Integrating e-learning into your organisational strategy

‘For many people, the concept of e-learning integration is little more than ensuring a suitably close fit with other training interventions.  Successful e-learning however is about ensuring integration into the fabric and being of the organisation.  In essence, it’s about ensuring that e-learning becomes a key driver to organisational success. 

All too often unfortunately, e-learning is approached from a technological point of view, attempting to wow learners [and those paying for the development] with clever uses of technology and programming.  Whilst this is undoubtedly stimulating in the short term, it does not assure long-term business results.

A sensible route to achieving successful integration is to leave the technological whiz-bangs to one side and approach e-learning from a business requirements point of view, and the best way to achieve this is to start at the top!  Seek out the business plan for your organisation and look at its key goals.  Consider each of the strategies and tactics that will help it meet these goals and consider which of these can be served though an e-learning intervention.  Don’t be frightened to pitch your ideas internally - it’s often the case that successful e-learning is driven by an internal champion, so go ahead, be the champion for your organisation!

Once the goals of the organisation are known, a skills gap analysis should be undertaken, where the needs of the organisation are measured against the abilities for the workforce.  Where solid metrics are available, this can be a relatively straightforward task.  Without these metrics, analysis can be little short of guesswork.  Once the skills gap has been measured it is then possible to design the most appropriate training intervention.  The emphasis here is on appropriateness.  All too often solutions are over engineered and so more costly to implement.  This can potentially reduce the effectiveness and therefore the business results.  Consider this example - a person who cannot swim does not require the skills of an Olympic swimmer in order to survive falling into a lake, they merely need to know how to stay afloat!  So remember – stay focussed on the needs of the organisation.

Once the training intervention has been designed and built, it’s time for the roll out.  For many projects, this is where the work seems to have finished, but in reality it is where the real work is just beginning.  Ensure that as much user data is captured as possible - as a minimum it’s useful to know who undertook the training, the date and the results – often measured as a post-course test.

Gaining support and encouragement from all areas of the business is also important.  Support from Senior Managers is essential, so ensure that they fully understand the reasons why people need the training and provide the time for their teams to participate.

Once the training is completed, all results should be collated, analysed and distributed within the organisation.  Ensure key managers understand the successes the e-learning has brought.  Support your conclusions with measures such as test results, learner feedback data, reduction in travelling costs and so on.  The more compelling these results, the more likely the organisation is to use e-learning for future initiatives.

In summary, successful integration is achieved by focussing on the needs of the organisation, by meeting those needs and by reporting the success of the e-learning.  Demonstrating that e-learning generates real and measurable business results will ensure firm integration into the future strategy of training delivery within your organisation.