Shefali Mathur

Meta Title: Enable Your LMS to Upskill Your Employees Meta Description: To keep the circle of training going, it is important you choose an LMS that allows you to upskill your employees Upskilling LMS Features to Help Employee Training Philip Green, a business titan, once said—“Good, bad or indifferent, if you are not investing in new technology, you are going to be left behind.” Technology has changed the way we work and is a leverage to help organizations to be ahead of the curve. However, in order to reinforce this technical support, an organization needs to be mindful of two crucial elements: ● ● A great service or a product Workforce that’s motivated to upskill with right training Quick Facts: ● In a recent survey executed by McKinsey, 87% of the executives said they were seeing skill gaps in their employees or at least, expecting them in a few years. Surprisingly, not even half of these respondents had clear ideas to address this problem. Image Credit: Mckinsey ● A recent survey by Capterra reported that when 900+ employees were asked if they had an opportunity to develop a new work skill, given that the COVID19 pandemic had started, 49% of them said they were not interested. ● The recent Gartner report states that the total number of skills needed for a specific job has increased by 10% every year, since 2017. Most organizations encounter a shortage of ‘skill supply’ than ‘skill demand’ at some point or the other. Rather than filling the skills gaps by hiring new candidates and waiting for them to pace up, businesses should think of investing in reskilling and upskilling the existing employees. That’s where the features of a modern LMS (Learning Management System) come into play. Post pandemic, things changed at a rapid pace, leading to a constant need for employees to update their technical knowledge and add new skills to their repertoire. The economic instability and COVID19 health crisis have compelled many businesses to ‘do more with less’, especially when it comes to reskilling and upskilling their employees. Upskilling is the process of training your employees new skills that might be required either in the current scenario or in the future with respect to the new technological advancements. Upskill training not only empowers your workforce to enhance their present abilities, but also learn specialised skill sets to deliver value to your organization. Fortunately, the modern learning management systems of today are mature enough to help businesses choose from different features in order to fit their organizational budget and needs. 3 LMS (Learning Management System) Features to Use for Upskilling Your Employees Initially, online LMS (Learning Management Systems) primarily served as a repository or a storage space for eLearning courses, which were usually hosted on the organization’s intranet. However, the modern Learning Management System features turn out to be much more advanced and have the ability to perform more tasks—including hosting, analyzing to upskilling, tracking, and even reporting all the learning activities. Is your existing Learning Management System efficient and powerful enough to upskill your employees? Considering the stats, current situation, and the technological advancements in mind, here are a few features to consider to get the best out of your LMS tool. We have covered the three most crucial LMS features that lend a helping hand during your upskilling efforts. 1. Personalised learning paths With corporate training, there’s never a one-size-fits-all strategy that works because every learner is different. While a few prefer to learn at their own speed, a few learn based on their interests and needs. A modern learning management system makes it feasible for an organization to personalise online training. It provides employees individual learning paths, which are tailored based on their preferences and requirements, rather than just assigning the courses for their job role. A modern LMS enables integration with adaptive training engines which can help track a learner’s responses and activities in real-time, offering highly customised learning paths. 2. Real-time gamification Employee training programs should no longer be about completing the courses. Instead, it has to be engaging, super fun, experiential, and interactive. Again, that’s also where modern LMSs play an important role. They come equipped with advanced features to support age-new collaborative learning activities like social learning and gamification. Gamification encourages engagement among learners via three vital components—progression, points, and competition. All of these elements can be in the form of points, leaderboards, progress bars, badges, etc. Rewards can be customised to reflect different achievements of every learner throughout his or her learning journey. Components like ‘Levels’ and ‘Progress’ are visible only to the individual learners whereas leaderboard scores (showing learners rankings) can be made public, meaning everyone in the organization can view it. This creates a friendly competition amongst the learners, encouraging them to perform better. Quick Fact: According to Capterra, 89% of LMS users say that they will be more engaged if their eLearning had a score or point system. 3. Special inbuilt features to aid collaborative learning Community functions such as chat rooms, upvoting, content ratings, discussion boards, and ability to follow users enables collaboration with instructors, managers, and peers, which is vital for growing employees’ learning curve. Educational researchers and experts have been stressing upon the advantages of implementing discussion-based features in elearning programs for years now because they allow learners to reflect on the peers’ contributions mindfully before responding. This kind of thoughtful collaboration becomes a key element in effective training too. Encouraging conversations, which surround your business practices and training content is an ideal way to get your team to learn more effectively and efficiently. Additionally, it also offers insights into which training material is working (and what is not). The Dos and Don’ts of Upskilling Your Employees Employee upskilling practices range from getting personal, to making sure there is ongoing growth as well as mentorship. Let’s look at a few dos and don’ts to keep in mind while upskilling employees. The Dos: 1. Invest in personalised development plans Every employee has his/her professional & personal background and existing skill set. Individual employees might also need various expertise levels while learning new skills to stay effective and up-to-date in their job roles. That’s why personalisation matters while designing an upskill training program. Aim to comprehend each employee and his/her job role than seeing them as a group. A deep analysis will help reveal the level and type of training, which every employee requires the most. Once this is done, create a personal development plan that outlines clear training objectives for every employee to achieve. 2. Incorporate real-life simulations and case studies Busy employees need training which is precise and timely so that they can apply their learnings at the earliest. Give your training programs a practical touch by utilising realistic simulations and relatable case studies. Try designing simulations and case studies to leverage social learning activities, such as team workshops or webinars because peer discussions not only bring in engagement but also enable participants to share their experiences. For instance, if the learning is about upskilling sales people to help them provide better negotiation techniques, then give them different opportunities to rehearse calls to understand customers’ perspective. 3. Provide mentorship to ensure enhanced upskilling Mentorship is an effective strategy when it comes to training. There’s no better way to learn than to share knowledge with each other. It enables social learning and helps participants to develop their skills even after their initial training. To get the most from the upskilling plan, establish a proper mentoring program that helps every employee with their future tasks. Mentors play a vital role in keeping the mentees up-to-date with upcoming technological changes and even strengthen their overall performance. The Don’ts: 1. Providing training as a one-time event Did you know that the average shelf life of a skill is five years? (Source: Adobe). Therefore, it makes no sense to provide training just once, or perhaps, once in a while. Instead, this should be an ongoing activity to enhance their skills and ensure they stay up-to-date. Undeniably, acquiring a new skill takes time and practice. The best practice is to combine ongoing training with frequent job aids, such as mentorship programs, process infographics, and checklists, as these will help keep the employees to master a given skill. Learning a new skill is just half the battle won. The complete success is only when employees continue to develop new skills and put them to practice to master the growing requirements of the job roles. 2. Using traditional training techniques If the upskill training program is ongoing, then the employees will need the sessions to be convenient, relevant, and most importantly, engaging. This is where the power of a robust and flexible LMS (Learning Management System) with advanced features comes into the picture. An LMS, which lets you select from different types of visual assessments, question banks, simulation practices, content delivery, and even analytics to evaluate the success of the training program. These features not just keep things engaging but also serves as a differentiator while upskilling your employees.