Startup businesses are plagued by a number of issues, but the most common is the need for constant growth. Of course, this requires a continuous need to onboard new employees and grow your market, but what isn’t as apparent is the influence your employees can have on shaping your brand.
eLearning is beneficial to startups and presents a genuine opportunity to differentiate your product, your service, and your vision. Here are the five ways that eLearning can be supremely beneficial to startups.
It’s Faster
eLearning is more readily consumable than traditional education methods, simply because the participants don’t have to assemble in the same place. There is no lost time for gathering the class, distributing the materials, and testing. This traditional method pales in comparison to the reduction in learning times that eLearning offers. eLearning is self-paced, meaning it can be done on the employee’s own schedule.
More Effective
Since eLearning is malleable, it allows for the skipping or repeating of lessons to maximize existing knowledge. Self-directed learning programs that are accessible from a myriad of devices exhibit increased interaction and greater retention levels. Users can accomplish more learning in a given period of time and can immediately view lesson and course progress.
The measure of any curriculum is its retention. eLearners exhibit greater recognition regarding course topics and retention of principles when compared to traditional learning methods.
Gamification
One of the more interesting aspects of eLearning is the process of gamification, or the emulating of game mechanics to facilitate learning. With leaderboards, point scoring, and badge earning, the overall level of interaction is increased and a sense of fulfillment accompanies completion of each module. The same attributes that make gaming so addictive and compulsory can be used to educate your employees quickly and thoroughly.
Enhanced Collaboration
The on-demand nature of eLearning coincides with multiple users participating in a module or a course simultaneously. In addition to instant feedback, this process increases the collaboration of your team. Not only does this allow you to instantly see where you are ranked among other employees that have completed the module, this fosters discussions about the completed lessons. When combined with instant messaging and video conferencing, it creates a real-time problem solving and brainstorming sessions. Discussions, examples, and conclusions are relevant, timely, and valued—far more than memos or email blasts.
Mobile
The decentralized, work-at-your-own-pace nature of eLearning means that it will exclusively be consumed in a mobile environment. Downtime in traffic, plane layovers, or public transit commuting can now be used to train employees. There is less of a feeling of imposition and compulsion when employees are given the ability to learn at their own pace and on their own devices.
Productivity and Performance Management
Lack of employee productivity and inaccurate performance management are two of the harbingers of excessive growth. Add to the mix a differentiation of product quality and it’s easy to see how a lack of a consistent and scalable training program is most often the culprit.
Managers need a mechanism for measuring productivity, assessing employee performance, and ensuring consistent quality. A flexible and scalable eLearning program or a Learning Management System that offers feedback and key performance indicators will not only facilitate this process, but will also make the results comparable.
eLearning offers the flexibility and customization that startups require in the least intrusive and most beneficial way possible. The onboarding and training of new employees does not have to be something that employees go through. It can be a vital and integral step in defining what makes your company unique, profitable, and sustainable.
