Australian businesses are increasingly starting to replace their traditional staff training methods with online courses. If you’re used to conducting all your trainings face-to-face and are unsure of how learning from a screen can actually work, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is all about. While there are pros and cons to both training methods, with this post we hope to show you why some of the benefits of integrating eLearning solutions with your business processes are very real.

1. Save on costs

Save on costs

This is undoubtedly one of the most important factors for any business owner considering a change to their staff trainings. While custom course development does sound like a costly venture, the savings can actually be realised early on. With traditional staff training methods, you’d have to consider travel costs for staff, travel and wage costs for trainers, and not to mention costs for classroom or boardroom usage, electricity and so on. Now imagine the costs faced by businesses with a higher employee turnover rate. Developing custom eLearning courses might have a high initial development cost, but once these courses have been developed and customised to your business requirements, the exact same course can be used for every new employee without requiring scheduled classroom training sessions.

2. Increase training flexibility and convenience

Increase training flexibility and convenience

One of the great things about custom eLearning course development is the accompanying flexibility and convenience. This is especially beneficial to large businesses operating over several locations. eLearning removes the necessity of a physical facility and presence for training. What this means for your employees is that they now have access to and can complete their training whenever they have time, and are not restricted by training schedules. This is particularly useful for people who may live great distances away from work, or face any unexpected situations which may affect their availability during scheduled sessions. What this means for business owners and managers is that you don’t have to dedicate office hours for teaching and training. This is especially useful if you have a variety of staff, all of whom need training in separate areas.

3. Cut down learning times

Cut down learning times

eLearning courses can be delivered instantly across geographical boundaries, enabling a much greater efficiency of training. Well-developed courses effectively employ features such as animations, images, and even gamification. All of these make for an overall more engaging learning experience. eLearning has also been proven to increase retention rates, particularly because employees can now learn at their own pace, instead of struggling to keep up with faster learners or having to slow down to the pace of others. Learners can also focus on specific topics within which there are recognised knowledge gaps.

4. Maintain (and even increase) your productivity

Maintain your productivity

The amount of time saved with eLearning is staggering, especially once travel time for each employee and instructor is taken into account, as well as time spent on other activities such as introductory sessions, setting up equipment. For organisations that utilise senior staff members to carry out introductory or training sessions, every hour of their time saved translates to a much higher level of productivity when focused on their daily tasks instead of training new employees. In addition, the reduced learning times mean that people who are looking for opportunities to further develop their skills can now do so while spending the same amount of time. Employees who are given the opportunity to learn and grow are better able to add more value to their ongoing roles.

5. Monitor individual performance

Monitor individual performance

It’s inevitable to have that one employee who after a point of time just won’t participate or engage in training. While you can administer tests after training sessions, it’s difficult to accurately gauge just how well your employees are learning. eLearning allows you to not only perform regular checks on their understanding of the training material, but also to monitor the status, training progress and course completion details of every single employee.

While it may sound daunting to replace all your training methods with eLearning, without any sort of guarantee on how well it will work for your business, through this post we’ve explored some of the key benefits most businesses can expect from integrating eLearning solutions into their processes. A good starting point would be to introduce some online learning elements gradually and analyse how well the new methods complement your existing ones. Pretty soon you’ll be making a full switch to eLearning! To find out more about how eLearning solutions can help increase your business efficiencies and cost savings, get in touch today and we’ll arrange for your free consultation!