6 Benefits of Using an LMS for your Small-Medium Sized Business’s Training Needs
It’s a commonly held belief that learning management systems are suitable only for large organizations, organizations having humongous workforces and even bigger budgets. However, even small businesses can benefit from deploying an LMS.
As the owner of a small-medium sized business, you often run on a tight budget. Regardless of your market share or the number of employees you currently have, a smart LMS can be a powerful tool that will widen your customer base, increase profits, and help achieve business success, without costing you a fortune.
We have listed down a few benefits of using an LMS for your business, and how doing so can help you shine in today’s competitive market.
1. Reduce training costs
Employees in a small organization play a variety of roles in order to optimize budgets. Training such employees calls for a comprehensive learning path that covers multiple fields of study. Hiring an HR manager is the easiest way to take care of this but not always the cheapest. For small-medium sized businesses, implementing an LMS could prove to be best solution. You could set up unique learning paths with training modules related to your industry. Your LMS would oversee all the training needs automatically, enabling employees to complete training without the need of any instructors and/or training managers.
Moreover, since an LMS doesn’t require any printed material or the physical presence of an instructor to impart trainings, you do not have to spend on the travel costs of instructors or worry about printing training material for every new recruit.
2. Improve customer service
An LMS can give your employees the tools to represent your brand and the knowledge to deliver good customer service. Using an LMS will also allow your employees to train using simulations and scenario based assessments, boosting their customer service skills even further.
For example, you may require them to complete POS(point of sale) training or interact with a virtual customer, mimicking real world scenarios that they would find on the job.
3. Allow instant updates
You can use an LMS to keep your employees up to date with any new products and newly enacted company or government regulations.
As an example, if you are launching a product with new features that your sales-team needs to know about, then you can simply create a training module that covers all of the required info. This may even increase sales volumes by keeping your sales-team informed on the latest features of their product, thereby equipping them to pitch the product to customers.
Moreover, using an LMS will enable you to quickly inform your employees on new procedures or regulations. Doing so can save you money in the long run, particularly if it’s a matter of government mandated compliances. Keeping your employees updated with the industry rules and regulations that they must adhere to can help you to avoid fines and penalties in the future.
4. Track employee progress and skill development
An LMS makes keeping track of employee progress effortless by providing in-depth reports for each and every employee.
For example, if you wish to see how a particular employee is faring in a particular training module, say Sales101, you can do so by simply logging onto the platform and viewing her progress levels, assessment grades and more. If the employee is lagging behind in certain areas, you can then work with her to fine tune any skills that are lagging behind or shift them to another department altogether. You can also give employees an opportunity to work in new departments should they prove that they have expanded their knowledge base by performing well in their training.
5. Centralize storage of data and training materials
Any small or medium sized business can use an LMS to store all training modules and business data in one central place. Centralized storage enables employees of any branch to access information and learn at their own pace anytime, anywhere. An LMS also helps standardize training content by storing it at one place and offering every employee, no matter where they are located, the same, up-to-date, accurate information.
Moreover, a cloud-based LMS minimizes the possibility of losing data by storing all of it on a secure, remote server.
6. Prevent Repetition of Training
Many small-medium sized business already have training programs in place. But in some cases, all of the training of fresh recruits is coordinated by a single training manager. This leads to the training manager having to redo the training to onboard every batch of fresh hires. Using an LMS can ease the load on the training manager to a great extent. He/she can simply create onboarding training module(s) once and then assign this to all new recruits.
In Summary
Choosing an LMS can be a big decision for a small-medium sized company. Businesses must look for learning management solutions that can grow with them. Take the time to explore and pick an LMS that suits your needs. It will make it easier to align training dollars with desired business outcomes. You may come across LMSes that provide a host of features and lock you in with unnecessarily complicated pricing plans with multiple brackets. Avoid such complications and look for an LMS that gives you what you need at a pricing plan that is specifically tailored to your company. LearnBee, a no-frills LMS, is ideal for small-medium sized business owing to its simple and transparent pricing plan, basic yet effective features, and no brackets on the number of users.
