Using A Learning Management System for Employee Training in Leadership and Development

Learning and development have become a critical consideration for organisations across the country in recent years. It’s one of the best investments a business can make, offering you a competitive advantage whereby you can mould your employees into assets for your organisation that align with your company.

Specifically, more organisations have been investing in leadership and management training for their workforce. This is because the need for effective leaders and managers who are adaptable and able to lead capable workforces has become more important than ever given the rapidly evolving, and sometimes challenging, economic environment.

For businesses implementing learning programmes, a learning management system (LMS) can be a particularly effective tool to organise and manage the delivery of this training efficiently. So, if you are currently, or are planning on, delivering leadership and management training to your workforce, an LMS tool might be just what you need to do this successfully. 

In this article, we share insights on how a learning management system for employee training (specifically leadership and management training) can be a great investment for your business, delving into its benefits and how it can streamline your training delivery. 

What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?

A learning management system, often abbreviated to LMS, is software businesses use to organise, manage, track, and deliver employee learning and training programmes. Using an LMS for training helps organisations streamline their training operations to support their employee development, which contributes to their businesses' success.

LMS systems can deliver a whole host of training, from compliance-related training courses to personal and professional development courses like leadership and management training. An LMS tool is versatile in offering both standard or bespoke training to your staff that will help them become adept and successful in their roles at your company. 

Why is Leadership and Management Training Important for Your Business?

Reports reveal that 86% of organisations recognise the importance of developing new leaders and managers for long-term business success. As such, leadership and management training is becoming a focal point for businesses so they form a talented pool of individuals who are an asset to their operations.

Leadership and management training aims to aid your employees' leadership development by providing them with core skills and the theory behind business functions. As well as supporting employees’ development, there are many long-term benefits of management and leadership training for employers, including:

• Helping manage talent within the team
• Improving retention of employees
• Supporting planning strategic personnel in the organisation

Why Should You Have a Learning Management System to Deliver Leadership and Management Training?

Managing learning effectively is a key component in ensuring successful online training. If you choose a solution that does not cater to your needs, the entire learning experience is damaged. 

By choosing the best LMS platform for your business that is well-suited to its learning environment, you can be sure that your leadership and management training will be delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible. 

There are several benefits of LMS systems in delivering leadership and management training to your employees. We’ve shared just a few below: 

• Reduced Cost: Investing in an LMS tool can help you manage your leadership and management training courses better and train your employees all in one go. This eliminates the need for in-person classes, which can be costly.
• Simplification: LMS systems allow you to monitor and track employee progress with advanced tools easily. This will help you measure how well your employees adhere to the training and how well they perform. This ensures that you are getting your money's worth from these leadership and management training courses.
• Accessibility: LMS tools allow your employees to access training virtually from anywhere at any time. This means that they always have up-to-date and accurate learning materials within reach that will help them perform better in their roles, thus helping your business succeed.

How a Learning Management System for Employee Training in Leadership and Management Will Help Your Business

The ways that a learning management system can support your training programmes in leadership and development are vast. We’ve delved into a handful of these ways below so that you can begin to understand the tip of the iceberg when it comes to utilising an LMS system to deliver your business training strategy. 

Tailored Learning Solutions

Everyone will have different learning needs and it is important to note that no one route will be suitable for everyone. By choosing leadership and management training comprising individual bitesize courses that can be selected to create a tailored solution, you can create bespoke and unique course routes that meet the training needs of your employees in your LMS tool. 

The solution cannot just be the training provided - you need to ensure that your LMS tool is a robust system whereby learners can select the content for their needs, as well as have a platform to collate and share their thoughts.

Learning Pathways Tailored to Demand

A Learning Management System is an ideal platform to create learning pathways that support the learner and direct them to curate their learning. Leadership and management training lend themselves to learning pathways, as the nature of the learning should be to encourage self-development and, in turn, self-progression. By having an LMS tool that can curate content, you can source and categorise resources so that the learner can easily find and quickly access the full catalogue of training available.

A Hub of Training

An LMS hosts online training as well as having the ability to report learning back to an organisation. Using an effective LMS tool is essential to finding the perfect solution for your organisation and employees. The LMS is the heart and hub of your training – the engine glue that sticks the content together.

Space for Employee Feedback

As the name suggests, knowledge-sharing is creating a space for employees to share thoughts, knowledge, and skills with their colleagues. The implementation of a knowledge-sharing platform eliminates communication obstacles and improves the efficiency of information sharing. 

Efficient knowledge sharing brings many benefits, such as increased social interaction in the workplace, increased creativity and problem-solving skills, and the capturing of existing knowledge. This enables every department to access the necessary information quickly and effectively. Surprisingly, only around a third of organisations have a well-defined knowledge-sharing strategy.

Learning on Demand

70% of learning should be experiential or on-the-job training, 20% should be learning through others or social learning, and 10% should be formal assessments. A key trend for e-learning is that learners want small bite-sized courses, as this increases learner retention. Ensure that content contains the key learning points where learners have access to the right information when required.

Formal and Informal Learning

Formal and informal learning are often seen as completely separate things, however, all successful learning is a mixture of formal and informal exercises. But how much of each should there be? 

Informal learning is the primary way people learn how to do their jobs, whereas formal learning is the way people can progress further in their roles. A powerful LMS tool can create, deliver, report and manage assessments. Assessments, when used correctly, are an effective tool that helps reinforce the learning and ensure the learner retains the key learning points.

Assessments can identify a learner’s strengths and weaknesses, helping to identify gaps in skills and development. It is important to note that the purpose of leadership and management training assessments is not to manage performance, but to help the learner progress. Feedback needs to be a continuous process and be integral to the learning. Providing feedback (both positive and negative) to learners helps them develop in their role, which is a benefit to the organisation.

Whose Responsibility is Leadership and Management Training?

Learning and development is ultimately the responsibility of the learner. That said, as the organisation, you have a duty to support your employees in leadership and management training. 

Many employees and their managers are told that it is their responsibility to acknowledge and develop their leadership and management training, but they have no idea where to start. 

If you’re looking for training resources, we have a comprehensive list of leadership and management training courses, including job role-specific, soft skills, and essentials bundles to help fill your development gaps.

FAQs

What is a Training Management System? 

A training management system (TMS), similar to a learning management system, is a centralised platform that allows businesses to better organise and manage their daily operations, like scheduling training courses and tracking payments. 

What is the Difference Between an LMS and a Training Management System? 

The difference between a training management system and a learning management system is that a training management system focuses on streamlining operations and administration for training led by instructors. In comparison, a learning management system is used to deliver learning resources and content to learners, whether employees, students, or otherwise. 

How Do I Get My Employees to Use LMS? 

To get your employees to use your learning management system, you must first understand what their wants and needs are. You must get to grips with how your employees best learn and what they expect from an LMS tool, as well as help them understand how to use an LMS and how it will benefit them. In combination, this should set you off on the road to success in implementing an LMS that both you and your employees will love and use to its full potential. 

Summary 

With the value that both LMS systems and leadership and management training hold individually, utilising one to support the other is a critical way to ensure that your business is supporting the growth of its employees and streamlining its operations. We hope this article has been the building block you needed to gain a better understanding of learning management systems and how they can support your company’s leadership and management training strategy.

Interested in using an LMS for your business training? You can find out more about our Enable Learning Management System, which offers a high-quality learner experience and streamlines the organisation and management of your learning and training programmes.