28 Nov 2022

Elearning for companies in modern manufacturing

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What should be elearning for companies for sales?

Training is an important issue for companies because it can fix so many things for them.

Hence, they need to do competency based upskilling for employees and vendors to get the best productivity for them. The elearning for companies must consider the competencies needed for various jobs. Such reskilling is also needed because digital changes are happening very fast in recent years.

With companies relying on resellers like ecommerce marketplaces and offline retailers to sell their products, they can’t ignore the need for training them.

How to train offline retailers?

These days’ companies are setting up shops in every part of the world to increase their products. Hence, companies need to ensure that the offline Retailers must know the USP of your product. It’s because when they don’t have an idea about the same, they can’t sell the product.

Persuading customers to buy the product:

A retailer’s job is an extensive job that includes ensuring that the customers are canvassed about the product. When the retailers have not been given proper training, they might not be able to persuade the customers. In that case, the customers can only buy when they have comprehensive knowledge of the product based on their own research.

Sometimes, a retailer’s job includes creating a market from scratch for the products through promotion, which can be done after research has been conducted on the product for a particular region. If the customers face any problems with the products, stopping them from buying them, it’s the retailer’s job to rectify them through the company.

The companies need to have proper training materials that are shared on the LMS in time, and the learners can access them. They can consult them on time to make sales happen because any lapse on their part can cost the company in terms of a lost deal.

Providing post-sales service:

Elearning for companies solutions must ensure that retailers have a positive attitude toward their work.

They can be trained in skills, but showing empathy for customers’ needs is also crucial. Also, they should have a penchant for helping others. Hence, training to have the right attitude is quite pertinent in this regard.

The retailers form a link between the manufacturer/company and the consumer and ensure that the post-sales service of the products is seamless because any glitch not removed in time can affect the brand’s credibility.

With proper assessments included in such elearning for companies’ courses, the trainers can gauge whether training has brought about the necessary change in the attitude of the retailer. The elearning for companies is not an easy job because it has to ensure that various learners are accommodated.

Proper advertising:

The retailers are also responsible for the packaging of the product.

Hence, it must include promotion and merchandising training for store owners and product service training for the other personnel. Role plays can be incorporated to make learners understand how their roles affect the sales and hence how they should carry them.

Therefore, the manufacturers must ensure that in their Elearning for companies platform, they have sufficient resources for the retailers.

How to impart training for selling products on an ecommerce marketplace?

Companies are now relying on an ecommerce marketplace to get ahead in the market. Some of the businesses can’t afford to have tie-ups with logistics aggregators and payment processors and hence decide to sell their products through an ecommerce marketplace, which charges a monthly fee for their services. These websites have all the arrangements for displaying products. They also ensure products are delivered on time and picked for returns too. However, companies need to train their marketing personnel in the following ways for maximizing ROI through an ecommerce marketplace:

Choosing an ecommerce marketplace:

Using an ecommerce marketplace is an economic option for businesses because they can’t keep so much stock ready for them all the time. With an ecommerce marketplace to handle all their hassles, the products can be arranged when the order is placed.

The manufacturers need to train the management on how to choose the right kind of ecommerce marketplace for their products. It’s because the marketplace might only be focused on a single product category, or even selling products of related categories. They also need to understand how the brand pages are shown on the website because it can affect sales.

But the manufacturers must ensure that their sales team has been trained to handle any customer issues that arise afterward. The manufacturers can use chatbots to help customers with any issues. However, when the customers rely on the sales team and when adequate support is not offered to them after the product has been delivered, they can get irked and don’t order again.

Product assortment on such a marketplace:

The management also needs to decide whether it wants to showcase all its products on an ecommerce marketplace or not. Sometimes, it’s better if high-end products are not shown on an ecommerce website, but rather put up for sale on the manufacturer’s website only.

The management of a manufacturer’s brand has to make such product assortment decisions because the customers might form different opinions of the brand. The product assortment also depends on how a digital marketplace is performing in terms of sales. When a manufacturer decides to choose a certain marketplace, it also has to decide whether it’s offering value-added services like digital marketing, including sponsored ads on social media.

For example, whether a certain marketplace is sending out regular email campaigns to potential customers whenever a brand comes out with a new product. So, the management can only make such strategic decisions when it has been trained through e-learning for companies.

21 Apr 2022

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Is online training a perfect solution to employee attrition?

The companies are worried about employee turnover.

They are coping with the problem of employees leaving jobs. Hence the only way to solve this problem is to think about why employees are dissatisfied with your company. When you can come up with a reason, you can see that employees need more training to have advanced career options, making them worthy of a promotion. The other reason could be facing harassment at work, for which a belonging audit is necessary so that they reveal everything.

Online training can solve attrition in the following ways:

Detailed onboarding:

Online training can be the perfect answer to all your employee advancement problems.

The employees get a fair idea of your work ethics during the onboarding process.

Hence, onboarding is critical in the company because when employees don’t properly understand the work procedures, they feel biased. Hence they are likely to leave the company when the onboarding process is not carried out properly or the trainer is rude.

The online training for the onboarding process must include all the effective details like the location of the restrooms and the canteen in the office. Mentoring where employees are paired with knowledgeable seniors is also useful apart from online training. Onboarding should be done properly because until it happens, the employees have no idea what it’s like to work for you because during hiring them, you don’t discuss such details.

Microlearning:

It’s also important that employees are offered just-in-time resources for all the possible difficulties they might face at work. If they feel lost at any time, they should be connected to someone as soon as possible. It’s also required that regular surveys are done among new employees to know what their training needs are. If an employee has some needs, a 3-4 minute microlearning module can be prepared for him. If his needs are not met, he might look for another job. Tending to employees’ personal learning needs through online training goes a long way in retaining them.

Lower Response time during training:

It’s another thing to provide onboarding training for employees and train them for the job, especially the top talent. Hence it’s vital that the training is not lopsided. This kind of training happens when the trainer delivers the lecture and employees just listen to him. There should be ample scope for interaction throughout the training, both with fellow trainees and the trainer even in synchronous learning.

The same problem lies with asynchronous learning also is that it does not help the learners in real-time. Therefore, employees need to tell someone how much they understand, and hence an individual session with the virtual trainer is inevitable. Moreover, email support is necessary, but the LMS can have chatbots where learners can ask questions 24/7. There should also be course guides containing animated videos so that it’s easier to retain the steps of the procedures. These are the ways in which retention can be increased in elearning:

Quizzes:

Quizzes could also be given to employees to understand their retention. Once the results of such online quizzes are delivered, employees know where they need more clarification. When employees are shown the flaws in their skills, they are willing to take the online training course once more through such tests. The employees should be encouraged to improve themselves and be offered positive feedback on their assessment results. The companies should know that retaining the top talent is a key priority now because you have used a lot of your resources on them. Hence through moral support, you can ensure that they are committed.

The company must make sure that the senior employees of the company should not feel isolated because they might think they can be replaced with the Gen Z. Hence when they have any queries while pursuing an online training course, they should be helped in time without revealing such doubts to any other employees. Therefore, social media support is useful for them, but the moderator of such chats should ensure confidentiality. This privacy rule applies to new employees who also don’t want someone to know about their lack of knowledge.

Customized training:

Employers can’t always be worried about attrition and hence impart mass training programs. The training has to be customized to ensure that it only deals with relevant topics and only takes the least possible time for a busy employee.

The training should also be voluntary because employees are likely to be more interested in it. The employees can feel punished if they are mandatorily asked to pursue courses. If employees have to go through training despite their objections, they can seek jobs at any other company.

For increasing employee motivation for training, it’s better to make them realize its benefits, i.e. how much it can lead to a better career.

Other reasons for attrition:

Poor Work culture: Employees might not be happy with their compensation, but toxic work culture is the strongest reason employees resign. It’s because employers fail to take care of employees from diverse ethnicities, age groups, sexual preferences, and genders. It’s the senior management’s job to detect such biased behavior and prevent it in time to stop someone from leaving.

Increased layoffs: Layoffs also lower an employee’s morale, and hence he is likely to leave the job. He might lose his confidence in a company’s future, leading him to seek an employer with better prospects. Managers resort to termination when they don’t find a company getting better revenues in the future. The restructuring of the manpower also increases the workload for the remaining employees.

No appreciation for diligent employees: Employees are also likely to quit when they see that the companies don’t recognize their high performance. Some employees work harder than others and expect recognition in terms of money and acknowledgment in front of others. But when the company does nothing to differentiate between high performers and laggards in terms of reaping praise and criticism, the former look for more deserving employers.

Hence online training is not the only solution to combat the resignation of employees.

12 Jan 2022

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Why are training videos indispensable for learning now?

In the modern times, companies use training videos because, through them, they can track whether a learner has watched its content or not. The learner can also be tracked for whether he saw it till the end. Also, nobody can sleep through a video unlike a classroom training session where the learner might not be listening to the trainer, and he is lost when the latter asks a question.

Hence, the training videos are the most effective form of training.

But companies have so many options before them, they get often confused about which one to use. Different situations warrant the use of different training videos. It’s up to the companies to decide which one to use. The companies can use an instructor-led training video when he talks in front of the camera. The instructor introduces other elements in the video like images and slides to explain the concept in a better way. But the trainer must make sure that such videos are short. Such videos are taken in front of a whiteboard screen where the trainer is writing something on the screen.
How-to videos are also commonly used, where a trainer guides a learner through a process. They are extremely popular to explain cooking recipes to learners and involve use of a tripod to create a video.They could be screencast-based videos also including an instructor who sometimes is in front of the screen and has also given a voice-over.

There are also animated videos that have whiteboard animation. Apart from whiteboard animation, such videos also involve character animation and use of background templates through software such as Vyond. The best part is that there is no need for a company to invest in an external content creation partner for making such videos.

They are used for advertising purposes because users can be explained an idea through a character. The animated videos can also include motion graphics, such as rotating doughnuts. They are used to explain some abstract concepts to the learner, like why sales rose during a particular quarter.

There are also simulation training videos that ensure that the learners are explained how to resolve real-world problems like office issues and how to pacify an irate customer on the phone. For example, simulations involving dummies can be used when teaching medical practitioners how to deal with patients with certain symptoms. The doctors and nurses ask the patient further questions to diagnose his condition. Using such dummies is useful because otherwise real patients will have to be arranged for shooting such simulations.

What are 3D Simulations?

There can also be simulations involving 3D characters, created by graphic designers to look like an average worker, but they are costly. Hence, as per the company budget for L&D, they can be used. Such 3D simulations can be used to explain to the blue collars workers about issues that can arise in machines. These 3D Characters operate on machines and display to the users the steps to take when their equipment behaves in an unanticipated manner.

The Virtual reality technology is used to create such videos where real-life situations are reproduced using technology. So, the trainee wearing his VR goggles watches a virtual simulation created in VR where he has to react to a situation. These videos have been extensively used by the shopping biggie Walmart since 2017 to empower employees to deal with situations like Black Friday when customers throng its stores. The employees find training through such VR videos an exciting experience because they are placed in a simulation where they have to control the objects through controllers. The controllers are connected to a device such as a PC displaying the 3D VR simulation which contains their working-scenario objects.

The companies which invest in a VR simulation have to get it prepared from e-learning companies USA for the best results. The VR simulations have been effective in training engineers who work on highly expensive objects such as engines of Rolls-Royce jets, in which they are taught about the configuration of such objects.

Advantages of using such simulations for training

The training through simulations is also efficient because the trainees are guided to the next phase depending on the actions taken. It’s because such simulations include programming. They are cost-effective for companies because the trainees don’t have to be taken to special environments for training. Instead, they are placed in rooms with 3D equipment, where they are given headsets and goggles to view the 3D model of the work environment/object on the equipment. So, as far as transporting employees to workshops for training is concerned, it’s not needed.

Employees can also be asked to create videos so that they can share how working in the company has been a positive experience for them. They can also describe their tough experiences so that other employees are motivated for overcoming tough situations. Such videos can also be used by seniors to teach other employees about effective ways of working. If the company wants to spread a positive word about a new e-learning course, these videos can be used too.

11 Jan 2022

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Why does not an online training course find takers? 

E-learning is reskilling the world, but there are still some loopholes that cause learners to cringe from such courses. The employees are also reluctant to take up such a course because they must complete them in their off-time, which is not acceptable. But even if they are allowed to take the course during office hours, they still might be reluctant. Therefore, when an e-learning company adds the much-needed elements to the course, then it can provide its learners with contentment and boost its target of delivering knowledge. These are the reasons why a course fails to score with its learners.

Too easy or too tough to understand:

Online training courses are not taken up by employees because sometimes the course’s difficulty level does not match their understanding and vice versa.

Hence, the course creators must run a trial run of the course with a select audience. After this run, if some audience gives any negative feedback, then some extra modules can be included to increase the comprehensibility of the course for the less advanced learners. Even if the online training course is too slow for advanced learners, they don’t have to finish it as late as the less acquainted learners. They can finish it early and signup for the next course. 

Lack of videos, especially when the content is for millennials:

There is a lot of difference in the learning abilities of the millennials, who have grown up watching videos on YouTube. Hence, it’s important to study the demographics of the target audience before designing any course. Videos in the form of picture slides with transitions in between and voice-overs given by a narrator or one including animated characters can be included for the millennial learners.

Moreover, people feel empathic when a video has characters that look like them and are facing similar work-related problems. There are a lot of SaaS-based tools through which you can choose cartoons, their expressions, and motions and include them in the videos. But there is a need to prepare a storyboard so that such cartoons can be used as characters for effective storytelling. 

Movie clips can also be included in the learning videos effectively. You can get small clips by editing a large movie through Aftereffects or Premier. Video clips from royalty-free sites can also be used for providing a winning quality to the course. 

Slow loading speed of the e-learning videos is what the e-learning testers need to check out for because it can force the learners to start reading documents or play games on the PC.

Lack of testing:

Some online training modules don’t get the level of completion that they should because they lack usability. Hence, testing before launching them is quite important. Make sure that the users know how to attempt a drag and drop test. But if they can’t, they must get access to an FAQ section for resolving their trouble. Most of the time this section has long sentences and the users find it tedious to go through it and hence its content needs to be reviewed. There is an alternative way too for guiding not so tech-friendly employees about course navigation. Screencasts can be included in the course for such learners, in which they learn how to navigate through it. Such demos should be comprehensive but short, not more than 1-2 minutes.

No internet:

A very big problem with online training is most of the time the internet connection is slow. The employees are working from home, and their Wi-Fi is getting used by kids to attend online classes and watch OTT. Employees don’t want to use their Phone data because it’s costly. Hence, the companies should either be willing to reimburse the employees’ consumption of mobile data for them to pursue an online training course. Or make sure that the course is available offline and the course should only require online access when the employees have to interact with the instructors or add homework files to the LMS software. 

It is not always correct to assume that online training can make the employees perform. The workers might not be giving their best because of lack of motivation like financial stability and not because they do not know their jobs. Therefore, the management must have conducted a thorough needs analysis because the workers cannot be trained for the skills already possessed by them.

21 Dec 2021

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5 reasons why employees don’t go through online training!

Online training is now used everywhere to make students and employees learn.

But it’s quite tough. Some employees still refuse to take e-learning because they don’t believe in it. So, the management has to mentor them in taking the course. This kind of lack of interest in online training could be due to an adverse experience with it. The management thus needs to ensure that such experiences are taken care of. These are the following reasons why employees don’t want to go through an e-learning course:

When employees are busy:
One of the main reasons why employees continue to delay that online training course is no time. It’s because they have busy work schedules and don’t have the time to take the course. For employees, work is always a priority rather than training. Hence, peer coaching is useful in such a situation, where their friends can train them about the course.
When employees don’t want to learn about knowledge gaps:
Some employees are also quite afraid about what they might get to know about themselves through an online training course. It’s because online training is, most of the time, accompanied by diagnostic tests before them so that employees can know about their training gaps. They might not be interested in finding them out. But when employees are made to acknowledge that they have training gaps through simulations, they are not so appalled. It’s because employees go through online training alone, unlike classroom settings where everyone else also becomes aware of their skill gaps. So employees have no reason to delay taking up an online training course and that must be explained to them.
When employees don’t know how much time the course will take:
Employees need to be able to schedule time for an online training course, hence they should know how much time would be required. The employees can be also informed about their time investment through its mention in the introduction email so that they chalk out their time accordingly.

Moreover, employees must be given progress bars through which they know how many portions of the course have been finished by them. Once they know how much they have accomplished, they are motivated more to finish the course. It is better, that the courses assigned to them are as per their skill gaps because anything extra is a waste of time. A training map designed just for them helps them know how pivotal it is for them to complete it to reach a milestone in their career.
When employees get distracted:
The employees also find it hard to focus on online training even when they know of its importance because they have so many distractions which include social media and fellow workers. So, the course design should be attractive and to the point. The content of the course should be concise so that employees are not left wandering through it and grasping too little information.

Employees should be given opportunities to chat with their peers once a time a week so that they can give their feedback about the course. When they discuss with their colleagues their progress, it lets them know how others are taking it, making the former change their attitude and become more competitive.

Employees can also get deviated from the course when they have social media integrated with the LMS for discussing problems, but they end up talking via it instead. Hence, their use of social media for casual purposes should be eliminated.

The employees must be given contracts where they can be threatened with salary deduction once they don’t finish the course within a deadline. Of course, such deductions can’t be imposed once the employees are not able to comprehend something in a course for which timely help should be available.
When employees hate tests:
Employee habits are an important part of how much they are willing to grasp in an e-learning course. Employees should be given an incentive. Online training is a useful concept for employees, but they might not be willing to take written tests that require so much time.

Also, employees may not be taking an online training course because of test-related anxiety. But they have to be told they just need to appear for quizzes in an e-learning test and how their job promotion is related to it.

Moreover, those who have completed the course could be taken for lunch/dinner so that they are encouraged to take the tests.

However, including, so many quizzes is also not necessary. Experienced e-learning companies USA can let you know whether there is a quiz needed after every nugget of information. It’s because employees can also be tested through the games, which they don’t dread so much.

The employees should not be overwhelmed with the content of the course. That’s why they should be taught the content in easy steps. It’s because when content is taught to the employees for the first time, it has to be taught to them in small steps. The learners might be familiar with some content, so they can select the starting point at their ease.

This is how online training content has to be formulated for employees for maximum reach.

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