A “one size fits all” approach to eLearning is not sustainable. Each department at your organisation should consider its skill gaps and document its training needs. For example, Human Resources may need to improve new hire on-boarding while IT needs to keep engineers up to speed with the latest software. Understanding the most critical pain points helps build a business case for eLearning.

Ask Yourself:

What are the problems? These could include a need to increase performance and productivity, encourage innovation, create new leaders, or improve employee retention.

How big are the problems? Consider how many employees are affected in each department , to what extent productivity suffers, and which projects are incomplete.

Could eLearning be a solution? If the answer is no, ask why. Is the department unfamiliar with eLearning? Without buy-in, eLearning is less likely to succeed.

What are the requirements? These could include integration with a learning management system (LMS), 24/7 access, detailed reporting. Look for commonalities across teams and departments.

With needs identified, you and your team can start creating a plan that exposes the value of eLearning and set goals for a future deployment.

To set goals, answer these questions:
Do department objectives align with company goals? example: Management training in the IT Department is needed as much as it is company wide.

How can we reach our goals? example: With eLearning, we can offer management training anytime and anywhere—making it easily accessible to all eligible employees, who can learn at their own pace.

Do we need a short- or long-term strategy? example: Several executives are expected to retire in the next five years. A long-term strategy would support succession planning.

Measuring the effectiveness of eLearning and tracking the return on investment (ROI) is critical to confirming that goals are met. Define metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). Create baselines and milestones. Effective eLearning solutions offer detailed reports that track usage, course completions, time spent on the service, and more. Reports can help calculate ROI.

METRIC NO. 1: Employee Engagement – The goal is to evaluate whether training is used. If not, why? The goal is not determining the ultimate efectiveness of training. This measures interest and commitment, and how often employees use online training. To measure this, effective solutions provide reports that contain data on user registrations, course progress and completions, the frequency of logins, and more.

METRIC NO. 2: Knowledge Acquisition The goal is to confirm that learning has occurred. This measures knowledge, attitudes, skills, or other attributes acquired. To measure this, effective solutions incorporate assessments that help determine how much critical content an employee learns.

METRIC NO. 3: Behavior Change The goal is to confirm changes in performance and demonstrate positive ROI. This measures use of new knowledge, attitudes, and skills. This is measured through observation, performance benchmarks, project analysis, and feedback from superiors or subordinates. The easiest way to confirm change is to document a deficiency before and its reversal after training. Surveys are great for documenting change.

After taking all of the above steps into consideration, the final step is to find a provider who understands this process. Fortunately Smart eLearning has stepped up to become more like a trusted business partner than shortsighted vendor of years past. We can talk candidly about budget constraints, expectations, and hidden politics in ways that would have been unheard of a decade ago.

“I think of it as if I were to hire someone to build my house. Just because they have a truck, great tools, and a team of dedicated workers, doesn’t mean they know how to build a house. I want to see, walk through, climb stairs, open doors, look out windows, and flush the toilet in a house they actually built.” — Kevin Thorn, LMS Administrator, eLearning Development, AutoZone, Inc.