Embrace “The New Normal” in Employee Training with a Collaborative, Accessible, and Personalized LMS Platform

We’re all tired of hearing the phrase “the new normal,” but the reality is that we really do live in a new normal. The pandemic reshaped our lives, especially in the ways we do business. Companies shifted their priorities and strategies to accommodate pandemic-era needs, and as such, corporate training shifted dramatically to a largely online format. 

It’s time that we adapt. Many companies have gone back to work with options for remote, hybrid, and in-person work. Our needs have changed in a post-pandemic society. We need to distribute LMS systems and digital assets that enable employees to work from anywhere, but we also need tools that make room for communication and collaboration. We use numerous communication platforms in our workplaces, and this can cause an information overload for employees—and reduce productivity because of context switching.

Historically, employee training has been highly collaborative and relied heavily on team-member interaction. Many workplaces have, for years, used a hybrid model of in-person and virtual training to help with onboarding, upskilling, or general company-wide training initiatives. But these strategies don’t work in a post-pandemic world, and employers face a unique challenge in combining effective digital training tools and collaborative opportunities. 

In 2021, the core goal of any company’s training and development strategy should be to balance the social and collaborative aspects of training, even when workplaces are not fully in-person. The question driving this goal is how companies can replicate real-life situations in an online environment, especially in training.

Translate In-Person Employee Training to eLearning Platforms

With significant advances made in digital technology over the last year, companies and organizations are working to translate their in-person training to a digital environment. One compelling example is the Air Force’s use of virtual reality (VR) for sexual assault prevention training. The Department of Defense reported a significant number of sexual assault reports in the Air Force in 2020, and the organization responded by implementing timely training with digital tools. The interactive training model allows users a first-hand, interaction-based learning experience that will solidify the efficacy of training.

While most companies won’t be able to implement VR tools in their training and development departments, there’s a lesson to learn from the Air Force’s approach: in order to translate in-person training habits to digital learning platforms, companies must focus on providing interactive elements.

You can implement collaborative training strategies using the ExpertusONE platform, which was designed with this new normal of hybrid learning in mind. The LMS software makes it possible for course creators to add interactive elements like quizzes, polls, or surveys to each level within a course. With ExpertusONE, companies can implement watch-party style learning, where colleagues can collaborate and learn simultaneously. If employees want to ask questions or go further in-depth on a specific topic, they can message training managers and gain insight. 

All of these elements are housed within the ExpertusONE platform, which creates a more interactive and more intuitive learning management system than the outdated training tech many companies used prior to the pandemic.

Provide LMS Training Tools That Meet Employees Where They Are

Remote and hybrid work models make it more challenging for employees to communicate with their peers and their managers. Collaboration is essential for an engaged and effective workforce, but many employees struggle to manage multiple streams of contact like email, corporate messaging software, and video conferencing or phone conferencing calls. Companies are even prompting their employees to interact on social media platforms like LinkedIn. 

All of these communication methods are driven by good intentions: companies want to connect with their employees. But this leads to an overwhelming number of digital tools being required to manage a single job. Context switching from platform to platform between tasks or agenda items can reduce productivity and increase rates of burnout.

That’s why companies need to meet their teams where they are by providing employee training within the digital tools that they already use. ExpertusONE works alongside popular workplace apps like Slack, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams to make training more accessible for employees no matter where they are located. This means that one employee could start their workplace training in the desktop version of the ExpertusONE platform, and then switch to Slack and continue listening to a training video while they are driving to pick up their child from school. 

App accessibility also makes compliance training and employee onboarding more straightforward in a remote or hybrid work environment. Not only are the tools more accessible for new team members, but integration with commonly used workplace apps makes it possible for new team members to learn more quickly because they are only learning content, not how to navigate an entirely new digital system. New employee onboarding is simplified with accessible training tools like ExpertusONE.

Simplify Upskilling, Employee Onboarding, and Compliance Training With AI

One of the greatest pandemic-era ideological shifts in corporate training strategy is the newfound focus on long-term impact. Both employees and companies are thinking more about the future of their work because of the significant challenges businesses faced during the pandemic. Employees want to stay competitive so they can keep their jobs and make themselves critical stakeholders at their companies. They also want to know that there is room for growth and for their skills to take them further.

Companies have also recognized the importance of cultivating a competitive edge internally while providing employees with opportunities to expand their skills. On top of these initiatives, companies recognize the long-term impact of effective onboarding and the necessity of ongoing compliance training. 

But managing so many training programs is time-consuming. In order for companies to provide engaging and personalized content for their employees, they must dedicate countless hands-on hours to creating content and making sure the right people take the right courses.

Or, they could use artificial intelligence. Yes, AI can simplify upskilling, onboarding, and compliance training, and make companies and their employees more effective.

ExpertusONE’s LMS platform uses AI to recommend personalized training directives for each employee based on a number of factors. Companies provide access to the courses, and employees are fed recommendations related to their interests, job descriptions, skill sets, or what their peers are learning. Instead of hands-on hours spent assigning training to employees, companies can rely on AI to cultivate a consistent learning environment for each employee. One employee with a very technical job description could be assigned a required certification course. After they complete the required course, AI will show the employee further courses to expand their knowledge or set them apart from their peers. 

Companies can measure an employee’s performance and monitor their progress in upskilling, onboarding, and compliance training initiatives. Leader boards can be used to showcase an employee’s initiative or promote healthy competition among employees.

The new normal of employee training post-pandemic centers around three key components: collaboration, accessibility, and personalization. Employees want to be engaged through collaborative tools that allow interaction with fellow employees and companies can provide this in synchronous and asynchronous training methods. Accessibility is a key component of successful training initiatives because employees need to be able to access their learning tools from wherever they may be working, in-office, or remotely. Finally, personalization brings in a higher degree of engagement and a higher level of competitiveness—both of which impact a company’s success.

The new normal in corporate training is a positive shift. It’s time companies embrace it.