When people think of learning management systems (LMS), they usually think about course authoring. This is an essential part of any LMS, but it’s not the only thing these platforms can do.
Many organizations use their LMS as a central hub for information, documentation, and collaboration.
If you don’t have a platform in place yet, now is a good time to read LMS reviews to see what’s out there. You could be missing out on many time- and money-saving features that could help push your company to the top.
What Else Can Your LMS Do for Your Business?
Are you utilizing your LMS to its fullest potential? The right tools make training more effective. It can also keep your employees happy, which means higher retention rates. There’s a lot to gain from a good LMS beyond convenient content authoring.
What else can your LMS do for you?
- Safe, Secure Internal Social Network
Social networks are available all over the internet, but these are places governed by third parties. Using an LMS with a built-in social network will give your organization a safe, secure place to interact and communicate. You stay in control and can keep all interactions private.
Many platforms include forums and user profiles. These can be a great way to get to know your team. Many profiles include interesting and essential details like contact information, skill set, work history, job role, leaderboard scores, badges, and more.
Teams can easily stay in touch with their managers and supervisors as well as their peers.
These spaces are ideal for collaboration, which can lead to innovation and problem-solving. It also creates a place for employees to ask questions and provide answers, making it easier to tap into the collective knowledge of your team.
You choose which features to use in your organization for a tailored social networking experience.
- Host Online Meetings and Webinars
Online meetings and webinars are a common occurrence today. Many LMS platforms facilitate these either through built-in tools or integration with third-party apps.
Popular webinar apps include GoToWebinar, Webex, and Zoom. Look for an LMS that supports your preferred video conference platform.
Some LMSs include the ability to record sessions that can be stored and shared later. This is a great way to make meeting and training content easier to access. Teams can watch at their leisure without interrupting their workday to be present for a scheduled session.
This also creates content that can be saved for future use. New hires who may not have been present for the original session can still benefit from the information shared by watching the recording.
Recordings can also be integrated into future eLearning courses, so you get more value out of the time and resources spent putting the event together.
- Company-Wide Compliance Tracking
Compliance tracking is important for many businesses. Without it, an organization could be vulnerable to fines and oversight penalties.
Your LMS can help with compliance management. Your platform can track completion of compliance training. Look up the date that an employee’s last certificate was issued or create reminders for re-certification.
If you are ever contacted by the government or an oversight agency, you can quickly and easily get the records they need to satisfy requirements.
- Build a Revenue Stream with Monetization
Did you know that your training material could turn into a new revenue stream? Online training is a hot topic in many industries. If you have well-made courses that might be in demand, you can offer them for sale on eLearning marketplaces.
Some organizations will produce courses related to their product or service and offer these for sale to professionals or customers. These can be sold as a one-time purchase or time-limited subscription.
Not only can you generate revenue by selling your in-house training material, you can also position your organization as an authority in the industry. If enough people or businesses buy your content, you will become the go-to source for this type of training.
Many LMSs either integrate with a third-party marketplace or include ecommerce tools that allow you to sell eLearning directly through your own website.
- Time-Saving Automated Training Workflow
After you learn how to refine your eLearning course creation workflow, you’ll have to deal with enrollment and class management.
Your LMS can help streamline this process with automation. Automate enrollment, report generation, and email reminders. Set the parameters and let the platform handle these back-end tasks for you.
Trainers can save time while staying on top of essential tasks. These activities are simple but can become time-consuming. Let your training team focus on producing quality training content and supporting learners while the system does the housekeeping on its own.
- Store Essential Materials in One Place
Does everyone on your team know where to go to access essential materials like manuals, study sheets, or employment documents?
Having everything in one place makes it easy to find what an employee needs. Today’s LMSs include knowledgebases that house all documentation you need. This can be used for everything across the organization, even documents that aren’t directly related to training.
These digital libraries make documents searchable. Many include categories with ways to share or link items.
Organizations can add permission settings to documents. This allows the whole team to access what they need while keeping more sensitive documentation secure.
- Distribute Information and Documents
Not only can your LMS store your documents, but it can also distribute them. With just a click, create emails, set up reminders, or send files to the people who need them.
This is much easier than trying to figure out how to reach everyone through one method. While email can work, it’s not always the most convenient option. Your LMS allows you to choose how to deliver materials. They can usually be emailed, sent to an in-platform inbox, or pushed to a dashboard as a notification. Check your LMS to see which distribution methods are included.
You can build categories of users to ensure that all reminders, notifications, or messages are sent to the people who should see them.
- Gather and Analyze Data
Data collection and analysis are difficult without technological assistance. Your LMS can record all data for all activities. Some also give users a way to log offline activities for training.
Everything is available in a digital format, 24 hours a day. Users can apply filters to review specific data or build reports that run on a schedule.
Look for skill gaps or individual strengths and weaknesses to figure out how to build effective employee development plans with your LMS.
- Portals Tailored to Your Audiences
Your LMS can help you reach a specific audience. You can create general portals for all employees to access or build customized portals for different teams and groups. Portals can also be designed for external customer or partner use.
These portals are flexible and customizable. Add unique branding and content to offer a personalized experience based on different goals, contexts, or needs.
- Gather Insights with Surveys
Your LMS can help you gather feedback from learners. Many platforms include built-in assessment and survey features. These are customizable forms you can create to ask questions about things like course performance and employee satisfaction.
Many organizations auto-send surveys after course completion to find out how learners felt about the experience. Gain insight into what you can do to improve training for future learners.
Find the Right LMS for Your Business
Course authoring is only the beginning. The right LMS will elevate your business. Look for a platform that offers the features you need with the flexibility and scalability to grow with your organization.
