How to Build a Self-Sustaining Training Ecosystem in 5 Steps

Corporate learning and development is not a single-step process for the employer or the employee. Training is an ongoing initiative that, when done well, can result in high rewards for companies, leaders, and employees alike. Unfortunately, most companies begin and end enterprise training with an onboarding course. Once onboarding is complete, very few employees will take another course in their tenure at the company—this is because companies don’t know how to invest in continued education.

Businesses must build training ecosystems to get the maximum ROI from their commitment to corporate learning and development.

An ecosystem is a self-sustaining network of training tools and initiatives that support the overall goal of continuous learning and improvement in the corporate space. This ecosystem has become vital in the last few years as companies have learned how training and upskilling initiatives can encourage retention and engagement.

As we begin this year, it’s crucial to adjust budgets and strategies to make room for training initiatives—they are more indispensable now than ever before. They can help bridge the gaps between employees who work from the office, remotely, or in a hybrid environment. Training initiatives can transform companies from top to bottom, but you need an adequate strategy and the right tools to create an effective ecosystem.

Here are five steps to follow to craft a training ecosystem that supports your learning and development goals.

1. Make engagement the goal.

The ultimate goal of any training initiative should be engagement. When employees are engaged with corporate learning, they are more likely to complete courses and boost compliance rates. When they are engaged with corporate learning initiatives, they are also more likely to participate in the office culture. Employees are leaving their jobs in droves due to burnout, misalignment with company values, or even total shifts in career goals or disinterest in the work they are doing. Employee turnover costs companies greatly, and the expense of replacing an employee is far greater than the expense of maintaining them with programs like learning and development.

This is why a successful learning and development initiative starts with engagement. Companies must promote engagement by providing a selection of interesting courses, using interactive digital tools, and making learning and development a core tenet of the employee experience. Engagement will also help with the practical side of learning: retention. When employees are engaged and interested in the course content, they will remember more of what they are learning.

2. Find a learn tech stack that works for you.

In this modern age, you cannot achieve learning and development success without the right digital tools. Your investment in a learning management system will be the foundation of your training ecosystem and overall learning initiative. Choose a digital learning management system with interactive elements. The ExpertusONE LMS offers resources like an integrated content player, the capacity to build quizzes or polls into each course, and gamification to promote healthy competition among employees.

The core objective in this step is that you should look for a tool that isn’t going to bore your learners. Corporate learning and development have a reputation as tedious, time-consuming, and unengaging tasks. Don’t let this be the case for your training ecosystem. To build a learning and development strategy and system that you can sustain over time, choose a tool with longevity in mind. Look for updated tools that integrate or correspond with commonly used workplace apps. For example, ExpertusONE’s LMS software integrates with Slack, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams to make the learner experience seamless from platform to platform. Focus on choosing a tool that suits your unique needs—from the company’s size to the types of courses you want to offer—and can last your company for years.

3. Start with the basics.

If you’re building a training strategy from scratch, address the basic needs of your company first. These could be company process training tools, or communication standards, or industry-specific certifications. A training ecosystem must serve the learner from the day that they start working at the company to the day that they leave. Even if the company has a solid group of existing and long-time employees, you can still serve them and encourage engagement with upskilling or continuing education courses that add value to their experience.

If you have a strong onboarding course already available, add it to your digital LMS system and ensure that it is interactive—perhaps use the same content but add digital learning elements that are more creative than the original course. From there, consider challenges your employees may face at work—both interpersonal and specific to their job function—and create or curate courses based on those needs. If your entire team works remotely, consider adding a course on time management or stress management while working from home. If your team needs to upskill and learn a new set of industry-specific software, offer courses on that topic. Consider what it would take to keep your team members competitive with others in the field—perhaps a specific certification or skillset—and offer courses on that subject.

4. Promote collaboration and interaction.

When building individual courses, start with interactive elements—consider how you can make courses more engaging and optimize those tools. This is a critical part of the learning ecosystem because, without collaborative and interactive elements, employees do not get the engagement opportunities they need to thrive within the learning process. Encourage collaboration among team members to facilitate a healthy office culture and encourage the learning ecosystem. When employees learn alongside each other, they will automatically reinforce the ecosystem by creating a culture where training is collaborative and fun.

Practically, companies should invest in tools that facilitate collaboration. ExpertusONE’s enterprise learning management system does this with integrated tools like video conferencing and integration with workplace messaging forums like Slack, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams. Choose learning management systems that employees can use at home, in the office, or while taking their daily train commute so that they can collaborate even when they aren’t working from the same place.

5. Make management simple.

A learning ecosystem does not affect only the employees taking the courses but also the managers facilitating the learning. Make management simple so that your training ecosystem can run smoothly from top to bottom. Communicate expectations around learning and development goals and empower managers to meet these goals by offering the right tools. Most companies focus on the front end of a learning management system: how it will be received by learners. This, of course, makes plenty of sense, but it should not be the only consideration. Look at the back end of the system and determine if your training managers can easily create courses, add new ones, and follow up with employees about compliance.

A training ecosystem is essential for our modern working styles because it can help facilitate growth and learning no matter where employees are located. Building an ecosystem is a straightforward process that can easily be customized depending on the company’s unique needs. The investment in learning and development—from the strategy to the tech—will help companies thrive and grow in this increasingly digital work environment. Invest in a training ecosystem, and you will empower employees to thrive in the workplace through increased technical skills, growth of interpersonal skills, and engagement all across the board.