There’s no denying that working from home is the new normal. An article by Business Insider reported that in August 2021, around 13% of employed individuals were working from home as a result of the pandemic.1 Just 3.6% of US employees were working from home in 2018, according to Global Workplace Analytics.2 Many companies have plans to extend work-from-home strategies or even implement a blanket remote work policy. A contributor to Build Remote said companies such as Twitter, Square, Coinbase, Facebook, Shopify, Upwork, VMWare, Hitachi, Hubspot, and more were going fully remote.3
An article by CNBC affirmed that working from home is here to stay.4 Thankfully, employees are not averse to this. “For the most part, workers applaud this new approach,” wrote a contributor to CNBC. “Vaccinated or not, more than half of employees said that, given the option, they would want to keep working from home even after the coronavirus crisis subsides, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.”
3 Learning Technologies That Promote Continuous Employee Training When Working from Home
Because working from home is the new normal for many employees, so is learning from home. By implementing essential learning technologies, companies can set themselves up for success by ensuring their employees have access to high-quality training, no matter what the future brings.
Here are a few learning technologies that promote learning, even when working from home:
1) Learning management systems - A learning management system (LMS) is one of the best learning technologies for organizations across all industries. The primary function of an LMS is to deliver training to employees, volunteers, members, and any other type of individual a company wants to train.
With an LMS, training is delivered through a variety of features, such as mobile learning. Mobile learning has many benefits, including:
Companies that adopt and support the mobile technologies their employees regularly utilize see better learner engagement and training success rates. This is because mobile learning enables employees to train at times that are convenient for them. This allows them to make the most of the time they do have to train, which is not much. The average learner only has 24 minutes a week to dedicate to training, according to the article “Six Statistics That Highlight the Power of Mobile Learning.”5 Making training available via mobile device will encourage employees to participate in training. This improves a company’s ROI for training. The article also reported:
Statistics like these explain why making training available on mobile devices is critical to employee training success.
With the TOPYX LMS mobile learning feature, employees can access content on demand, regardless of location or time zone. All a user needs for a rewarding learning experience is an internet connection and a mobile device. Users can seamlessly access training and collaboration materials from either desktop or mobile devices and collaborate with fellow teammates as they learn together or on their own. TOPYX delivers a superior user experience with a responsive mobile design, supported on every mobile device.
Is TOPYX the right LMS for your organization? Find out by requesting a free LMS demo of TOPYX.
2) Microlearning platforms - Microlearning platforms can also be considered part of the grouping of essential learning technologies for companies. Like its name suggests, microlearning is learning/training that is delivered in small pieces, in an orderly fashion. Usually, microlearning can be participated in throughout the course of an employee’s workday, which prevents them from taking time off work to train.
Microlearning can enable learners to better process the information they are given and to fully digest it. This leads to better training outcomes. For example, mobile microlearning boosts learner engagement rates by four and drives knowledge retention rates to 50% higher than those connected to traditional eLearning tools, per Hubspot.6
Microlearning features a variety of benefits for employees. A contributor to Business News Daily cited benefits such as easy access to training, higher learning retention rates, and affordable training options.7 “Given that microlearning involves lessons and materials meant to be viewed and ingested in shorter timeframes, these lessons are typically much less expensive to create,” the contributor wrote. “You can easily train your employees in much-needed skills without investing a ton of time or money.”
Microlearning is not only beneficial; it is also trending these days. “With a greater emphasis on bite-sized learning, continuous learning journeys and learning in the flow of work, microlearning platforms will play a dominant role in 2021 and beyond,” a Training Industry article stated.8 “Since microlearning courses are short, organizations can administer them quickly and efficiently. They are fact-based or task-oriented, and there is little fluff.”
The article explained that microlearning platforms allow administrators to have flexibility in managing and hosting courses. These platforms provide real-time data that enables L&D professionals to augment employees’ skills in areas specific to them.
The Training Industry article also stated that some microlearning platforms use assessments as their primary strategy. However, this isn’t the only type of microlearning platform. “Others use courses and gamification to make learning stick. Whichever strategy they use, their emphasis is on performance, and organizations reap the rewards.”
Many learning management systems, including TOPYX LMS, host microlearning in addition to mobile learning. These two types of training often work in tandem with one another and make a great team.
Find out how to use microlearning to maximize remote training in challenging times.
3) Learning analytics tools - In addition to LMSs and microlearning platforms, learning analytics tools are another essential type of learning technology for companies post-COVID. Learning analytics tools measure, collect, analyze and report data for learners and their contexts, according to an article by eLearning Industry.9 The article explained that L&D professionals can use learning analytics tools to better understand corporate learning, and to optimize it.
Most companies have massive amounts of data pertaining to employee learning. Learning analytics tools enables administrators to make good use of that data, leveraging it to create better, more engaging training that employees working from home will want to participate in. For example, learning analytics tools give L&D professionals deep insights into how well workers are engaging with training and when and if they are dropping out of courses. Administrators can use this information to craft more effective training.
Instructors, managers, and executives need to access reports from their LMS quickly and efficiently. With the TOPYX LMS reporting feature, administrators can easily navigate reports in an intuitive and customizable dashboard. The dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of key performance indicators (KPIs). This helps executives and management teams track learners’ progress.
TOPYX LMS administrative reporting tools are versatile and robust. They allow administrators to mail or export reports in Excel, PDF and many other formats. LMS reporting also lets L&D professionals communicate facts to executives easily with direct reports, and to easily pull data on user activity and performance.
Reporting tools aren't just for administrators. They also give learners access to report cards, competencies, and transcripts.
An LMS Helps Your Employees Keep Learning, Even When Working from Home
When choosing a learning technology, it’s important to find one that is effective and enables learning from home. It’s equally vital to choose a learning technology that can host mobile learning and microlearning, and also features learning analytics tools. Learning technologies that allow workers to easily access training at any time, during any type of crisis, are also essential. TOPYX learning management system ticks all of these boxes.
Discover how TOPYX LMS helped WorkWave, a software company, increase customer success through better training outcomes. Download the WorkWave Case Study to learn more. Request a free LMS demo of TOPYX to discover how it can benefit your organization.
References:
1) Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/people-still-working-home-delta-variant-covid-office-plans-2021-9.
2) Global Workplace Analytics. https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics.
3) Build Remote. https://buildremote.co/companies/companies-going-remote-permanently/.
4) CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/11/one-year-into-covid-working-from-home-is-here-to-stay.html.
5) EduMe. https://edume.com/blog/mobile-learning-statistics.
7) Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10504-microlearning.html.
8) Training Industry. https://trainingindustry.com/articles/learning-technologies/3-technologies-to-use-in-learning-and-development-in-2021-spon-tesseract/.
9) eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/top-lms-training-software-with-learning-analytics-tools.