Hiring And Firing Fundamentals: Becoming an Employer

If your business has grown so large that you are having trouble keeping up with your employees' learning needs, you may have decided that you should create a central online center where you can be assured they are receiving their training. If so, use one or more of the tips below to help get you started on designing the way you want your new corporate online learning center to work.

Provide a Variety of Learning Media

The first thing you should consider when designing your e-learning center is how you will present the information. While it may seem simpler to use the same type of material, you may want to think about incorporating a variety of learning media for your employees for two reasons

First, if your employees only have the option to read through pages of material or watch endless numbers of videos, they are likely to become bored very quickly. Having a variety of PDF files, videos, audio recordings, and even interactive quizzes will help keep things fresh and maintain their attention.

Second, everyone learns differently. While some people may learn better by reading, others may need to hear the words either by themselves or while they are reading the words on a page. If you provide the same information in different formats, you can cater to the learning methods best used by most of your employees.

Schedule Live Webinars

Another way to keep things new and exciting for your employees is to regularly schedule live webinars. These webinars can cover different industry topics or new corporate procedures. They can also give the employees a chance to answer questions at the end of the presentation, increasing their ability to interact with you or the host.

Either you can run the webinar yourself or alternate with your managers and supervisors. You could also schedule interesting guest speakers that are prominent in your business's field. However, you may want to host the webinar at least a few times a year to show that you want to be involved in your employees' learning experiences.

Have a Resource Section 

Not everything in your learning center needs to be live or presented in different media. Sometimes, your employees may need to look up the procedures on how to perform tasks to your company's specifications.

Have a link to a resource section that includes files for information that your employees may need for both their job and their personal lives. You could have a section for telephone procedural etiquette. You could also have a human resources category that has available forms for health insurance or time-off requests.

Offer an Anonymous Online Suggestion Box

Since you want your learning center to be as interactive as possible, do not be afraid to offer an online suggestion box for your employees. Keep the comment box anonymous so that you can receive their honest opinions about the material offered through the service.

If you desire, you could have a couple of types of suggestion boxes. One type could be a general suggestion box on what employees think about the current learning modules. This form could also let them give you suggestions how they would like to see the material presented.

Another type of form could be offered at the end of each webinar. They could use this section to comment on the quality of the recording to let you know if any changes need to be used the next time you create your slideshow. Or, they could suggest topics they would like to see in future webinars.

The above tips can help get you started when designing a new learning center that will keep your employees engaged and interested. If you have any questions or need further guidance, contact a corporate online learning service to seek their help in designing and setting up a system that will benefit both your company and your employees.