Why You Need a Learning Management System
Do you have one employee and endless time to train? Congratulations — you don’t need a learning management system!
For the rest of us, we rely on our LMS.
What is an LMS?
A learning management system (LMS) is a tech platform that companies use to train their employees (online, in-person, or in hybrid situations). These generally include the ability to take courses, engage with other learners, track progress, and report metrics to administrators.
Cost of an LMS
The initial investment in an LMS can be significant, so it’s important to choose the right partner for your platform.
However, the decision to NOT have an LMS is also costly:
4x the salary
An LMS can increase employee retention rates by providing a better onboarding experience and career pathing. Replacing an employee can cost 3-4 times the person's salary.¹
2-6x more recall
eLearning boosts learning retention rates by 25-60%, compared to retention rates of 8-10% with traditional training.²
$4.5 million
Before senior employees retire, an LMS can distribute institutional memory. The average U.S. enterprise-size company may waste $4.5 million in productivity/year due to knowledge loss.³
What You Could Gain from an LMS?
Engaged learning can create a culture that reduces employee turnover and onboards new associates without taxing team resources – but that’s not all. If you have clear metrics for your LMS (paired with the right LMS solution) you can accomplish a ton:
Build new leaders and establish succession planning
Deliver quicker onboarding of new associates
Increase remote associate engagement and development
Enhance the skillset of associates
Provide associate roadmaps for retention
Develop a culture of learning and innovation
Pass on institutional knowledge from retirees to the next generation
Important LMS Factors to Evaluate
Your organization might have clear metrics that they want to measure with an LMS. Other factors to consider when evaluating platforms may include:
Ease of use
Content library for assets
Gamification (custom badges/point systems)
Certification creation
Social collaboration
Course authoring tools
eCommerce (sell content, courses, subscriptions)
Extended enterprise (client, partner, franchise training)
Workflows (automatic course assignment based on roles, seniority, and completed courses)
Ability to add/exchange features as the company needs to change
Prebuilt course library
AI assistant
Metrics/Reporting
Customer support
API integrations
The Value of eLearning Authoring Tools
We’ve all sat through training that has been painful, boring, or irrelevant. It’s not enough to have an LMS to be successful. You need courses that are engaging, too. Having an LMS with eLearning authoring tools is essential.
(If you have content, but need an instructional design expert to bring your course to life, CD2 has a creative team that does that for you.)
How to Choose the Right LMS
While the technical capabilities of an LMS are important, the ease of use and customer support is also crucial.
Can the LMS technology scale with what your company needs? Can you pay for a few features today that you need, and add more features as you need them?
Evaluate not just the tech — check out the team providing support. Do you have someone tech-savvy on your team or will you need more hand-holding support from your vendor?
Evaluate award-winning technology. Choose a platform that has good recommendations by third parties — like independent researcher Talented Learning.
About CD2 Learning
Established in 2008, CD2 has a long history of learning and development expertise, plus award-winning technology. This proven record of success has led to awards including Top 20 All-Purpose Learning System Award from Talented Learning and Gold Stevie Winner for Best Customer Education – Learning Management System.
Our instructional design staff can bring engaging courses to life, and our gamified platform ensures the right training pops up for the right person at the right time in their career development.
Want to Chat?
We’d be happy to brainstorm solutions or give a demo of our platform.
¹ Navarra, K. (2022, April 12). The real costs of recruitment. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/the-real-costs-of-recruitment.aspx
² Pezold, S. (2017, February 15). LMS 101: Rethinking Your Approach To Employee Training. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paycom/2017/02/14/learning-management-systems-101-rethinking-your-approach-to-employee-training/
³ Davis, J. (2018, July 17). Knowledge loss: Turnover means losing more than employees - HR Daily Advisor. HR Daily Advisor. https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/07/18/knowledge-loss-turnover-means-losing-employees/