How to Boost Employee Engagement with an LMS
Feb 10, 2023
Recruiting, interviewing & hiring – all the things needed to bring on a new employee, I can do! Piece of cake. That’s my wheelhouse and a task I can handle. But when it comes to training those new hires – let’s be real. That’s the piece in an ideal world that I would hand off to my assistant. HA! And I know I can’t be the only one who feels this way. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t see the value in training new hires. It’s the planning and coordinating of training schedules that make me want to pull my hair out. I’m just one person. How can I possibly manage training for new hires across the entire company? I recruit, interview, and hire remember? I can’t possibly be a subject matter expert on all things across the organization. How can I be successful at creating training for someone who does a job that I can’t even do myself?
Before we go any further, let me introduce myself. I’m Summer Vanderbilt, the Recruitment Development Manager here at HireLevel. That’s a fancy way of saying I handle all internal hiring and training (as well as other things but for the purpose of this blog we will keep it simple). I’ve been in this role for two years now but prior to the change in title, I spent 5 years recruiting for our clients. The difference in roles? I didn’t handle training. So now managing our training process is a large part of my job, and a large part of our organization. I quickly started looking at ways to make training less of a burden for everyone involved. As a busy mom of two and working part-time, I needed a simple process to train our team members.
My outlook on training, if you haven’t gathered by now, wasn’t great. Chaotic is probably the best word for the process we had in place… which wasn’t really a process at all. Trainings weren’t consistent and new hires would have a different experience depending on their office location and who they were “scheduled to sit with” that may or may not go over what was actually on the schedule. We had no way of keeping track of what training was completed, when, and if the information was relayed correctly. What worked in the past was not going to help me feel successful in my role. We started to research the best learning management systems and found that the isolved Learn and Grow solution was best for us.
When I ask candidates, “Do you have any questions for me?”, a response I can almost guarantee will be asked is, “What does the training process for this role look like?”. As training and development continue to be an area of interest for job seekers, that question is fair. How do you respond? Your answer to that question could make or break how interested this candidate is in pursuing the opportunity with your company. It took me a little bit of time, trial, and error to get my response and our training program to a place where I am confident to speak to it. I can give that credit to my assistant, Learn & Grow, our online learning management system.
Now, our training isn’t perfect. There are still times when things are a little chaotic. But overall, the training is consistent across the company and accessible anywhere at any time. How do we do it? By using the Learn & Grow learning management system, we can customize our own content and upload resources specific to that subject and create what is called a course. And just like school, in order to pass the course, you have to pass the test. That’s the part that helps me out. 1) I know for sure if you retained the content and 2) Completion of the test allows me to track what training has been completed. It takes the guesswork out of it!
Our learning management system’s features and benefits helped our training program:
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Well Summer, that’s great but I still have to keep it organized!”. Well, kind of. We then use what the learning management system (LMS) calls a Path – which is a group of assignments put into one group that can be assigned to a user all at once. Here’s an example. We have a new Recruiter starting with HireLevel. On day 1 I will assign them the Recruiter Learning Path. It outlines all the topics they will be covering for two weeks and individual assignments and test to complete each training. The LMS guides them through what to follow next. On day 1, I can also assign trainings that will take place over the next 6 months, and other compliance trainings even if I don’t want them to start right away. I can schedule those courses out and request reminder emails if things are overdue. This way, the employee knows what is expected of them and has access to the content at any given time. And I can get back to interviewing.
By giving them a tool that can provide the resources they need to be successful, it has allowed us to upskill our employees and retain them. Together, we can help you set up your learning management system for continuous career growth.
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https://resources.hirelevel.com/skill-up-your-team-for-success-in-2023