Employees and eLearning: The Importance of eLearning in Lockdown

To say that the Coronavirus pandemic has transformed the business landscape would be an understatement, with companies around the world rapidly adopting remote working. With this sudden transformation, many companies are having to focus on getting the business essentials right which, in turn, risks employee development being put on the back burner.

Working from home can make it difficult to retain the same sense of personalisation and team communication that you get in the office. With this in mind, it’s more crucial than ever to ensure that your employees are getting the development and attention they need. That’s why we’ve put together this handy guide to help you understand why employee eLearning is so important during the lockdown.

Build & Develop Skills

Regardless of whether you’re using online video software or a bespoke learning management system, one of the most fundamental benefits of eLearning is that it helps your team to build skill sets. That doesn’t just mean developing existing skills, but learning new skills too. 

With the current pandemic, these new skills can make a huge difference in ensuring that working life continues as close to normal as possible. For example, your team may need to learn how to use online video conferencing software for meetings, how to use Google Docs to collaborate on documents, or expand their roles to help cover for any staff that may have been furloughed.

Improves Communication

eLearning doesn’t just refer to individual employees learning new skills online – it can also be done as a team exercise. In fact, group learning carries many benefits including combating procrastination, encouraging continual progress and being able to discuss your perspectives or any ambiguities with others. Group learning can also be really useful for encouraging team communication and collaboration, not just within the learning environment but day-to-day, too. 

At a time when the whole team is likely working from home, regular communication is often crucial both to completing tasks and promoting good mental health. Even if your employees are doing eLearning by themselves this is still likely to encourage communication; even if it’s simply asking other team members about things they don’t understand.

Boosts Productivity

Research suggests that gamified eLearning experiences can offer a 100-150% increase in employee engagement. eLearning also offers more variety in your employees’ working days, breaking up tasks and combating boredom; which often results in increased productivity and creativity. This productivity boost can make all the difference at a time where your team is at home, living and working within the same environment. 

Furthermore, offering eLearning opportunities demonstrates that you value your employees and their professional development. With professional development opportunities being one of the first things that people look for in an employer, this is likely to encourage employee engagement, improve team morale and reduce staff turnover.

It’s Adaptable

Finally, eLearning is adaptable; it can be done by anyone, anywhere, on almost any device. Of course, this is really useful at a time where your team is working from home. It’s also ideal for any employees that may have young children or other commitments that mean they can’t work standard 9-5 office hours, allowing them to access eLearning at any time that is suitable for them. 

eLearning also means that employees can approach learning at a pace they feel comfortable with. For example, some employees may prefer to do two hour blocks of learning per week, whereas others may opt for 30 minute blocks of learning each day.

What benefits has your team seen from using eLearning courses? Get in touch with us on Twitter or LinkedIn to share your inspirational success stories and tips for keeping everyone motivated in lockdown conditions.

For more content like this, why not check out our eLearning blog?