LMS: One acronym, hundreds of possibilities.

If you’re a HR manager who has heard whispers of the mythical “LMS” or “Learning Platform” amongst your peers, but has never actually taken the plunge to get one, this blog is for you.

What exactly are the benefits of a Learning Management System? In this blog, we’ll break down the definition of an LMS, and the ways in which it can benefit your team, business and bottom line.

What is an LMS?

Before we can count the myriad ways that a Learning Management System can benefit you, we need to define our terms. What is an LMS?

An LMS (Learning Management System) is a software application designed to facilitate learning and training programmes within an organisation. It serves as the central hub for creating, organising, distributing and monitoring learning content, as well as for tracking learners’ progress and performance.

In layman’s terms, an LMS is a place to store all your workplace learning – from compliance training, to company news and updates, to optional learning.

What are the benefits of an LMS?

Simplifying onboarding

Let’s start at the beginning.

When a new starter enters your organisation, onboarding is their introduction to everything they need to know and learn. If you have a lot of experience onboarding new starters, you’ll know it can be an overwhelming process. If it’s done badly, it can taint new employees’ view and experience of your organisation, which is why it’s so important to get it right. We just so happen to have our own step-by-step guide on how to make onboarding easy (unsurprisingly involving the use of an LMS) but here are some highlights...

A Learning Management System can make onboarding streamlined, easy and even enjoyable – both for you, and your new starter. Let us tell you why:

• Simplification: The name of the game. Onboarding can be a complex web of information, processes and instruction hitting your new starter from all different directions. If this tangled mess of learning is confusing to you, just imagine how it feels for someone brand new to the company.
  
  An LMS helps to systematically untangle this information, distil its most important parts, and store it all in one central place. Using your LMS to store all your training in distinct, easy-to-follow pathways, you can make onboarding quick and easy.
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• Company-wide and department-specific pathways: Your best bet for a well-rounded onboarding process is a mix of specificity and uniformity. When a new person joins your company, they need to know what’s required and expected of them – but they also need the bigger picture.
  
  With an LMS like Thrive, you can create a custom onboarding pathway to introduce all new starters to the company. This might include the company’s history and values, compliance training, and anything else you feel is essential for every single new employee who walks through your doors (whether physically or remotely.)
  
  Along with this, you can create personalised pathways to help newbies understand where they fit in.

• Oversight: No matter the size of your company, it’s stressful to try to make sure every single new starter is up to speed. An LMS takes some of that pressure off you by automatically compiling insights into everybody’s progress in one central dashboard. This allows you to oversee progress in a manageable, helpful way – and use what you learn to make informed decisions going forward.
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Communication and connection

When you think of the advantages of a learning platform, “communication” might not immediately come to mind – but it’s actually one of the biggest benefits. A good LMS will place communication on the same level as learning, because when it comes down to it, they are one and the same.

Just like learning, communication is the sharing of information and ideas. Why wouldn’t you want your learning platform to facilitate this? An LMS should make workplace learning feel like second nature; as effortless as messaging a friend, commenting on an Instagram post, or sharing a piece of news.

A great learning platform will feature Comments, Shares, Likes and User Profiles. Sound familiar? By mimicking the functionality of social media, it makes knowledge-sharing and communication easier than ever.

Take Thrive customer and skincare industry disruptor DECIEM as an example. Prior to launching Thrive, a staff survey revealed that 78% of employees felt like they didn’t know what was going on in the wider business, and 42% felt they didn't have a voice.

Something needed to change, and DECIEM used Thrive to help them get there.

In launching Thrive, DECIEM fully embraced the communication features. They encouraged their learners to share content - both internal and from social media platforms like TikTok - and regularly hosted broadcasts to update everyone on company news. As a result, their workforce is more connected and engaged than ever, with an average of 83 minutes per week spent on optional learning. Their “learners as teachers” approach has been so successful, their platform is now made up of 53% user generated content and only 23% content from the L&D team.

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A skilled and happy workforce

Now for arguably one of the most important parts of workplace learning: skills progression.

A Learning Management System with skills functionality is a win-win: From a management perspective, it helps you cultivate a workforce who can help your business succeed. From an individual perspective, it helps people progress through their careers – ultimately leading to more fulfilment in their role.

Don’t just take our word for it. The 2024 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report found 8 in 10 people said learning adds purpose to their work, and the number one reason to spend more time learning was “It helps me progress towards my career goals.”

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Customer service and business success

You might be surprised to discover how direct the link between workplace learning and customer satisfaction really is. You’ve heard the saying “knowledge is power.” Well, an LMS demonstrates just that.

Take Thrive customer Homebase as an example. After launching the LMS throughout their stores, they found its benefits manifesting in a very tangible way: Stores that had more team members trained to the “expert” level consistently gained 35% higher customer satisfaction scores than those who didn’t.

And what about the bottom line?

For an example of how an LMS benefits business success, look no further than Thrive customer Ann Summers. The lingerie and adult toy brand partnered with Thrive Impact to prove the positive correlation between workplace learning and sales, resulting in a 10% increase in revenue. Read the full case study here to find out how.

Ultimately, better product knowledge, good customer service training, and the overall enthusiasm gained from learning new skills are all factors that contribute to better customer service.

By enabling this through the use of an LMS, you’ll benefit both your customers and your business.

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Learning culture

If you’ve been valiantly travelling through various conversations about L&D, you may have heard the phrase “learning culture.” But what exactly does that mean to take that utopian dream and turn it into an everyday reality?

When we talk about learning culture, we’re essentially talking about the ways in which an organisation views and approaches workplace learning. If you think, for example, of an organisation having no learning culture, that might look like:
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• Management never allocating any time or budget to learning
• A workforce in stasis, never building on their existing knowledge
• A non-compliant workforce who, after having been provided no compliance training, do not know the correct regulations, procedures or processes
• An organisation that is behind the times and unable to keep up with changes in their industry
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It doesn’t look great, does it?

Obviously, it’s not always the case that just because a company isn’t cultivating a learning culture, all of the above will happen. But these are the risks associated with management placing zero emphasis on learning and development.

That’s why it’s so beneficial to seriously delve into your L&D strategy, and consider launching an LMS.

So, what does a positive learning culture look like in practice? Let’s take a look:

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• There is a concrete learning and development strategy in place, providing people opportunities to learn and progress within their roles
• Learning is considered essential, with time and budget allocated accordingly
• Management is open to change, new ideas, and innovation
• Employees are encouraged to learn from each other and share ideas
• Leadership teams are also open to learning, and allocate time to do so

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It’s a much prettier picture, but how exactly do you get there? An LMS is a great place to start.

Everything that we’ve mentioned in this blog (onboarding and compliance procedures, communication and connection, and continuous business success) come together to create a positive learning culture – so what are you waiting for?

To learn more about how Thrive could benefit your business, book a demo today.

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