How to use your LMS to successfully onboard new employees

Your learning management system (LMS) is a fantastic tool for developing your workforce. It provides instant access to a library of learning materials so employees can learn on their schedule. 

Another major advantage is that an LMS is a great way to streamline the onboarding process. Depending on your industry, onboarding can be a long, complex process that requires supervision from managers and HR. Luckily, using your LMS to train new starters will save you time and money, while ensuring you follow the correct processes. 

With this in mind, we'll explain how your LMS can improve your onboarding process, including the advantages of using an LMS for onboarding and tips for measuring success. 

Why your business should use your LMS for onboarding

Your LMS has such a wide range of functionality that it’s the perfect tool for onboarding new employees. For example: 

• It provides a consistent onboarding experience, which guarantees every employee receives the same high-quality training and nothing is overlooked, misinterpreted, or forgotten.
• It saves time by allowing your business to deliver everything a new employee needs in just a few clicks. Online learning is also a faster and more efficient way to learn.
• Online learning is more cost-effective than in-person training or training that requires physical resources. It also saves time and money for HR staff and managers. 
• It can be easily scaled, so whether you’re onboarding one new employee or a dozen, they can all learn from the same materials.
• Online training can be accessed from anywhere, meaning employees can complete onboarding training and assessments as well as role-specific training. 
• Onboarding content can be presented in different formats to ensure engagement and retention, including text, videos, podcasts, quizzes, and assessments.
• LMSs allow for detailed monitoring and reporting, so you can view onboarding progress and provide additional support to employees where necessary.
• Customized onboarding is simple if different employees require different training, meaning the entire process is personalized.
• Many LMSs integrate with HR systems, creating a simple and streamlined onboarding process for new employees and HR professionals.

How to effectively use your LMS for onboarding

If your organization already uses an LMS to deliver employee training, you’ll know the impact it can have on development. Well, the same applies to onboarding. Below are the steps you can take to use your LMS for onboarding:

1. Understand your onboarding goals and objectives, including what an employee should have learned once onboarding is complete.
2. Collate learning materials to add to your database, such as the online courses provided by Go1.
3. Develop specific training materials relevant to your business, such as policies, ways of working, and processes. You will probably already have these materials, which means adding them to your LMS through its authoring tool should be simple.
4. IInclude any compliance-related training, such as health and safety and industry-specific compliance training. Monitor these to ensure employees pass their assessments so you can provide evidence of compliance should the need arise.
5. Ensure training is engaging, especially if the subject matter isn’t the most interesting. Use a variety of techniques, such as video, audio, and text.
6. Create a structured onboarding course that includes the relevant training materials. You may need to create several courses depending on role, seniority, and department-specific requirements to ensure personalized training. 
7. Introduce gamification elements to make onboarding a more fun, engaging, and rewarding experience.
8. Test the content, efficiency, and functionality of the courses, ensuring there are no issues with materials, videos, links, or interactive elements.
9. Ensure new employees receive LMS login access as soon as they start to allow for a streamlined onboarding experience. The sooner you onboard employees, the sooner they can start in earnest. Some LMS and HR system integrations will allow for automation, so new starters will instantly have LMS access.
10. Communicate the new onboarding process to stakeholders and managers to ensure it’s successfully rolled out.
11. Ask for feedback from managers and new starters and implement changes to continuously improve the experience.
12. Ensure onboarding materials are updated to reflect industry changes, company policy, and process amendments, and always include up-to-date data and information.
13. Once successfully rolled out, monitor engagement to allow you to make changes and refine the process for future new starters.

How to measure the success of your LMS onboarding process

Measuring the success of your onboarding process is important, as it allows you to see what works and what you need to improve. Consider the following points when evaluating success:

• Completion rates
• Assessment scores
• Time spent learning
• Feedback surveys
• Retention rates
• Drop-off rates
• Compliance tracking

Your employees’ learning journey starts the moment they begin the onboarding process. It’s the first step to introducing them to a culture of continuous learning and one that will help them achieve their potential and drive your business toward its goals.

Go1 can help your business refine its onboarding process with online training courses

At Go1, we have a library of online courses to help you design a cost-effective and time-saving onboarding process for your employees.

For more information, download our 50 tips for increasing L&D business value, or speak to one of our experts to discover how we can support your organization with effective learning.