6 advantages of e-learning for corporate training

Online corporate training is growing. About 40% of all Fortune 500 companies say they used online learning for training in 2022. And there’s a good reason for it. E-learning, or online learning, has a variety of benefits, especially when it comes to corporate training.

E-learning, which is delivered through a learning management system, can reduce costs for companies while increasing knowledge retention and job satisfaction among employees. Here are the six top business advantages of using e-learning for corporate training. 

1. Lower training costs

Implementing e-learning for corporate training allows you to save costs in many direct and indirect ways. For example, employers who deliver training to new hires don’t have to waste working hours on repeated tasks, such as walking new employees through new hire paperwork, compliance training, and product training. 

With an LMS for onboarding, you not only save HR dollars but also reduce managerial burden and associated costs. During a new hire’s onboarding, the responsibility can fall almost entirely on managers, again taking away working hours and adding up costs. 

An LMS can do the heavy lifting for managers and HR alike by delivering personalized training paths that include onboarding paperwork, product training, and company culture.  

This also applies to ongoing training and education. Human resource personnel can save a significant amount of time, energy, and money by reducing repetitive tasks since an LMS is scaleable and automated. 

Another great way an LMS lowers training costs is by nearly eliminating the need for in-person training events. Between flights and transportation for remote employees or even just meals for local employees, costs can add up quickly and be quite significant. 

Lastly, companies can often reduce their tech stack by centralizing their learning program into an LMS, which can amount to considerable savings. Oftentimes, an LMS has surprising features that can reduce the need for many additional third-party platforms such as survey tools, Net Promoter scores, content repositories, whiteboards, and more. 

2. Readily accessible digital content

One of the age-old problems with training is finding a time that works best for everyone. Even if employees are mandated to prioritize training, things come up and bandwidth usually looks different for every employee. 

Traditional training expects everyone to consume information at the same time and at the same rate. On the other hand, e-learning modules provide employees with learning content whenever and wherever they want. 

This allows them greater flexibility with learning, as they don’t have to wait for anyone to organize a session when they have the time and enthusiasm to learn more about the course. It also gives employees ownership over their training schedule and accommodates different learning styles and paces. 

Some employees may need to study materials several times before they’re able to retain the information. Others may want to revisit it at a later date to refresh their memory. And others may just prefer to complete training when they don’t have pressing deadlines or client calls. 

Not only does an LMS allow users to complete training at their own pace and on their own time, but you can un-gate courses or create a content library that learners can revisit whenever they need. And with 58% of employees preferring to learn at their own pace, the more flexibility and freedom you can give employees to complete training, the better.

3. Convenient content updates

In today’s world, learning modules should evolve constantly. No matter how well you design your courses and lessons, you will likely need to update your content to provide new information or improve the course's quality. Policies, procedures, and regulations can change overnight. Not to mention things are becoming outdated faster than ever in today’s fast-changing world. 

With e-learning, you can easily and conveniently update your learning content. Whether it’s adding a new lesson to a training module for your existing employees or updating technical information for new hires based on changing industry standards, an LMS can provide you the flexibility to make changes immediately. 

And it can get your workforce up to speed in a fraction of the time it would take with manual or piecemeal training efforts. The reporting and data of LMSs, make it easy to ensure your whole workforce is up to date on changes, especially remote and global employees which are often difficult to reach with nonstandardized training programs. 

4. Return on investment

On average, 42% of companies that use e-learning generate more income than those that don’t. Why is that? Proper training gives employees the right tools to succeed in their roles and equips them to perform at their best. e-learning allows employees to feel confident in the products or services they’re working with and their individual responsibilities. 

It also creates a culture of constant learning and improvement in your company, promoting a culture where employees are encouraged to push the boundaries of expectations. And it gives them the resources to upskill and develop leadership skills, creating greater career mobility and employee retention. 

When it comes to learning and development, the return exceeds the investment tenfold. Not only do you create more productive and happier employees that save you money in the long run by decreasing dollars tied to turnover and rehiring. But you also boost customer retention and sales. 

Employees who are adequately trained and encouraged to sharpen their skills translate that into better customer experiences that reduce churn and can lead to referrals or product upsell opportunities. 

An LMS does require some investment in regard to implementation, service fees, and depending on your organization, ongoing maintenance to update courses and oversee training efforts. However, the return far outweighs the costs, making it a worthwhile investment.

5. Knowledge retention and engagement 

Studies reveal that e-learning enhances a learner’s retention rate by as much as 60%. This is a stark contrast to conventional learning, which has a retention rate of 8 to 10%. 

The biggest reason for increased knowledge retention is that students are able to learn at their own pace and revisit lessons as needed. Additionally, e-learning has many benefits that increase engagement such as gamification and social or collaborative learning – both of which get learners out of a passive state of learning and into an active one. 

Active learning has been proven to drastically increase knowledge retention. Passive learning happens when a learner hears and absorbs information passively from an instructor. On the other hand, active learning gets learners actively involved in learning either mentally or physically.

For instance, quizzes, a form of gamification, actively engages a learner through physical and mental stimulation. Similarly, social learning, where employees learn together through discussions, brainstorming, and problem-solving is, again, a physical and mental activity that increases knowledge retention. 

An LMS for social learning can easily provide gamification and collaborative learning experiences that boost engagement and knowledge retention – something that is very difficult to do in traditional learning settings or solely self-paced learning modules. An LMS makes keeping track of points, awards, and certificates simple and fun. 

6. Competitive Edge

One of the biggest advantages of upskilling and training your employees is that it helps you maintain an edge over your competitors. In today’s highly competitive market, companies that can adapt to changing trends and leverage new technologies are usually the ones that survive. 

And the more your employees are equipped to handle these challenges, the more advantage you have over your competitors. Not only that but professional development and upskilling creates better career mobility, reducing turnover and building a more experienced workforce. 

According to some telling statistics, many organizations have already started investing in corporate e-learning: 

• By 2026, the corporate online learning market is expected to hit $50 billion. 
• The US government spent over $2.6 billion on e-learning products for its staff in 2022.
• The e-learning market is expected to grow to over $325 Billion by 2025

Learning and development helps organizations stay agile and adaptable. And when you use an LMS to deliver training or learning materials, it increases this agility. With an LMS, you can ensure your workforce is always up to date with the latest procedures, product launches, and compliance to ensure you stay ahead of the game and keep business processes running. 

And with so many companies already investing in ongoing training and development, you don’t want to be left behind. 

A learning management system levels-up corporate training and increases ROI 

A learning management system streamlines and centralizes learning programs, making them manageable, trackable, and more effective. By leveraging an LMS for online learning, organizations can reduce admin burden and associated costs and create a learning experience that’s fun and engaging. 

With Tovuti’s LMS, administrators can host live events, foster engaging social learning experiences with virtual classrooms, distribute multimedia learning materials, provide learner feedback, use granular data insights to improve their program effectiveness, and more – all from one platform. 

And with the most robust gamified and interactive tools on the market, including over 40 plug-and-play gamified features, learners are sure to retain more information and have fun doing it!