Driven in part by world events, the work environment looks very different than it did a mere two years ago, and the pace of change in employment is only quickening. Many employees are now motivated by factors that wouldn’t have been a consideration previously and now want different things from their jobs. If companies don’t move with the times, those employees are prepared to leave their roles for pastures new. Your workforce wants career progression and, for many, that means facing new challenges and having the opportunity to learn new skills.
But it isn’t only increased demand for opportunities from employees that makes training essential. A report from The World Economic Forum noted that jobs are evolving and the skills needed to perform them are changing. They estimated that 42% of the core skills within roles will have changed by 2022, and that means your business may well be facing skills gaps in the near future.
With employees now wanting a more clearly defined career path and the nature of their current roles changing, it’s important for organisations to look for ways to better equip their workforce. That means putting learning at the heart of your company culture.
Why Is Tracking Employee Learning Important?
Offering your employees learning opportunities has never been more important, but it’s not simply a case of “anything will do”. The training you offer has to be both relevant and sufficient for employees to meet the demands you are placing on them. Training that doesn’t meet these basic standards will be pointless and your workforce will vote with its feet. Even before the pandemic, a study by Go2HR revealed that 40% of employees would consider leaving their jobs within the first year if they weren’t provided with adequate training.
How can you be sure that the training your company is offering is fit for purpose? The answer lies in tracking learning programmes and the progress that employees are making.
What Can Tracking Employee Learning Tell You?
Metrics measure performance in a way that’s meaningful and informative to both the learner and their manager. Proper oversight can tell you whether employees are meeting the necessary standards in their roles. It can also reveal skills gaps in your business that focused training could close, and can validate whether your current training is fit for purpose.
Integrating learning into your performance programme can provide valuable insight into what your talent pool is capable of and where the vulnerabilities in your company lie. Tracking learning allows you real-time insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your company. This will allow you to refocus training, reskill and upskill if required, and consider new hires if necessary.
Tracking can even help you to mitigate risk and liability in your business when delivering, for example, health and safety training. Ensuring that all your employees are fully qualified and compliant with the legislation in your industry is of huge importance.
What Employee Metrics Should You Track?
There are many metrics you could employ to give you an overview of your training programmes and your employees but there are some that should be part of every effective tracking methodology.
- Assessment Scores
Regular assessment of your employees’ progress on their learning path is essential. You’ll be able to see at a glance which employees need further help, where to prioritise training and which employees have the greatest aptitude and potential.
- Course Progress and Completion Rates
Measuring the rate at which employees work through the course and knowing how many complete it can give you valuable insight into how the course is performing. Poor engagement or a low completion rate may be telling you that the training is unengaging or that your employees don’t see value in it.
- Employee Behaviour
When you track learning you can gain valuable insight into the behaviour of your employees – which of them are enthusiastic, which are disengaged, whether they could accept more responsibility, or if they’re likely to leave their jobs.
How to Track Employee Learning and Development
It needn’t be daunting to track learning effectively, a learning management system (LMS) has the functionality to collect the data you need to track employee learning goals. With an LMS you can generate a built-in report that will give you basic information on enrollment, learner progress, course completion, and compliance. But that isn’t all: you can also customise the reports with metrics of your own design to address your industry-specific needs. In this way you can get the analytics you need to make those important decisions.
How Can Bridge Help?
Make learning, onboarding, and compliance an engaging experience for your employees with Bridge’s innovative learning management system. Bridge’s LMS designs and delivers scalable learning programs that make learning and compliance relevant for employees.
It’s easy to provide customised training tailored to your employees’ needs, as well as track learner engagement, alignment, and course completion with analytics.
