Brenda Lazarus, Manager of Learning and Development at Daylight Transport, is passionate about making learning accessible for everyone. “I really care about bringing education to the people,” she said.

And in today’s world of work, where virtual and hybrid employees are more common than ever, making learning accessible means making learning virtual.

In partnership with Go1, Brenda successfully implemented a remote learning program for all Team Members across Daylight Transport. Read on for her advice on how you can facilitate remote learning, too.

To get started, you must ensure your remote learning solution is flexible enough to support employees across various times and locations. 

Daylight Transport's workforce is dispersed across the U.S., posing a unique logistical challenge. So, when Brenda set out to find a learning program, she needed a solution that would work across several time zones. Once she discovered Go1’s asynchronous content  which can be completed anytime, anywhere, she knew it was the perfect fit.

Brenda also offers virtual training and development sessions, which she schedules at multiple times across various time zones. Doing so is a priority for her, as it ensures no one misses an opportunity to learn.

If you’re thinking about offering remote learning, it’s important to remember that employees must have access to all the tools they need to engage with virtual learning content.

According to Brenda, Daylight Transport Team Members can access Daylight University through company-issued computers or other company-approved devices only while they are on the clock.  Since they can log in to the learning program at both on-site and remote work locations, it’s easy for Team Members to learn wherever they happen to be working.

When working with a remote or hybrid team, clear, continuous communication is vital. That’s why Brenda promotes Daylight University in various ways. She sends Team Members articles about the program, attends virtual Town Halls to discuss the program, and lets Team Members know when new learning playlists are released. 

Frequently promoting Daylight University means new Team Members can learn about the program, and those who have been around a while are reminded to challenge themselves to continue on their personal learning journey if they haven’t already.

Remote learning comes with unique challenges, but Brenda makes herself available to help both on-site and remote learners overcome any obstacles they encounter. Brenda assists Team Members who need help searching the platform for specific content. She also helps managers familiarize themselves with the platform to pass this knowledge on to their Team Members and provides tips and tricks for those who are just getting started.

Implementing a remote learning program has given the entire Daylight Transport team continuous access to growth and development opportunities – thereby strengthening their workforce.

“I love when our learners tell me that they found a course or topic they never thought they would in a learning system at work,” Brenda said. "If the learner learns something new and gets better, then Daylight gets better.”

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs. 

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The workplace has changed, which means learning must change, too. Find out how one of our customers implemented remote learning for their entire workforce.

Insights from the Industry: How to facilitate remote learning

Watch sneak peeks of courses by some of our amazing content partners, including Seven Steps to Writing Success, The Inclusive School and Teacher Wellbeing. Enhance your IT skills with our featured playlist and read more about our new partnership with the Anangu Lands Education team. Explore all that and more in this month's edition of the EC Premium Content Insider. 

Meet some of our fabulous Content Partners!

Help your students master the art of narrative, persuasive, and informative writing with these comprehensive courses designed for primary and early secondary educators. These courses break down the writing process into manageable skills, from brainstorming to crafting captivating conclusions. Led by Jen McVeity, OAM, Founder and CEO of Seven Steps to Writing Success and a prolific author, the courses delve into each step’s core concepts through concise theory videos. You’ll then apply these techniques in your classroom with downloadable resources. 

Seven Steps on EC Premium

The Inclusive School’s course, Inclusion Matters, is a beacon for equitable education. It empowers educators and families by delivering practical tools for creating inclusive learning environments. Led by experienced educators, this transformative program covers diverse topics from embracing inclusivity to collaborating with families, offering hands-on strategies, and real-life cases. For teachers, administrators, parents, and community members, it’s an opportunity to inspire and foster welcoming spaces for all learners.

The Inclusive School on EC Premium

Daniela Falecki, an experienced teacher across primary, secondary, and tertiary education, presents Five Foundations to Boost Educator Wellbeing. By recognising the unique stressors of teaching and their impact on teaching quality and student outcomes, Daniela is dedicated to supporting educators who tirelessly juggle diverse needs and life’s demands. Prioritise your wellbeing as an educator and understand that student wellbeing starts with you.

Teacher Wellbeing on EC Premium

Which great content partners are coming soon to EC Premium?

Conexiones is a global leader in K-12 educator professional development, combining education with compassion, expertise and innovation. With a dynamic team comprising over a century of combined experience, Conexiones pioneers state-of-the-art training and ground-breaking research to elevate education worldwide. Their impactful collaborations include UNESCO’s Teacher Training Initiative, OECD, AERA, and more, spanning 40+ countries. You can expect interactive, engaging courses diving into how the brain works and providing accessible resources to understand your students’ neural pathways and improve your teaching practice.

Our Featured Playlists are included in all schools’ Learning Hubs and are a great way to see a variety of high-quality content from different providers, all with just one click!

Recommended by ICT Professionals delivers a spectrum of essential subjects for educators seeking IT expertise. Explore courses and download resources on cybersecurity, virtualisation, cloud security, powerBI, SQL, Windows Server, Azure fundamentals, disaster recovery, InTune, SCCM mastery, networking essentials and more! Elevate your IT proficiency and equip yourself for the challenges of the digital age.

Pitjantjatjara country is mostly in the far north-west of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The Anangu Schools represent ten schools across the state in the most remote areas. 

Our team has diligently collaborated with the Local Education team to ensure they have access to tailored content that caters to the unique needs of their staff spread across these vast and remote lands. By offering high-quality educational resources, we aim to empower educators and school support staff in areas where professional development opportunities are traditionally limited due to geographical remoteness.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

In the September edition of the EC Premium Content Insider, you can enhance your IT skills with our featured playlist and read more about our new partnership with the Anangu Lands Education team.

The EC Premium Content Insider – September 2023 edition

Ben Smith spent more than 20 years teaching before joining Go1 in 2022. But even while he was a teacher, Ben was always a learner first. 

During his time in the classroom, Ben taught a wide variety of subjects, including physical education, science, math, outdoor education, learning support, IT, and even coffee culture. His desire to teach many of these topics was fueled by his personal interest in learning about them. “I've always loved learning new things and developing myself,” Ben said. “Through different parts of my life, I was learning different things and applying them to my teaching.” 

In 2017, Ben decided he was ready for a career change. While thinking about what he should do next, he considered one of his long-standing interests: coding. Ben had previously tried his hand at developing a few web apps – including a stat-taking app for the volleyball team he was coaching – and he loved the process. “I've always been involved in technical things,” he said. “I've loved coding and I've run a few businesses on the side of teaching where I've hired developers to do different bits and pieces of work. So, I decided to go into coding and software development.” 

Once he decided to pursue a career in coding, Ben’s next step was to enroll in a software engineering program. As a dad of three who worked full-time, going back to school was no small task. Completing the program required him to spend most of his evenings studying. "Most nights, from eight o'clock – once the kids were in bed – to about midnight, I'd be studying and developing my coding skills,” he said. 

After several years of hard work and late-night studying, Ben was ready to find a job. That’s when he came across Go1 – although it wasn’t the first time he had heard of the company. 

Earlier in his career, Ben had built a booking management system for health and wellness practices, which he then took to a sponsored business accelerator program. At the accelerator program, he met the founders of GoCatalyze – the company now known as Go1. “Andrew, Chris, and Chris were in that same program, and so I got to know them there and they were very smart cookies and worked really hard and did some pretty great things,” Ben recounted. “I've been following what they've been up to, so I looked into the company and saw there were job openings." 

Ben applied for a graduate developer role at Go1 and got the job. His role as a developer involves building up the Go1 codebase and fixing problems one ticket at a time. “I'm working on different coding jobs as part of a team, as part of the bigger picture for Go1,” he said. 

Ben has found that he’s been able to learn and grow at Go1, due in part to his willingness to ask questions and admit when he needs help. “I think I've been able to grow quite quickly because I'm comfortable saying, ‘Hey, I don't understand this. Give me a hand,’” he said. “There's plenty of things I don't know. As you go along, you understand even more that there's so much to know. No one's going to know everything and you're going to have to ask questions.” 

Plus, Ben’s team is always eager to support him through any challenges he encounters. “Everyone at Go1 is supportive and encouraging and there to help,” he said. “It's been really good to be able to continue learning new technologies and having the trust and faith from everyone at Go1 that any trouble I've had is okay – we can get through it.” 

In addition to its culture of learning, Ben says one of his favorite things about working at Go1 is the company’s transparency, especially compared to his previous job. “There’s a lot of bureaucracy in teaching, and I've had the pleasure of having amazing principals and working with some really encouraging, growth-focused people, but I've also had a lot of time where there's been just a lot of red tape and a lot of closed secrecy,” Ben recounted. “There's a lot of blame for when things go wrong without much celebration of when things go right.” 

“Go1's not like that at all,” he continued. “Right from the start, everything is transparent. It's open. In any workplace, people are going to have good times and hard times, and there's going to be positives and negatives anywhere. What I've found is that Go1 has been just completely open and honest about everything that's going on. I just have complete faith that all the actions that are being taken all the way through the company are for the best possible outcomes for the company and everybody in the company. And it just feels like a wonderful, open, welcoming place." 

Ultimately, Ben is happy with his career transition, and he feels Go1 enables him to keep learning every day. “It’s an amazing place to begin a career,” Ben said. “I’ve found it's been a really encouraging and easy place for me to grow and improve and put effort into. It’s a joy.” 

Learn how Ben transitioned out of his career in teaching and into a career in software development at Go1.

Meet the team: Ben Smith

September is a great time to look at your customer-facing teams and ensure they have the necessary skills to satisfy your customers, both before and after closing a sale. We have provided you with two great playlists to get started in our 12 Months of Learning calendar, helping you improve customer satisfaction and elevate your sales skills. We've also got some fantastic content providers to highlight below.  

What content providers should you check out this month? 

Topic coverage: Management & Leadership, Sales & Customer Service, Equality & Diversity, Health & Wellbeing, Compliance

880+ courses in Premium ranging from 2 to 205 minutes in duration

Courses include infographics, cheat sheets, coaching blueprints, and other downloadable assets

Top courses: Effective Time Management, Building Resilience At Work, Communication & Influence, The 4 E's Of Effective Telephone Communication, Negotiation Stage 2 – Managing The Discussion   

Topic coverage: IT software, Microsoft Products, Devops, Leadership, Communications, General Personal Development, Diversity and Inclusion

1560+ courses in Premium ranging from 1 to 480 minutes in duration

Top courses: Awareness and Prevention: Getting Real About Workplace Violence, Surviving an Extreme Act of Violence: Getting Real About Workplace Violence, Advanced Training for Managers and Supervisors: Getting Real About Workplace Violence, Effective Communication, Personal Integrity

Topic coverage: Leadership, Sales & Customer Service, HR Compliance

360+ courses in Premium ranging from 6 to 908 minutes in duration

The catalog includes adaptive learning options

Top courses: Service Attitude: Service Mistakes, Team Building: Building Team Trust and Respect, Service Attitude: Character & Integrity

What new content providers have been added to the Content Hub?

Topic coverage: Data Compliance, Finance and Communication

21 courses in Premium, ranging from 3 - 120 minutes in duration, all in German

Top courses: Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz – Grundlagen für Führungskräfte (General Equal Treatment Act - Basics for executives), Exportkontrolle (Export Control), Verantwortung und Haftung (Responsibility and Liability)

What great new content have our current content providers added to the Content Hub?

ej4 has refreshed its library and added 165 additional courses in a variety of topics.

AssembleYou doubled its content in the Go1 library, adding 110 new courses in topics such as leadership, sustainability, sales, and personal development. 

Packt added 66 new and updated technology content courses, including web development, cybersecurity, Ruby, and more.

In September, we have more great playlists from our 12 Months of Learning calendar, as well as some awesome new content providers to highlight.

The Go1 Content Insider - September 2023 Edition

In September, we have more great playlists from our 12 Months of Learning calendar, as well as some fantastic content providers to highlight. 

When looking for the ideal learning management system (LMS) for your organization, you should pay attention to two key features: tracking and admin. Ensuring an LMS has the appropriate tracking and admin capabilities will help you get the most out of it, both from an HR and management perspective and a learning perspective.

Therefore, before you buy an LMS, you must explore its tracking and reporting functionality, including how it integrates with other systems and how you manage content.

To help with this, we’ll explore the ins and outs of LMS tracking and reporting, detailing everything you should know to efficiently and effectively use your LMS. For more information, download our e-book, The ultimate guide to choosing the right learning platform for your business.

Understanding the importance of an effective LMS

At first glance, an LMS may simply seem like a tool you use to train your workforce. Of course, this is true, but when used effectively, your LMS can provide many more benefits, including personalized learning at scale, onboarding, greater employee engagement, saving time and money, and creating a culture of learning at your organization.

Without employee development, your organization will stagnate, and it won’t be long before you fall behind your competitors. Your LMS also streamlines employee learning and the time-consuming administrative tasks that come with it.

Whether employees have to complete mandatory compliance training or an upskilling course, an LMS provides quick and easy access to learning resources. So, whether your employees are office-based, remote, or hybrid, they can all access the same training materials, ensuring company-wide compliance and consistency.

By utilizing the complete functionality of your LMS, you’ll increase productivity, efficiency, and engagement, which in turn improves the return on investment (ROI) of your LMS. 

Providing your workforce with upskilling and developing opportunities is only one of the many ways you can use your LMS. To maximize engagement and ensure compliance, many LMSs have useful tracking features that show how, when, and where employees access course materials.

By tracking employee engagement, you can offer additional help and resources to those who need it, assess the value and success of your learning program, and use data to make decisions about the future of your L&D strategy. Important LMS tracking tools include:

Access: Tracks whether employees have logged into their accounts to access training and resources.

Progress: Tracks how employees engage with training courses, including module progress, time spent in specific modules, and overall course progress.

Assessments: Tracks course assessment results, such as scores, pass rate, and how many times a course was attempted.

Time: Tracks the amount of time employees spend using the LMS.

Engagement: Tracks how employees engage with course content and interactive elements, such as discussion forums and video views.

Attendance: If your organization uses in-person or blended learning, you can use your LMS to track attendance.

Admin capabilities: the backbone of an efficient LMS

Your LMS is only as effective as its admin capabilities. The last thing your management and HR teams need is an unintuitive system that slows down admin tasks. Without a functional back-end, neither your administrators nor your workforce will have a productive, efficient, or effective experience. Common admin capabilities to consider include:

User management: The ability to instantly create, edit, remove, and manage users, including new starters, tutors, and other administrators. If you integrate your LMS with your HR system, you can automate this process, making it even faster.

Course management: Course management is vital to customizing employees’ learning and introducing personalized learning at scale. 

Content creation: To create content specific to your organization, you’ll need a content creation and management system. An LMS content creation system may not offer as many features as a dedicated authoring tool, but it should let you create basic training content.

Course enrollment: Admins should be able to add employees (either individually or in bulk) to courses, with the option for employees to enroll themselves or register interest.

Communication: Admins should be able to communicate with employees through the LMS (typically via a notification system) to share any expectations, changes, and deadlines.

Customization: You should be able to customize your LMS to use your company’s logo, colors, fonts, messaging, and more.

Analytics: You should be able to access data and reports to measure how your workforce engages with your LMS. Without meaningful insights, you can’t accurately evaluate the success of your L&D program.

Integrations: For functionality and a seamless admin experience, an LMS must integrate with other systems your business currently uses. 

Seamless integrations: enhancing the LMS experience

One of the most crucial aspects of an LMS is whether it integrates with your existing systems. If not, this could cost you time and money in the long run.

Integrations link your LMS with other software that your organization uses, including HR software, your customer relationship management (CRM) system, and your single-sign-on (SSO) solution. Your LMS should also integrate with online course providers, such as Go1 — we integrate with hundreds of LMSs so you can provide training to your entire workforce through our content hub.

Integrations streamline processes by providing synchronization, preventing the need to duplicate data entry, speeding up processes, and improving security and management. For example, when a new starter enters your HR system, integration with your LMS can automatically create an account for them. This eliminates the need to create multiple accounts, ensuring a faster process. It also prevents delays, so your new starters can begin onboarding from day one.

Another great integration to take advantage of is gamification. Gamification introduces a fun and competitive element to learning, thereby increasing engagement. It rewards employees who use your LMS, which helps build a culture of learning.

Choosing the right LMS: a strategic decision

Choosing the right LMS can be difficult. It depends on the unique needs of your business, your budget, and whether you will create a large volume of original content.

For more information, speak to our experts today to find out how Go1 can support your L&D strategy. 

We’ll explore the ins and outs of LMS tracking and reporting, detailing everything you should know to efficiently and effectively use your LMS.

Key tracking and admin capabilities to look for in an LMS

We’ll explore the ins and outs of LMS tracking and reporting, detailing everything you should know to efficiently and effectively use your LMS. 

Learning and development is crucial for any organization. Without it, your employees can’t upskill and stay up-to-date with industry changes. As a result, your organization will stagnate, and you’ll quickly fall behind your competitors.

As such, it’s vital to address barriers to learning as soon as possible. Concerningly, research shows that 66% of employees face at least one barrier to learning at work. These barriers prevent your business from cultivating a culture of learning, meaning you won’t meet your goals as quickly — and risk not meeting them at all.

So, we’ll explore how you can address learning barriers to foster a happier, more skilled, and more productive workforce. For more information on overcoming learning barriers, download our e-book, The ultimate guide to choosing the right learning platform for your business.

Understanding common barriers to learning

Barriers to learning can come in many forms — including your employees themselves. Occasionally, external learning barriers arise, but most of the time, learning barriers are internal. The good news is your organization can alleviate internal learning barriers, which we’ll cover in detail below.

But, what exactly are these learning barriers, and how do they affect your employees’ ability to learn and develop? Common examples of learning barriers include:

Lack of time - When employees are at capacity, learning takes a back seat to meet work-related deadlines.

Lack of resources - Workplace learning is nearly impossible when employees don’t have the relevant materials or tools.

Unclear objectives - When employees don't have clear goals, timelines, or objectives, learning can grind to a halt.

No incentives - If there are no incentives or rewards, employees can struggle to engage with learning.

Technology - Old or outdated tech can be a significant blocker.

Language - If employees don’t speak fluent English, a lack of training resources in their native language will prevent learning.

Self-doubt - Employees can delay learning if they have self-doubt and are worried about the challenge. They may also have a fear of failure.

Fear of change - Some employees won’t be open to change.

Lack of learning culture - If your organization doesn’t foster a learning culture, it will become a major barrier.

Lack of stakeholder and management support - Senior staff — especially the leadership team — must champion learning to ensure employees recognize its value.

Organizational silos - Employees with a specific and defined role may not be encouraged to broaden their skills.

Difficulty sourcing resources - It may be difficult to source training resources, courses, and materials.

Cost - Certain training courses can be expensive, particularly in-person and tutor-led training. The economy and market trends can also influence costs.

Personal commitments - Employees may have personal commitments that affect their ability to learn.

Geographical limitations - It can be a challenge to attend in-person training. For online seminars, time differences can make attending tricky.

Lack of flexibility - Some mandatory learning, such as compliance training, can be inflexible. 

Legal barriers - Legal issues, such as those related to intellectual property, can prevent learning.

How can you overcome learning barriers at your organization?

You may face difficulties overcoming every learning barrier. For example, most external barriers, such as legal challenges, employees’ personal commitments, and geographical limitations are out of your control.

However, you can overcome most external barriers, such as difficulty sourcing resources and cost. Online learning content providers like Go1 have extensive libraries of online courses covering thousands of topics, from compliance and workplace safety to developing soft or hard skills. The great thing about online learning is that it’s also cost-effective, allowing you to develop your entire workforce on a budget.

On the other hand, internal learning barriers are within your control, and, therefore, preventable. As we’ve highlighted, you must address learning barriers so your employees can meet their potential.

For example, 61% of employees say time is the biggest barrier to their learning and development. The obvious solution to this is to give employees more time to learn. Giving employees more time to learn is easier said than done, but it’s something you can support your employees with. Even 15 minutes of learning a day means your employees can complete a one-hour training course in less than a week.

Other ways you can remove learning barriers include:

Resources - Ensure your employees can access the materials, tools, and courses they need to learn and develop.

Set clear objectives - Provide employees with clear, achievable objectives. You can set clear objectives through a PDP or as part of reviews and 121s.

Incentivise learning - Gamification is a great way to increase engagement with learning by incentivizing employees with badges, certificates, and rewards. Another incentive is promoting employees who embrace continuous learning.

Provide the right tech - Ensure you have up-to-date tech so employees can learn whenever and wherever, including hybrid and remote staff. A learning management system (LMS) is the perfect tool for providing training across your organization.

Cater for all languages - Ensure there are opportunities for all employees to learn, no matter what language they speak. 

Foster a learning culture - When your organization creates a culture of learning, it encourages employees to embrace training. To foster a culture of learning, you should encourage employees to make mistakes so they don’t fear stepping out of their comfort zone.

Encourage senior leaders to champion learning - A learning culture is built from the top down. When your workforce sees your leaders engaging with learning, it encourages other employees to follow suit.

Prevent organizational silos - Rather than isolate and pigeonhole employees, encourage collaboration and upskilling that aligns with your company’s goals. 

Of course, you can only overcome some of these barriers by investing time, money, and resources into your learning and development program. However, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Remember, L&D has gone from a nice to have to a need to have. So, by addressing learning barriers, you’ll have an engaged, efficient, and productive workforce working towards the same goal.

Access Go1’s industry-leading content library and overcome learning barriers

At Go1, we work with a diverse range of learning providers to give your employees access to the breadth and depth of content they need to upskill and develop.

To learn more, speak to our experts today to find out how we can support your organization’s learning and development strategy.

We’ll explore how you can address learning barriers to foster a happier, more skilled, and more productive workforce.

How to address learning barriers in your organization

Organizational transformation is crucial if your business wants to remain competitive and adapt to an ever-evolving market. To drive this transformation, you should utilize new technologies and develop your employees to build new skills to meet shifts in customer demand and expectations.

One tool that enables your business to achieve this is a learning management system (LMS). LMSs have a range of features to help you cultivate a culture of learning. Organizational transformation can only succeed when your workforce has the appropriate skills, tools, and mindset — and an LMS helps with all three.

Accordingly, we’ll analyze how you can use your LMS to enable organizational transformation. We’ll explore some of the most important LMS features for organizational transformation and how to align these features with your goals. For more information, download our eBook, The ultimate guide to choosing the right learning platform for your business.

Understanding organizational transformation

Organizational transformation is a business strategy that focuses on getting your organization from where it currently is to where it needs to be to meet its goals. Organizational transformation can be achieved by:

Developing your workforce is at the heart of organizational transformation. You can’t expect transformation to succeed without focusing on employee development and growth. With so many aspects of business constantly changing — including technology and customer demands — it can be difficult to ensure success without organizational transformation.

Given this, implementing a transformational strategy allows your organization to:

Have a happier, more productive, more engaged, and more efficient workforce

When implementing a transformational strategy, you must identify the key LMS features you want to use. We recommend doing this before selecting an LMS provider to ensure the program you choose has all the features you need.

You’ll also want to ensure your LMS will continue to meet your needs as you implement your transformational strategy. For example:

Is your LMS flexible enough to grow with your organization?

Can you effectively manage and author content?

Can you curate skill development pathways?

Can you implement gamification to increase engagement?

Does it integrate with your existing systems?

Is it user-friendly for administrators and learners?

Aligning LMS features with organizational goals

For your LMS to help your organization transform, its features must align with your goals. For example, if part of your strategy is to upskill employees, then personalized learning paths are imperative. Or, if you want to streamline onboarding and reduce the time spent on admin tasks, you’ll need to integrate your LMS with relevant HR systems. 

Your leadership team should play a key role in implementing your LMS. Company-wide LMS buy-in will ensure you have the resources, time, and budget you need for LMS implementation to succeed. 

What are some key LMS features to consider? 

Depending on your transformational goals, some of the LMS features you may want to consider include:

Go1 integrates with a broad range of LMS providers so you can deliver learning content that aligns with your transformation goals

Go1’s comprehensive content library gives you access to industry-leading skill development content that you can use to develop your workforce.

For more information, speak to an expert today to discover how Go1 can support your organizational transformation goals.

We’ll analyze how you can use your LMS to enable organizational transformation, including the most important LMS features for organizational transformation and how to align these features with your goals.

How to select LMS features that enable organizational transformation

Introducing a learning management system (LMS) to your organization will change how your employees upskill, learn, and develop. Not only that, but an LMS can help streamline processes, making it an exceptional tool for administrators, HR teams, and managers.

However, getting the most out of your LMS requires an initial investment of time, money, and resources, as well as continued development to make it as efficient and effective as possible. You must also ensure your workforce engages with your LMS to optimize its impact. 

Accordingly, you must get buy-in for your LMS from every level of your organization, from entry-level employees to senior leaders and stakeholders.

With this in mind, we'll explore how to get LMS buy-in at your organization, focusing on getting buy-in from stakeholders and key decision-makers. 

Your business only grows when your employees grow. So, to provide employees with the materials, tools, time, and flexibility they need to learn in a busy environment, you must utilize an LMS.

As such, stakeholder buy-in is crucial. A study revealed that more than a quarter of HR managers fail to attain leadership buy-in for L&D initiatives, which will grind employee development to a halt. Without your stakeholders on board, you won’t get the resources and budget you need to make your LMS effective. 

Yes, low-cost options are available, but they don’t offer the functionality or features your business needs to grow. In contrast, the right LMS for your business will align with your unique needs and goals to create a culture of continuous learning. In turn, this helps your business reach its objectives.

Identify key stakeholders and decision-makers

The first step to securing buy-in is identifying key stakeholders and decision-makers. Examples of stakeholders may include:

Many stakeholders will already be familiar with the value of training and development. For others, you may need to demonstrate the benefits of an LMS so they understand why they should buy into using one at your organization.

To maximize your chance of getting stakeholder buy-in, ask yourself a simple question: what pain points do your stakeholders face that an LMS can fix? Speak to stakeholders to understand what issues they want an LMS to address. Then, you can ensure your chosen platform addresses these concerns. 

Perhaps a lack of flexibility, admin frustrations, or too little time for learning is holding your team back. Whatever your needs, addressing specific issues an LMS can help with will make it easier to get stakeholder buy-in.

An LMS is an effective tool to organize and deliver training. However, its value goes far beyond these features. Monitoring employee engagement and creating detailed reports allows you to optimize your L&D strategy. These features offer valuable insights so you can make data-led decisions. With these tools, you can align learning with your organizational goals to increase the ROI of your investment.

When getting LMS buy-in from stakeholders, you’ll invariably face pushback in some capacity. Investing in an LMS requires time, effort, and resources to make it a success. So, naturally, concerns and obstacles will arise. 

Common issues you may encounter from stakeholders include:

Does it have a steep learning curve? Different LMSs have different learning curves, but many are simple to understand and easy to use for admins and learners alike.

Does it integrate with existing systems? Many LMSs integrate with the software you already use. If you’re concerned about integration, involve your IT team early in the buying process to ensure your chosen LMS will be compatible with your existing software. 

Will it offer a return on investment? There are many ways to calculate the ROI of an LMS. An LMS can provide a significant return on investment through upskilling, professional development, and improvements to efficiency and productivity.

Will employees actually use it to develop? Open communication and training incentives, such as gamification, will increase engagement. 

Will data be secure? Many LMSs have strict and robust security measures to ensure data is safely stored.

Is enough relevant training content available? Online training providers, such as Go1, have a huge library of courses covering hundreds of different topics. So, whatever your employees need to upskill in, relevant training is usually just a click away.

Develop a comprehensive implementation plan

Stakeholders want reassurance that implementing the LMS will go as smoothly as possible once you have their approval. Therefore, it’s critical to develop a comprehensive implementation plan to ensure any integrations work, there are no costly delays, and users can start learning as quickly as possible.

We'll explore how to get LMS buy-in at your organization, focusing on getting buy-in from stakeholders and key decision-makers.