How to overcome LMS challenges and improve EX, retention

1. User adoption and engagement

User adoption is a common LMS challenge. New employees often complete training without reminders but sending out one or more reminders is often necessary for longer-tenured employees. User adoption can be even lower for optional training.

Learning and development teams can explore multiple options to increase training adoption. Gamification through an employee leaderboard can help create a competition over who completes the most training. Rewarding employees who reach specific training milestones with prizes, such as a gift card or public recognition, can also improve participation, as can requiring managers to make time for employees to complete training.

Ensuring that training is available on mobile devices for all employees can also help improve adoption by making it easier for workers to complete their required courses.

In addition, company leaders outside of HR should clearly communicate that continuous employee development is essential to the organization's culture.

2. LMS employee data maintenance

Keeping employee data up to date in an LMS should not be a manual task due to the sheer volume of work, as employee records change daily in most companies.

Many tools can help companies maintain accurate LMS employee data; however, which one is best for a certain company will depend on the LMS and HR system of record.

If the LMS is a module in an HRMS or ERP system, then employee data should flow from one system to the next without requiring manual intervention. Companies can also use an API to pull data from an HR system to an LMS. However, the cost of an API can be substantial.

If the price tag is a concern, using a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) file transfer is often a good, low-cost option for an LMS that's not integrated with an HR system. An SFTP file transfer involves a scheduled report running in the HR system and the resulting file being automatically imported into the LMS.

3. Content relevance

Employees should turn to an LMS when they want to learn something new or gain a deeper understanding of a particular topic. If employees feel that the LMS content is outdated or have trouble finding the proper content, they will likely look outside the LMS.

Licensing courses from the LMS vendor or a third party can help ensure that employees have all the learning content they need. It’s best to check whether third-party vendor courses can be imported into an LMS or linked in some way.

Licensing course libraries that offer content about specific topics, such as sales and marketing, can also be helpful. Learning and development teams might need to build company-specific courses, such as a class about the organization's products and services, to ensure employees' specific learning needs are addressed.

4. ROI measurements

Measuring the ROI of an LMS can be challenging because it’s often a piece of a bigger puzzle. For example, stating that an LMS was responsible for reducing employee turnover would likely be overstating its value because many factors contribute to a decrease in employee turnover.  

However, certain KPIs can help demonstrate that a company's LMS is adding value to the organization's operations. Some of the KPIs that can demonstrate LMS value include course completion and user logins, both of which show that employees are engaging with the system.

Comments can also be a valuable KPI if employees submit positive feedback. In addition, employees who receive positive performance reviews because they gained new skills could be linked to their use of the LMS.

All KPIs should ideally be established at the beginning of the implementation or reporting period.

5. LMS security

All employee LMS data must be properly protected.

Implementing role-based access for the LMS should help, as should using the system's encryption. In addition, most LMSes don't require users to submit highly confidential information, such as social security numbers and birthdates. If a course requires employees to submit sensitive information, LMS administrators should confirm that doing so is absolutely necessary and try to find workarounds.

In addition, many HR systems come with tools and reports for auditing user interactions with the application. These auditing tools can help confirm that users are following all security protocols.

6. LMS management

Companies must ensure that employees with the proper skill sets are working on the LMS so they can address any issues. Understaffing in this area could lead to problems later.

Here are some roles that are necessary for keeping an LMS running smoothly:

• System administrator. The system administrator is responsible for keeping the LMS running, troubleshooting problems and managing security. They might also be power users for reporting and dashboards. The administrator could be an HR or IT employee.
• Learning specialist. The learning specialist focuses on the LMS's content. They ensure that the LMS offers courses that employees want to take, look for opportunities to add more courses and build internal courses as needed.
• External specialists. The internal team might sometimes require extra resources to help administer an LMS or develop content. In those situations, the LMS vendor and consultants can be brought in to help with specific projects.

In addition, LMS management needs should be considered when selecting a new system.

The complexity of an LMS should be aligned with the size and needs of the company using it. An LMS built for larger organizations might be overly complicated for a small HR team to administer if the team doesn't possess the proper skills to manage the system or is already stretched thin.

Eric St-Jean is an independent consultant focusing on HR technology, project management and Microsoft Excel training and automation. He writes about numerous business and technology areas.