There can be no doubt that eLearning is the way of the future when it comes to making employee training more customized, user-friendly, and convenient than traditional approaches. Why all the confidence? Because studies show that companies that use eLearning to train employees to save money on employee development, grow their bottom line, increase employee engagement, and gain an edge over the competition.
Yet as more and more companies adopt eLearning as a practice, early adopters will have to make moves to differentiate themselves from the pack. One of the best ways to do so is with your course list.
The most common types of employee eLearning courses have to do with onboarding, compliance, or job-specific related duties. These are essential and certainly influential types of training to offer. However, once you have your employees on the eLearning bandwagon, you can supplement your course list with more unique offerings designed to increase employees’ overall well-being or help them aim higher within the organization. Offering these courses will demonstrate that you care about employees as people and want to help them grow — two critical factors in employee satisfaction.
To get you started, here are a few uncommon course ideas you may consider adding to your curriculum.
1. Financial Health
Just 24 percent of U.S. millennials demonstrate basic financial literacy. It’s a literacy rate that’s decreasing among younger generations — the very same groups who are filling the workforce. Combine that with the fact that people as a whole are living longer and retiring later, and you have a looming financial crisis at hand.
Good employers do their best to provide employees with the right resources (salaries, retirement plans) to help their financial health, but too few employees are taking advantage. In fact, two-thirds of Americans aren’t putting money into their 401k. Offering a financial health and literacy course can help combat these issues and the impact can be far-reaching. Employees who are financially secure will be less distracted at work, and more appreciative of and engaged with the benefits that you already offer.
2. Data Analytics and Visualization
Harvard Business Review once named data scientist the “sexiest job of the 21st century” and the demand for those who can understand, interpret, and draw conclusions from data continues to rise. But these abilities shouldn’t just be reserved for those with data in their title — they are skills that are essential to the success of any modern worker and workplace.
By training your employees on how to better analyze and share data, you’ll see a change in the speed and accuracy of communication, consensus, and decision-making organization-wide. Global revenue growth of business intelligence software is expected to reach $26.5 billion by 2025. With such wide adoption rates, companies must invest in business intelligence software and the employees who can interpret the results and analyze the resulting data to stay competitive.
3. Mindfulness
Today’s world is full of distraction. So much so that the average human’s attention span today is less than that of a goldfish. This change in how our brains work is affecting our productivity and happiness at work. The cure is mindfulness, which boosts creativity, problem-solving abilities, and decision-making skills. It’s already a practice employees are asking for on their own — the rates of U.S. workers who practice yoga or meditation are on the rise. So why not offer such an effective form of employee morale-boosting right in the workplace?
4. Family/Work Balance
Nearly half of highly-qualified women leave the workforce after having children. Many factors contribute to their departure, but one is likely the support offered for the transition to being a working parent. You can combat the brain drain and demonstrate your commitment to your employees’ work/life balance by offering training to prepare employees who are about to go on parental leave and to guide those returning back in.
5. Email Management
Email is the monkey on every 21st-century employee’s back. It remains the most popular way to communicate at work, yet its ubiquitous usage is overwhelming. Checking and responding to email takes up nearly a quarter of the average employees’ workday, and makes us more likely to work at home or during other off-hours.
Most employees have grown accustomed to the psychological reward that comes from responding to an email right away, yet that’s not necessarily the most productive approach. You can teach your employees better methods for inbox management that will help them make the most of their time at work while relaxing outside of the office.
6. Cybersecurity
The Equifax security breach of 2017 affected as many of 75 percent of American adults and cyber threats are only intensifying year over year. Cybersecurity attacks gravely impact both individuals and companies — the cost of an average corporate breach is in the millions. Therefore, teaching your employees to be smarter about protecting themselves online is a benefit not just to their personal lives, but to your organization as well.
Conclusion
When you implement a learning management system, the possibilities for adding courses are really endless. So why not add in a few unusual picks to the benefit of your employees’ professional and personal lives? To better understand how these courses impact your overall business objectives, track which employees take these courses in your employee engagement software to track individual performance improvements.
And this is just a starter list. A great way to get more ideas is to survey your employees and ask them what they’d like to learn about. Then find an expert, design a course, and let the learning begin.
About the author: Taylor Burke is a writer for TechnologyAdvice, covering marketing and sales. She’s passionate about helping brands become more authentic, transparent, and connected with their audiences.
