.S. office vacancy rate could double to nearly 20% in the next two years. [2] And Kate Lister, president of Global Workforce Analytics, predicts 25% to 30% of the U.S. workforce will work from home more than one day a week by the end of 2021. The World Economic Forum has predicted that 54% of all employees will require significant upskilling by 2022.

Companies, rudely awakened to this new reality, are searching for the most seamless and effective solutions, especially since Harvard Business Review found that a mere 8 percent of organizations engage in core practices that could even support the widespread adoption of AI and analytics, and that a majority of firms’ AI efforts involve ad hoc pilot programs or are confined to a single business process. [3]

Yet research has shown that investments in online learning, implemented strategically, can dramatically improve employee retention and team performance. Indeed, many of the world’s largest and most successful companies — Amazon, AT&T and Microsoft among them — are investing heavily in upskilling, both for hard skills — technical competencies — and what some experts call “harder” skills — the more elusive traits of leadership, collegiality, emotional intelligence and the ability to motivate everyone to want continuous learning.

WHAT MAKES ONLINE LEARNING EFFECTIVE?

Companies are finding that dedicated platforms make remote learning more transparent, and enable managers and business owners to track employees’ results and keep rewards and requirements updated.

The goal is to employ personalized upskilling that’s tailored to the audience and that allows employees to realize “skill stacking,” or becoming proficient at a variety of skills that can enhance each other and boost career capabilities.

Companies that make the most of eLearning develop custom software so they can take employees’ goals into account and meet their own specific needs. 

These solutions ideally include: [4]

  • Peer-to-peer education
  • Team members can interact, ask questions, and talk directly in the platform.
  • Learning as a part of the work process
  • Employees get paid for their learning hours.
  • Visualization

The software lets everyone create graphs, flowcharts and diagrams for new content and displays the learning progress as visuals.

Companies may use smart analytics to get alerts when employees need help or have questions. The most effective eLearning leverages AI to shift through the huge data volumes to compile comprehensive reports, shortening the feedback loop between HR and the employee.

Effective eLearning covers not only specific job skills but life skills that enhance employees’ wise decision making, such as creativity, leadership, communication, time management and problem solving.

The ultimate goal is to see employees want to learn because they know their lives will be enhanced and they’ll be rewarded for their efforts. Many are already motivated, but feel their priorities are unheeded. While employees wouldn’t mind having guidance in place, they would rather adapt it to their needs and schedules. This means employees have to provide searchable data catalogs and personalized suggestions. AI can analyze an employee’s learning preferences and pick content that fits these interests the most, while still being relevant to the company’s interests.

WHAT AMESITE CAN DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Amesite enables technical, sales and L&D teams to get the customized solutions that work for you. Amesite’s solutions for the enterprise offer delivery on the industry’s most advanced platform. Video, dynamically refreshed content, and conferencing and discussion features make interaction simple. Analytics enable learners and management to track progress.

Our easy-to-use platform requires no training, and we design customized learning experiences that can educate a few people – or thousands.

For a turnkey solution that includes content creation or refurbishment, delivery on an easy-to-use platform, and outstanding services including subject matter experts who instruct your teams, please get in touch to see how we can help you make sure your company is ready to charge into the future!


References:

[1] Sunlight, Nov. 6, 2019, “The Real ROI of Learning and Development,” 
https://www.sunlight.is/post/the-real-roi-of-learning-and-development

[2] Chicago Sun-Times, April 3, 2020, “Chicago Economy: Quick Recovery Unlikely From Coronavirus Pandemic.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/4/13/21216294/chicago-economic-outlook-coronavirus-covid-19-recovery

[3] SHRM, May 29,2020, Upskilling Benefits Companies and Employees
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/summer2020/pages/upskilling-benefits-companies-and-employees.aspx

[4] eLearning Industry, March 12, 2020, “Top 5 Trends in Corporate eLearning For 2020,”
https://elearningindustry.com/top-5-trends-corporate-elearning-for-2020