The key to your business' success [2020] — Digital Learning Platform

The year is drawing to a close. The feeling of festivity and celebration fills the air, and it never seems too early for a glass of mulled wine and mince pie.

But there’s also an overwhelming sense of busyness and pressure to get things done before the year ends, and the struggle to prioritise what to finish this year and what to delay until the next.

Maybe you've read about the benefits that a learning system can bring and you've decided you want to implement it, but not until the new year.

It can be tempting to wait until the new year to start the process, but there are key reasons why you shouldn't. The main one being that January is the peak of recruitment season.

Here’s why you should start the process for finding a DLP now.

January is a particularly busy time for leavers and new hires. Don't wait until then.

January is the busiest time of the year for recruitment, and it’s by far the most popular time of year for job seekers to search for jobs (15% above the monthly average).[1] You'll be receiving an influx of new applications, and organising a recruitment drive to replace any employees that have left. Recruitment is a notoriously timely and costly process as it is, and it peaks in January. So why leave the search and implementation of a new Digital Learning Platform until then?

You should have a system already in place by the time your new hires come in

So, it’s likely that your business will be welcoming new employees in January and February of 2020. This is one of the key reasons why you should start your LMS process now - so that you can have it ready for when new employees join.

Here’s why:

1. You can use it for onboarding and induction of your new hires

Gallup found that only 12% of employees think their companies deliver a good onboarding process,[2] and another study has shown that 8 out of 10 staff who leave organisations are new employees.[3]
So, it’s vital that you make a good impression from the beginning.
Any good learning system should contain helpful documents on how to deliver a successful onboarding and induction, and might even include structured pathways to help guide your new hires along.

2. Chance to integrate new hires into the company

Learning systems can be a great way to integrate new hires into the company.
Especially if they have features such as:

Managing team and company events, ranging from meetings to weekly company drinks on a Friday evening;
A sense of collaborative learning where users can share content with one another;
Access to a company updates channel, where company news is posted - and each employee can feel like they're a part of something bigger.

3. Engage them from the start

One of the best ways to boost employee retention is to boost engagement.
By having a LMS full of expert curated, enjoyable content, your new hires will be engaged from the offset - especially if they see that they can take charge of their own learning.
A study has shown that the most important factor that millennials consider when taking a job is training.[4] Having an LMS full of content and training pathways is a surefire way to boost engagement and retention amongst them.

4. Use it as a way to stay organised

One of the best ways to ensure you’re delivering a solid onboarding and induction is to stay organised.
Shape your new hire's employee journey by having a system which allows you to:

Automate the setting of tasks;
Schedule feedback sessions such as 1-to-1s;
Track your new hires’ performance in assessments, exercises, and so on.

Having a learning platform ready for January won't just benefit your new hires, but your current employees too

The New Year is a time of motivation, with everyone open to change and opportunities, and a desire to better themselves. Why not capitalise on this? Leaving aside your new hires for a second, why not take this motivational time of year as a chance to boost engagement and learning within your current employees. Start off the new year as you mean to go on: a business which encourages self-development and alignment amongst all of its employees.

The risk of waiting to find and set up a new learning system

Implementing a new learning system into your company can (but doesn’t have to be) a lengthy and complicated process. Buying a SAAS product can take anywhere between 6 and 12 months, taking into account all the conversations and meetings that need to be had. But with the right team of people helping you, this can be cut down to 2 to 3 months.

There are a lot of steps involved when buying a DLP:

Researching, finding, and viewing demos of the right one.
Deciding to go ahead with your chosen product - and getting approval from the powers above.
Signing a deal.
Working closely with the implementation team of the DLP to receive training on how to use it.
Migration of data into the new system.
Preparing for the launch.
Working closely with the implementation team for the first few months (and beyond) to make the transition as smooth as possible.

With all of that still to do, if you leave it until the new year, you run the risk of not being up and running until the back end of next year. The sooner your new system is set up, the sooner you can reap the benefits it has to offer - such as increased engagement, higher business performance, and so on.

How picking the right system will help you get set up quickly

There's a variety of different learning platforms out there. The amount of time it takes you to get set up will vary according to which one you select.

Here are three things which will make a difference to the speed at which you get set up:

How intuitive the system is: If your chosen platform is easy to use with an intuitive design, allowing new users to understand how to use it from the offset, this will rapidly decrease the implementation time.
The system's support team: A system that has a good support team and implementation specialists could halve the time it takes to get set up.
Following the MVP principle: In one of our previous blogs we talked about the importance of MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Take a look at that blog to find out more, but the key to the idea is this: just start now so that get a basic version out of the door, and work on advancing the product later.

So, what's next?

Hopefully we’ve managed to highlight why now is the best time to start implementing a new LMS. The sooner you set it up, the sooner you can begin to drive alignment and boost business performance, and be prepared for the induction and onboarding of your new hires in early 2020.

Learn Amp facilitates an efficient implementation process from the offset, guiding you around our platform with a free demo, and taking you through every step of the implementation process with our technical support team. To find out more, visit our website or request a free demo with us today.

[1] https://www.socialtalent.com/blog/recruitment/latest-research-when-are-the-busiest-months-for-recruitment-activity

[2] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx

[3] https://acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5714

[4] https://www.inc.com/ryan-jenkins/want-to-retain-more-millenials-in-2019-offer-this-1-thing.html