“I can’t wait to spend the next three hours completing a required training course,” no one ever said.
Training doesn’t have to be boring, and it certainly doesn’t have to be limited to onboarding and compliance mandates. But often, it’s painfully boring and only used to complete required courses. Do ethics and sexual harassment sessions sound familiar?
L&D user adoption is an ongoing issue. 67% of organizations struggle with learning technology user adoption.
For L&D departments, this issue is incredibly frustrating. You’ve done the due diligence to select the perfect technology to meet your teams’ needs. You know learning can be hip and cool, and you’ve put a lot of time into building out just the right content.
So why isn’t anyone using your learning management system?
Here are the cold, hard facts:
- 88% of employees don’t have time (or make the time) to engage with L&D offerings
- 64% of managers don’t encourage, enable, or follow up with L&D
- 64% of people are unaware of what is available in their LMS
Yikes! There are a lot of factors at play, but the issue seems to be less of a learning problem and more of a marketing problem. When promoting a product like LMS software or a learning platform, it’s essential to market it properly within a group of communities that might benefit most. You can also consider participating in trade shows focusing on the latest technology and innovations. By using proper strategies, marketing ideas, trade show signage, and creating an appealing presentation for your product, you can grab the attention of potential customers without making your product look boring or outdated.
Besides using online marketing techniques, companies can also employ offline direct promotional methods such as distributing pamphlets and posters, putting up banners, etc. These methods can attract local customers to your business and help you utilize native marketing techniques. You can also contact a company such as Creative Media Works or a similar marketing expert to get your marketing and advertising posters custom-designed by a professional.
Here are five ways to take a page out of marketing’s book and jazz up your L&D strategy:
- Make it known. Between emails, texting, and push notifications, the workforce is distracted. Sending one-off L&D email updates isn’t going to get people to engage. Make the LMS easily accessible and partner with someone on your marketing team to develop a sophisticated communication strategy that includes internal email updates and social sharing plans. The latter happens to be highly crucial. You should have proper content and SEO strategies to ensure your web presence is visible to the right audience. Besides – if it isn’t already – make sure your LMS is available in your organization’s intranet.
- Make it valuable. Fill your LMS with fresh, interesting content that satisfies the needs of a diverse audience. Think about featuring suggested or trending courses on the homepage. Get creative! Maybe even offer free video content like Ted Talks (people dig those!). Remember, the workforce is watching and engaging with learning content throughout the day; they’re just not doing it in your LMS. You can put an end to that!
- Make it short. People don’t have a lot of time on their hands. According to Bersin, most learners won’t watch videos for longer than 4 minutes. Think about offering snippets of content rather than long, drawn-out videos. Encourage people to take a 15-minute break, log into the LMS, and watch a short video.
- Make it shine. Showcase the results of your learners! Profile people within your organization who reap the rewards of investing in ongoing learning and training. Recognition pays off in a big way, and it’s important to make your LMS and users shine, too! So, to promote your software, you can advertise customers’ reviews, feedback, and accomplishments. You can use search marketing and pay-per-click ads to promote your LMS software and services.
- Make it a game. Friendly competition never hurts anyone! Adding some gamification to your learning content results in higher usage and engagement. Some options include badges and leadership boards that allow people to showcase their completed activities and advancement. You could even offer a small prize at the end of each month to the learners with the highest usage levels!