In-Person vs. Online Learning: What’s the Most Effective Employee Development Method?
Determining the Effectiveness of Online Learning for Employee Development
87% of millennials and 69% of other generations consider employee development an important factor when taking a job. Employee development training can take a lot of time and productivity away from employees and companies to complete though.
That’s why many businesses are looking into the potential effectiveness of online learning to meet these training needs. There has been debate for years over the effectiveness of online learning over in-person training. The truth is, both options add value to your employee development program.
Where is In-Person Training Valuable?
While businesses are moving more towards online training options, these online options don’t eliminate the usefulness of in-person training completely. Training that requires student feedback or more hands-on training is best done in person.
Training that requires more in-depth understanding by several employees is also a good option for in-person training. Blending these in-person training needs with an online program will increase your training effectiveness. In fact, 80% of in-person training could be more effective online.
Even with in-person training, it’s a good idea to keep a digital record of the training that was completed. You can use an online learning management system to keep up with this documentation so everything is in the same place.
The Numbers on Online Training
When it comes to the question of the effectiveness of online learning, The numbers show some big advantages to providing at least some of your training options online.
According to LinkedIn, the number one issue when it comes to employee development and training is that employees don’t have time to dedicate to their training needs. Online training can help with this issue because online courses can be completed in one quarter of the time it takes to complete in-person training.
Online training requires less travel time to and from the meeting space, it reduces the time waiting for the training to get started, it takes less time than in-person training to complete, you get no off-topic distractions, and there is no need for pleasantries following the training.
Online training also costs less while increasing productivity. For many organizations, 60% of the costs involved in training go to travel. With online training, companies can cut this cost, and 42% of companies saw increased revenues after adding online training. Companies also saw an 18% increase in employee engagement.
This shows that online training will increase employee commitment and connection to the organization they work for. This commitment is part of what drives the increased revenue.
The Benefits of Online Training
In order to determine the effectiveness of online learning for your company needs, you need to understand how online training can streamline the training process. A big part of this effectiveness is the reduction in cost for online training programs.
There’s no need to pay for food, extra training materials, in-person trainers, housing for remote workers or trainers, venues for training, or any of the other costs associated with in-person training. You also reduce the amount of revenue lost to workflow disruptions during long training sessions.
Online training cuts out the need to bring remote and work-from- home workers in to complete training. Since employees can complete the training at their convenience, you can set up training for everyone, including part-time and multiple location employees so everyone is on the same page.
You also have more flexibility when it comes to training materials. Employees can access training that’s relevant to them, on their own schedule. The effectiveness of online learning also increases as employees can access completed training whenever they need for a refresher course.
Since employees can learn at their own pace, you can increase employee participation and comprehension with online training options. This means you can develop a robust training and employee development program that meets the needs of everyone.
Developing a Training Program that Incorporates Online Training
When developing a training program, you need to understand the needs of your company and your employees. Many businesses use a blended approach to get the benefits of both in-person and online training options. How this will work for you depends on what type of training is required for your employees.
You can increase the effectiveness of online learning by developing a training program that incorporates orientation, ongoing, corrective action, and employee development training to meet the needs of everyone and keep employees fresh on important issues.
Orientation training allows you to prepare new employees for their role, while an ongoing training program will help refresh them on important topics throughout the year. Including training as part of your corrective action needs will remind employees of focus areas they many have forgotten over time as well.
Employee development programs such as leadership and upskill training will help employees improve and move up in their careers. This helps with employee productivity and retention.
You will also see the effectiveness of online learning when it comes to maintaining documentation. You can keep all certifications and training reports in one place so you can access them whenever you need. This will help when dealing with insurance or worker’s comp claims.
Use an online training system to help you track trends that can lead to problems. This gives you the ability to respond immediately to problem areas, and you can even personalize training to individual employee or department needs.
Putting Together the Right Tools for the Job
When it comes to your employee development and training needs, you want to make sure you have access to the best tools to meet your business needs. With Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, you get access to a learning management system that provides training to help you get started, while giving you the freedom to incorporate your company-specific custom content to personalize learning.
You have a one-stop spot for all training options with easy communication tools so you can keep employees up to date on what’s important. Employees can access their training and communications with any device that has an internet connection, so training is easy and convenient.
You don’t have to take our word for it though. Request a free demo so you can see the system in action for yourself.
