You want your learning management system software (LMS) to be loved. You want it at the core of employee engagement. But after the initial buzz of implementation, it’s all gone flat. Despite increasingly pleading directives, the LMS languishes unloved, underutilized, and like the party’s socially awkward guest.
At the heart of the issue are some worryingly common LMS challenges. Understand these, and you can overcome them. Overcome them, and you just transformed that socially awkward guest into the guest of honor.
LMS Challenge #1 – Functionality was assumed, not considered
We’ve mentioned before; it is common for an LMS to be stuck onto the side of an HRIS system. When this happens, the LMS’s desired and potential functionality isn’t considered in its own right. The result is a compromise that negatively impacts user experience.
The solution: Consider your LMS by itself before settling on the system. Ask what a high performing LMS delivers and measure the potential integration against this.
LMS Challenge #2 – It’s boring
Seriously. Any platform that isn’t exciting will fail to win engagement. An LMS that is simply about meeting a generic need for training, rooted in the concept that it’s vaguely a good thing, won’t get buy-in.
The solution: Choose an LMS that actually works wizardry when it comes to looks and what it can do. Those eye-catching graphics that make fun experiences of learning data, career aspirations that are plotted on a beautiful path, succession plans that come to life, 360° feedback that’s fun to do, are what make people want to use the platform. Always check out the demo before you buy.
LMS Challenge #3 – Performance is missing
Oops, this is a common one. An LMS that forgets that its twin brother is performance management fails at the first obstacle. Learning absolutely must be driven by performance management.
The solution: Don’t choose a standalone LMS. Choose a learning and performance management system in one.
LMS Challenge #4 – It doesn’t facilitate collaboration
Your most fantastic resource is your talent base. Yet, with most LMS, you can’t match up the skills, mentorship, and feedback information you have at your fingertips with the place it needs to go.
The solution: Choose a platform that matches one employee’s deficit with another employee’s strength and facilitates learning relationships within the organization. Make feedback and discussion a part of everyday business life within the system itself.
LMS Challenge #5 – Failure to lead from the top
An LMS is usually driven by HR. Yet, it needs to be used from its earliest days of implementation from the top down. All too often, it’s introduced from the bottom up.
The solution: Take time to get leadership on board, using the LMS daily with their direct reports. Feed the system downwards.
LMS Challenge #6 – It just focuses on today, not tomorrow
Learning and development should be about the future, yet typically an LMS only addresses today’s immediate training needs. It needs to encompass tools that allow you to visualize the future. For example, which employees are showing signs of dissatisfaction and therefore might leave? Or who will be ready to step up for promotion, and how can that be enabled?
The solution: Again, choose an LMS that is also a performance management platform. It’ll help you prepare for the future through the actions you take today.
LMS Challenge #7 – It’s not flexible enough
If you can’t use it on your smartphone, or you have to leave the platform to book a course or complete an assessment, you’ve allowed engagement to drop away. No single organization needs the same thing, so the LMS needs to be flexible enough to cater for customization.
The solution: Choose an LMS that allows you to build content within it, import content to it, and carry out assessment without going anywhere.
Bridge Learning Management System engages
The LMS that successfully drives engagement in learning and links it sublimely with performance drives the organization’s success. The organization with an LMS that employees are engaged with will intentionally be smashing its objectives and exceeding its expectations.
Here at Bridge, we took the time to address the common problems when we shaped our LMS solutions. It’s why over 800 organizations worldwide find their employees are engaged with it.
