A Best Practices Guide Making the Case for an LMS Key Steps for Success
Introduction If your organization is considering a Learning Management System (LMS), finding one that best meets your organization s needs may not be easy. There are hundreds of LMS products available. The investment in time to find the right solution is significant, but given what s at stake, it s well worth the effort. You stand a much better chance of being successful if you follow best practices for: - Developing your case for an LMS to gain your organization s approval; - Evaluating and selecting an LMS that best meets your organization s needs; - Marketing the launch of your new LMS and subsequent training initiatives. To help guide you through this process, we ve consolidated the best practices that we ve learned from our own clients throughout the years. Our step by step guide, Making the Case for an LMS, is the first in a series that should help to jump start your research efforts, and ultimately help you speed up your LMS selection and implementation process altogether. Follow these best practices and you ll be well on your way to LMS success! epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 2
Making the Case for an LMS If your organization is considering an LMS, or if your team wants your organization to consider an LMS, you ll need to be fully prepared to present your case in order to get your investment approved. Gathering the information to present your case is probably the most important part of your journey. It s this information that drives the criteria to help you make your final LMS decision. Although this can be a very time consuming process; the benefits you ll gain far outweigh the detailed approach. Developing Your Case: Top 3 Benefits 1 2 3 Gain valuable information and insight into your organization s goals and objectives. Gain buy in from key stakeholders that will support your efforts and help make your case for implementing an LMS far more compelling. Generate new ideas for training and development plans that are aligned with your organization s departmental goals. epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 3
STEP 1. Perform a Needs Analysis Why are you considering an LMS? It s a fairly simple question, but perhaps not a simple answer, so you ll want to perform a needs analysis to identify your key business drivers. Learning technologies, such as an LMS, help to facilitate the learning and development within an organization. At a minimum, an LMS will help your organization to schedule, administer and manage training initiatives in less time and with less cost. An LMS will also help to provide centralized tracking and reporting for greater visibility into the effectiveness of your training programs. These are all quite obvious reasons for why you may need an LMS. Perhaps though, if you dig a bit deeper, you ll find additional reasons to support your need for an LMS that prove to be of great value to your organization. Industry Insight: Organizations today suffer from a skills supply chain challenge. Not only do more than 70% of organizations cite capability gaps as one of their top five challenges, but many companies also tell us that it takes 3-5 years to take a seasoned professional and make them fully productive. Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte 1 epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 4
STEP 1. Perform a Needs Analysis Needs Analysis: Sample Question Worksheet These question can help guide you through your team s initial needs analysis. 1. Is your organization dependent upon affiliates, partners, distributors, etc. to generate revenue? 2. Is your organization geographically dispersed with multiple office locations requiring a consistent training approach? 3. Is your organization looking to sell training to generate additional revenue? 4. Does your organization have limited staff, time and budget to deliver effective training? 5. Does your organization operate in an industry where many of your employees require annual training to meet licensing or compliance requirements? epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 5
STEP 1. Perform a Needs Analysis 6. Does information within your organization or industry change frequently requiring fast and effective communications? 7. Do you support an organization with high employee turnover? 8. Do you work in a highly competitive industry where employee knowledge, performance, or service can be a key differentiator? 9. Is your organization predicting rapid employee growth due to expansion, merger or acquisition? 10. Are there specific organizational challenges or pain points that you re looking to eliminate? Industry Insight: According to Brandon Hall, 37% of organizations think creating learning for external audiences is a strategic priority. It can generate additional profits, boost brand image and improve strategic relationships. epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 6
STEP 1. Perform a Needs Analysis Now a few words about ROI When presenting your case for an LMS, not only will you want to show how the LMS can help your organization reach its goals, you ll also want to demonstrate that the LMS will have a positive impact on your organization s bottom line. How do you do this? The best place to start is by analyzing the financial impact of your current training program. Focus on the direct costs associated with number of employees trained, time in hours, employee cost per hour, travel fees, venue costs, meals, lodging, administrative costs, instructor fees, etc. This will provide you with a baseline of tangible cost savings. Then, shift your focus to the strategic and intangible benefits/savings, such as reduced liability, improved agility, employee engagement, etc. If you re looking to create an in-depth case for Return on Investment (ROI) contact epath Learning today and ask about our ROI calculator! sales@epathlearning.com. Industry Insight: Organizations spend on average 18% of their overall training budget on learning technologies. - Brandon Hall Group 3 epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 7
STEP 2. Identify and Align with Organizational Goals By now you know exactly what needs are driving your team s decision to implement an LMS, but what about the rest of your organization? What are the strategic goals of your organization and how will an LMS and your training programs support these goals? For example, does your organization want to achieve a larger market share, or perhaps they want to improve their customer satisfaction score? Once you ve identified these goals, you ll be able to demonstrate to your senior management team how the LMS and your training plans align with your organization s overall business goals and objectives. The more aligned your programs are with your organization, the better your outcomes! OUTCOMES Higher Learner Engagement LMS/Training Program Lower Overall Cost Better Overall Effectiveness Improved Performance Strong Alignment with Organizational Goals epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 8
STEP 2. Identify and Align with Organizational Goals Organizational Goal Assessment Worksheet What are our organization s top goals for this coming year? How will our LMS/Training programs support these goals? Example: Successfully launch new widget in Q3 1. Example: The LMS will be used to provide product support and sales training for customer service, sales team and national distribution network prior to widget launch. Distributing training via the LMS will result in an expedited training cycle; reducing our typical 4 week training cycle to a 2 week training cycle. 2. 3. epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 9
STEP 3. Identify Key Stakeholders/Department Goals/Training Requirements Now that you ve detailed what your organization s overall strategic objectives are, it s time to drill deeper to get a better understanding of the objectives for each of your business units/departments. You ll need to work directly with the key stakeholders from your business units to identify their department s strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and unique training requirements. Moreover, at the end of this exercise you ll have a solid foundation by which you can measure the success of your training initiatives against individual business unit results. Organizations typically struggle with measuring the impact of training initiatives, but when training is aligned with business unit key performance indicators, it s far easier to determine success. During this time you ll also want to solicit buy-in from your key stakeholders. Their support and influence can be extremely beneficial when it comes to justifying your need for an LMS. You ll want to speak with leaders from Human Resources, C-Suite, Sales and Marketing, IT, Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Compliance, to name a few. Industry Insight: The learning of the future must be closely aligned to overall corporate strategies in order for companies to achieve results. Any program or technology investment should involve input from business leaders to ensure that learning is driving retention, engagement, and performance. - David Wentworth, Brandon Hall 2 epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 10
STEP 3. Identify Key Stakeholders/Department Goals/Training Requirements Departmental Objectives: Interview Worksheet Department/Business Unit: Business Unit Leaders: 1. What are your department s strategic goals for the upcoming year? Are there any specific short or long term goals? Note: Keep in mind how departmental goals may be related to your overall corporate goals? 2. What tactics do you plan to implement to achieve these goals? Who is involved with implementing these tactics? Will they require any specific skills to succeed? Note: Answers will reveal who may need to participate in training and what types of training may be required. 3. How will your department be measured on success? Are there any specific Key Performance Indicators that your department tracks? How often are these measured? Note: Remember, you ll want to tie in your training programs/results with any Key Performance Indicators. epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 11
STEP 3. Identify Key Stakeholders/Department Goals Departmental Objectives: Interview Worksheet 4. What specific challenges does your department face in successfully achieving your goals? 5. What training does your department currently participate in? How often is it conducted? What training would you like your department to participate in? 6. Is your department s success dependent upon any other of our departments? Note: You re probing to identify any synergies between departments that can be leveraged and consolidated for training purposes and for key stakeholder buy-in. epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 12
STEP 3. Identify Key Stakeholders/Department Goals/Training Requirements Departmental Training Requirements Worksheet Business Unit Mandatory Training Requirements Current Training Timeframe Suggested Training Example: Human Resources Example: Onboarding New Hire Training OSHA Compliance Example: Onboarding: 6 months New Hire Training: 2 weeks OSHA Compliance: 4 hours Example: Behavioralbased Interviewing Techniques Reminder: During your stakeholder interviews, you should be prepared to describe how an LMS will positively impact each department and the organization as a whole. epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 13
STEP 4. Present Your Case By now you should have enough information to present your case for investing in an LMS. To ensure that your leadership team understands the value and opportunity that an LMS can provide you ll need to clearly communicate your vision. You ll want to position your case so that the LMS is viewed as a technology that can help your organization to achieve their strategic business goals while also achieving a return on investment. Focus your case on the following: 1 Demonstrate how the LMS will provide immediate cost savings and generate return on investment. 2 Provide details on the strategic benefits of implementing an LMS, such as increased employee engagement, lower employee churn, agility, increased profitability, etc. 3 Most importantly, describe how the technology and your training programs are strategically aligned with your organization s goals, including the goals of your business units. Identify key business challenges and how the LMS will help you to overcome them! A well researched and well documented business case will help your organization to justify the investment in an LMS. Once you ve achieved that buy-in and agreement, the next step will be to evaluate and select an LMS that best fits your organization s needs. epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 14
About epath Learning, Inc. epath Learning s cloud-based learning management system, ASAP, enables your organization to manage training and create learning opportunities that improves training and human performance for business. ASAP is easy to use and provides everything you need for an online training program. It enables you to author content, manage and deliver training, track ILT, support social learning, create assessments, run meaningful reports, and more. To round out your training needs, epath Learning also offers custom course development and off-the-shelf content libraries. Would you like to learn more about how implementing LMS technology can benefit your company? Perhaps you d like to see a live demonstration of our LMS platform? Feel free to contact us at 860-444-8090, via email sales@epathlearning.com, or visit our website at www.epathlearning.com. http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/04/the-recovery-arrives-corporate-training-spend-skyrockets/#5b93c2ba4ab7 https://trainingmag.com/5-trends-future-learning-and-development Brandon Hall Group: LMS Trends 2015: Is it Time for Something Different Icon made by [author link] from Information icon courtesy of www.flaticon.com? epath Learning, Inc. Making the Case for an LMS 2016 15