Posts Tagged: Training

Many companies struggle with making the decision to implement an LMS. Often the benefits are understood, but the time and cost are often considered a barrier.

As organisations grow there is an increasing need for training new staff and retraining current employees which places additional strain on training departments that may already be at full capacity.

Adding e-learning into your training portfolio can seem like a daunting task, but creating resources which can be accessed by employees online without placing ongoing demands on the training department allows the training department to scale training capacity more easily.

In addition to helping with training and on-boarding an LMS can help with training administration by notifying you of expiring training and enabling you to organise suitable training to ensure ongoing compliance. Handling this automatically can really help reduce the time spent on administration by a busy training department (Jess at Explore Learning estimates that Prodeceo saves her a day per week in admin. You can read her case study here).

At Prodeceo we understand two things:

1. A training management system is an essential tool for helping organise and deliver organisational learning.
2. Learning and Development budgets are being squeezed.

An LMS should make compliance tracking and recording easy so that you have an instanly accessible overview of your company's status. In addition by removing the administration burden of managing attendance, you are freed up to make more of your time.

We want to make these benefits available to everyone, which is why we are one of the most cost effective LMS systems on the market today. Not only that but you get access to our fanatical support team who can help you set up Prodeceo in you organisation. You don't have to take our word for it though take a look at some of our case studies here.

If you are considering changing your LMS, or are looking to save money then give us a call on 0845 900 3830 or click to send us an email.

A visit from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is always a daunting affair, whether planned or otherwise.

A visit from the HSE- Trick or Treat?.

Maintaining accurate training records is an important if often overlooked aspect of your health and safety programme, and can help to demonstrate your commitment to employee safety while at work.

Prodeceo helps by recording all training activities from eLearning to instructor led and external training, so you know that your records are up to date and stored securely offsite.

That is one less thing to give you nightmares!

According to the dictionary on my computer, the word validate has three distinct meanings:

Definition of validate

Validity in two dimensions

In order to be considered valid, I think that training activities must be measured in two dimensions. The first dimension is that is meets a business objective, the second is that the training delivered enables the participants to develop skills which aid the business objective.

There is a subtle difference between each of these in that the first dimension validates the existence of the training, while the second validates the effectiveness of the training delivery.

The business case

Identify the business case is easy for compliance related training- no training, no work. Developing training to improve the performance of an organisation needs careful needs analysis, and a clearly identified goal. Budgeting is also an important consideration here.

Evaluating the learning

Evaluating learning can be done in many ways from happy sheets to return on investment. I find that Kirkpatrick's model can be a useful guide for measuring learning.

Conclusion

The validity of training is more than just meeting the learning objectives. In some organisations the L&D director takes responsibility for the business case while instructional designers evaluate their students' outcomes to improve their materials. In other organisations both of these activities are the remit of the training manager.

How do you validate training in your organisation?

There are lots of things to get right when introducing a new learning management system to your organisation. In this article we present the five key things to avoid when launching a new LMS.

1: Launching quietly

You have a brand new learning management system! How are you going to tell everyone? Updating the link on the intranet will hardly set anyone's world on fire. Put up some posters near the coffee machine! Send out an email to the whole company! Hire a marching band! The last one is a little extreme but I hope you are getting the idea- your new LMS deserves to be seen.

2: Your organisation's busiest season

All organisations have busy periods. If you want your launch to have an impact choose a launch date that lets your learners take notice. This might mean that you are ready to go before the launch date, but that's not a bad thing- see points 3 and 4!

3: Releasing before testing

One of the worst things to happen would be to have a fantastic uptake from learners on the launch day, only for the system to throw up error messages. Make sure that you have tested everything from both the administrator and the learner's perspective. If you are integrating with a HR system or importing data from an external source, confirm that the integration is working as expected.

4: Releasing without content

If you have excited learners, make sure they can hit the ground running. Upload your content, schedule courses so that they can register. Give them reasons for using the software rather than logging in to a blank LMS- they'll engage more and are more likely to return!

5: Keeping the old system around

If you are replacing an existing LMS, then make sure that all references to it are removed from any training documents and intranet links. Forgetting to do this can lead to confusion for learners, which will undermine your hard work.

If you are unable to migrate your learning materials, consider rewriting them in a format suitable for the new LMS. This will avoid having to manage two different platforms.

Conclusion