The e-learning industry is growing at an astonishing pace. According to the eLearning industry study, this sector will reach $325 billion in 2025. 

The same survey found that 77% of U.S. companies used online learning in 2017, while 98% intended to incorporate it in their employee training program by 2020. 

Why is online education essential to your small business? 

Highly Accessible

Hosting on-premise employee training can be challenging. It requires a lot of planning, especially for remote working from multiple locations. 

That is why you should organize online training for your remote employees. E-learning adapts to the needs of your distributed staff and adds flexibility. Employees can access online materials, contact customer support, and take assessments with greater convenience. 

Irrespective of their time zones, they can attend online courses anywhere and anytime. Employees can view course materials and examination scores multiple times and across various devices.

Engaging

In some industries, such as healthcare, on-site training programs are inevitable. They provide trainees with practical knowledge they can apply in real-life situations. To reduce the costs of offline employee training, choose those in your location. For example, if you want to provide your staff with PALS certification Phoenix, you should hire local PALS instructors. 

Sure, you can support your traditional training programs with online courses on PALS to provide continuous L&D. In addition to online training, many healthcare institutions invest in virtual reality tools. For example, your staff can use a VR headset to simulate different scenarios. VR is experiential by its very nature. As such, it improves the retention of information and boosts post-training performance.

Reduces Cost of Traditional Employee Training 

The cost of on-site classes can impact your company’s bottom line in multiple ways, such as expensive printed materials or certifications. In addition to course fees, you also need to pay for travel expenses for remote employees who must travel from multiple locations to participate in the course.

Online learning is perfect for remote teams since it eliminates the costs of commuting and boosts employee attendance. You will also reduce expenses related to course materials since they are provided in digital formats. Certifications are also online. They come with course completion recognition your employees can share on job-posting sites or social networks.

Effective Online Support

Reliable online educators provide efficient customer support. Their main goal is to build trust with users, boost their satisfaction, and retain them in the long-run. Your employees can communicate with them when they have questions across multiple channels, including online learning portals, email, live chat support, etc.

Measurable

Unlike traditional employee training programs, online courses can be tracked and measured at a more granular level. Your metrics should not only measure how many employees completed the program, which scores they gained, or how much time they took to finish training.

The real benefit of online learning lies in its connection to your company’s objectives and KPIs. It allows you to measure how the training program impacted your company’s goals, ROI, and performance.

Precisely because of that, you should set clear business goals and track relevant metrics when selecting an online course. Only that way will you be able to estimate its actual contribution to your company’s performance. That is far more precise than measuring the number of course participants.

Adaptable

Every company’s learning and development requirements are different. They vary based on a wide range of factors, such as the size of your business, employee engagement, employees’ previous knowledge, etc.

Even within your company, the learning needs of every employee vary. For example, seasoned staff members and your recent hires have different training objectives. 

That is where, again, online learning can help. Namely, modern e-learning tools are based on adaptive learning, meaning that they adjust to users’ learning differences. As such, they are more flexible and personalized.

That way, your employees will be able to learn at their own pace. By providing your staff with individualized and customizable training experiences, you will boost their morale and engagement. 

Online Learning Is the Future of Employee Training

Probably the most significant advantage of e-learning lies in its user-friendliness. It is highly personalized, user-centric, and flexible. That way, it adapts to your employees’ specific learning needs and requirements. For your small business, that is an opportunity to boost employee satisfaction and retain top talent.

Have you implemented online learning in employee training? We are listening!

Eve Anderson is a marketing specialist turned blogger. Interested in sports and exciting travel destinations. Love to share content that can inform people.