If you’re reading this, you already know how beneficial an LMS can be for your team’s workplace learning, career development and sense of community. You’ve likely seen some of the results that other companies have achieved, just by bolstering their learning strategy with a platform.

Those incredible results don’t change the fact that actually launching and rolling out an LMS can be an extremely daunting task. Earlier this year we wrote the blog How to guarantee a smooth LMS implementation, which detailed all the steps necessary for a successful implementation process.

But, what comes after implementation?

In this blog, we’ll discuss how to keep up the energy of a successful implementation throughout the roll-out of your new learning platform, and avoid the “sophomore slump” that can sometimes appear after the initial excitement.

Here’s how you build your first LMS, and make sure it makes an impact – step by step.

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How to make sure your LMS has longevity

“Implementation” covers the formative stages of building your LMS. But going beyond this stage you also need to get very honest about what exactly you want to achieve with your LMS, and how its functionality can help with your specific pain points.

Here are some thoughts to get you started:

What are your organisational objectives, and how do they shape your L&D strategy?

Hopefully your organisation has some goals in place, be they for the calendar year or the current quarter.

For example: “Improve customer satisfaction”, “become a respected thought-leader in our industry”, or “promote diversity and inclusion within our organisation.”

Using your goals as a jumping-off point, you can then decide how to align them with your L&D strategy. For example, “Create an engaging customer service pathway in our learning platform”, “Host a regular company-wide broadcast with the CEO to keep everyone up-to-date on industry trends,” or “leverage campaigns to make the most of awareness days throughout the year.”

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Start with engagement, then think bigger

The golden goose, the white whale, or whatever uniquely-coloured creature fits your metaphor: Your employee’s engagement. This is the nebulous, desirable end-goal that all L&D professionals are constantly trying to capture – but it’s not just an end-goal, it should also be your initial jumping off point.

Once you engage your employees and build an LMS that they actively want to keep going back to, the rest of your strategy can fall into place – and you can begin to think bigger. But how do you capture their attention in the first place?

In hosting our Retail Revolution webinar last year, we received this timeless piece of wisdom from Matt Brooks (Head of Learning at Westmorland Family.)

“Communication can be the hook to pull people in, then hit them with the learning.”

Communication features are a great way to introduce your people to the concept of a learning platform, and get them used to using it. Pick a platform whose communication features are similar to those of popular social media platforms, and you’ll find that using it comes completely naturally.

When everyone is used to communicating, sharing knowledge and interacting with one another, you can begin to think bigger.

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What’s the data telling you?

Aligning your L&D strategy to your organisational objectives, engaging your employees, and rolling out L&D initiatives is all well and good – but if you don’t listen to the story the data is telling you, you’re not evolving and you risk getting stagnant as a result.

This is why when building your first ever LMS, it’s important to make sure that it has data and analytics functionality built in. You can then use this data to really drill down into your learners’ behaviour, and see exactly how (and even when) they are interacting with the platform.

Once you’ve harnessed this data, you can adapt your strategy according to what will be most effective. Are your learners only logging onto the platform first thing in the morning, too busy with their day-to-day tasks to look in the afternoon? Don’t post that important update or splashy campaign at 4pm. Do you get more completions on audio or video courses when compared to PDF’s and quizzes? Use this data to create even more, varied and engaging learning content. Whatever story the data is telling you, make sure you’re listening – it’s your most valuable and honest advisor.

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Celebrate

It’s a fairly well-known and accepted fact that positive reinforcement – well – reinforces positive behaviours, making people more likely to repeat them. By celebrating all you (and more importantly, your team) have achieved using your new LMS, you increase its effectiveness and longevity.

The LMS itself can help with this as long as it facilitates badges and rewards, as well as certifications for completing certain courses.

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