Your employees work better when they’re engaged – 20% better, according to a recent Gallup poll. And by “better,” we mean that motivated employees look for ways to contribute more to their roles and support their coworkers beyond what is strictly required.
Plus, motivated employees are 87% less likely to leave your company. By contrast, disengaged workers have poor job satisfaction and are more likely to leave, costing your company an estimated $5,000 to replace them.
Professional development programs can improve employee motivation by building a corporate culture of growth through learning. Employees can feel empowered to expand their careers and reach their job goals via professional development opportunities.
And you can offer formal training that fosters employee motivation through a learning management system (LMS). An LMS makes it easy to create professional development courses and assign them to the right employees.
Use an LMS to streamline professional development
A learning management system is software that allows you to create employee professional development programs. You can then assign the courses you made to each employee according to their role.
A good LMS lets you assign courses automatically, creating learning journeys that guide learners from one course to another as they complete them. You define each learning journey to ensure it’s appropriate for the learner’s role.
You can even make specific learning courses required, so learners must pass one course to move on to the next one. The LMS will automatically generate certificates when learners complete courses and help them keep track of continuing professional development credits they’ve earned.
Professional development starts with a positive corporate culture
Highly productive corporate cultures are also highly positive ones. Professional development can foster a corporate learning culture, encouraging employees to pursue training beyond what is required for their job roles.
Professional development can empower employees because when they understand their role deeper, they’ll feel more confident performing it. You can also use professional development to map a path to promotion for your workforce, showing them they can upskill and forge a future without changing employers.
Make professional development easy
You can boost employee motivation by making professional development easy. And an LMS does just that by allowing you to create courses quickly and organize them all within the same software.
Employees can find precisely the professional development courses they’re looking for, and they can also see (and download) a transcript of the ones they’ve completed.
They can take courses whenever it suits them, no matter their location or time zone, allowing them to take charge of their professional development in a way that fits into their life and schedule.
Make professional development fun
When you offer prizes for hitting professional development milestones, everyone suddenly has a little skin in the game.
Gamification is one of the most effective employee motivation techniques, encouraging friendly competition between coworkers and interdepartmental teams.
An LMS can facilitate gamification through leaderboards, certificates, and awards – all generated in the software. No matter what prize you offer, an LMS can help you stay up to date on who’s winning and who’s falling behind.
Encourage communication and collaboration
We’re social animals, and collaborative learning is motivating to employees. When employees learn in tandem, they engage more with professional development courses and retain more of what they’ve learned.
An LMS can help facilitate cooperative learning, even if your teams are remote or working across different office locations. Teams draw closer when they learn together, and through professional development important opportunities to bond teams can be created. That boosts both employee morale and employee engagement.
Using an LMS, you can also keep employees engaged with discussion and questions through an online forum. That way, the conversation can continue even after the course is finished.
Monitor professional development
When trying to amplify your company’s professional development opportunities, it’s wise to measure and monitor your efforts.
Using an LMS, you can monitor your learners’ progress as they work through the professional development courses on offer. You can also watch how effective each course is in helping learners retain information with tests and quizzes throughout the course.
Employee motivation is easier when employees feel supported by their company. With an LMS, you’ll never let any learner fall through the cracks. You can build a learning partnership with your employees; in return, you’ll get the best from each of them.
Encouragement can go a long way in employee motivation, and with an LMS, you’ll know which learners need the most of it.
Detailed and customizable reporting and analytics features in an LMS allow you to monitor employee performance in professional development. That way, you’ll be able to praise those who have conquered their courses and support those who are struggling.
An LMS unlocks more than professional development
Boosting your company’s professional development is just one of the many ways an LMS can streamline your training workload and create a corporate culture of learning, upskilling, and growth.
Companies who use an LMS use it in a variety of innovative ways, like:
- Offering product training to sales teams
- Offering product training to customers and clients
- Simplifying onboarding processes like training and HR forms
- Ensuring all staff are up to date on compliance training
There’s power in the collective. An LMS allows you to harness that power by building a knowledgeable, confident workforce who can take charge of their professional development and contribute more to your company.
If you’re ready to explore how an LMS can revolutionize learning in your organization, let’s schedule a tour. Book a tour here, and we’ll schedule a time that suits you.
