Learning Management System

BEST PRACTICE

Learning Management, Benchmarks and Accountability.

In its simplest form, a LMS is a benchmark-independent static data capture process that reports participation in a learning intervention with information on whether the training was completed and contains some form of subjective evaluation of the learning such as an exit survey. While this approach to learning management pays lip service to accountability and Return On Investment (the trainees completed the intervention and gave feedback that the training was worthwhile), it is strategically flawed as the measurement of success is derived from a singular isolated process instead of integrated performance outcomes.

To achieve performance outcomes, accountability within learning management must address 4 distinct areas:

1) Accountability for the performance of the training intervention.

2) Accountability for the performance of participants in the intervention.

3) Accountability for the validity of the intervention itself.

4) Accountability for seamless integration of the new performances into the organizational structure.

The learning management system can function in isolation to achieve accountabilities 1 and 2 as the Key Performance Indicators are learning process related, but  needs connectivity to the existing organization to ensure achievement of accountabilities 3 and 4 as the Key Performance Indicators here are related to organizational development and bottom line performance outcomes.

The scope of the Learning Management System is not designed to be all-inclusive encompassing  every training activity in a company, but specifically to manage the accountabilities associated with empowering trainers to produce and benchmark best practice transfer interventions developed using the Best Practice Transfer Ltd. training software. 

Every time an employee signs on and uses a training course, learning and development data is captured automatically by the Learning Management System. As the training module templates are designed around performances, the key benchmark data collected relates to how each individual trainee would perform in the real working environment specific to each individual company. 

For safety training and operational procedures training, the Learning Management System collects benchmark data and presents it through an Employee Assessment Review accessible by trainers. The review focuses on answering the questions that need to be asked by trainers and line management to determine the validity of an intervention. Did trainees qualify on the intervention? How much time did each trainee take to complete the intervention, and what are the average training times for all trainees? What is the total training time used to date for a trainee, and how much has all training cost?

For customer-facing training for sales and customer service, an Employee Coaching Report is generated by the Learning Management System in addition to the Employee Assessment Review. The coaching report is a benchmarking tool to help managers maximize the effect of 1:1 and "work-with" situations by focusing their efforts on the performances employees need to learn instead of wasting effort on performances they already know. The coaching report is also a benchmarking tool for trainers, as it allows them to determine performance gaps for individual employees, and recommend to managers relevant training modules already  in the training inventory, or plan new intervention modules for situations where no benchmark or solution currently exists.

To aid in budgeting, the Learning Management System collects training spend data every time an employee signs on to a training intervention. Budget plans can be pre-set, and an automatically updated current spend against plan report can be seen at the click of a button. 

Employee Assessment Review

The employee assessment review is updated every time an employee uses the training course. The review shows whether an employee has qualified on a course, the number of qualification attempts, the time spent for each course measured against the average time spent by all trainees, the cost of training for each course and the total training expenditure for the employee.

Employee Coaching Report

An employee coaching report is generated for every employee using the Sales and Customer Service training system which can be passed to line managers to aid in their coaching and mentoring activities. The effectiveness of management coaching can subsequently be measured when the trainees take further courses as the coaching report will update competencies and skill gaps when demonstrated.

Training Budget Report

Just set your monthly training budgets on the screen, and the training budget report does the rest. Every time an employee uses the training courses, training spend is updated automatically and you can see at a glance where you stand. Monitor under spend and overspend, or change your budget plan at the click of a button - it's that easy!