5 reasons startups should embrace eLearning

Big organizations consider Training & Development a major part of their motivation and retention strategy. On the contrary, small businesses don’t seem to invest a lot of time and money –if at all– in training their staff.

Startups rely on two things: an innovative product or service and the people behind it. eLearning cannot do much about the former, but it can definitely help with the latter.

In this post we will look at 5 ways startups can benefit from adopting eLearning.

New skills

Startups grow not only when their revenues increase, but also when their employees broaden their skills. It is expected and fairly reasonable that a company of 5-20 people will have various skill gaps to cover at their earliest stages.

eLearning is the easiest way to cover these gaps. There are many affordable LMS systems, like our TalentLMS, that small startups can make use of, allowing their employees to widen their expertise and develop new skillsets.

Compliance

I am not aware of any enterprise that does not have to abide by a framework of rules and regulations. Sooner or later, a startup will need to be audited and have their processes scrutinised by some uptight state committee or, more often, by potential investors.

As an unvoiced rule goes “if it’s not documented, it never happened”; when it comes down to compliance and auditing, this is the ultimate rule. An affordable LMS can help a startup to keep accurate records of all their employees’ eLearning.

Broaden your mind

“eLearning is just something employees have to do to keep their managers happy”. A statement like this has many –far too many– flaws, but let’s jump to the one that implies that eLearning is just a business oriented activity. This is totally and utterly wrong.

eLearning comes in many forms and one of these includes MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). At no, or at a very low cost, anyone can have access to a subject they are personally interested in, from History of Art to Big Data or Game Theory – courses offered by universities such as Harvard, MIT and Stanford on platforms like Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Iversity and Udacity.

An employer may now think: what does this have to do with my startup? Well… having well-educated employees who can demonstrate learning agility is a great benefit; a MOOC enthusiast is someone who takes initiatives and sets personal targets, a resourceful professional who never stops evolving.

Who wouldn’t want to hire a person like this?

Keep clients happy

The core function of eLearning is that it educates a selected audience on a particular subject.

By acquiring the best courses for your own business, you can offer your workforce an eLearning catalogue that can help them enhance their knowledge, improve their practices and consequently upgrade the customer service experience.

Motivate the team

There are primarily two ways to show your employees that you care about them: pay them well and give them room to breathe and develop.

Always remember that startup employees tend to work long hours, being asked to remain innovative and creative at all times. Unless a good manager effectively monitors the energy levels within a team, it is likely that some staff will become emotionally and physically drained before the end of a project.

Keeping the team motivated is the only way forward. In addition to team bonding activities and events, they need to be offered the opportunity to challenge themselves by acquiring some new knowledge or by exploring a new mental path they have not been down before.

Conclusion

eLearning in startups is a tool and, in these case, a very powerful one. It can help your employees stay up to date with legislation, broaden their minds, improve their skills and stay motivated; and all the above at a very low cost with great ROI.

As I always say, though, don’t force eLearning onto your team. Startup employees are people who do seek out challenges and new stimuli. Make eLearning available to them and they will make use of it at their own pace and convenience.