The 5 Benefits of eLearning for Startups
Updated: Dec 14, 2022
Summary
Training and development programs are a component of major corporations' retention and motivation plans for staff.
Are you curious about the significant impact that eLearning is having on startups? Here is a great article to read.
Great startups excel in innovation and creative problem-solving. Perhaps this is why they are considered game changers. They develop new products, modify existing ones, offer solutions to everyday problems or generally make the world a better place. As a business owner, you must be feeling very proud of your venture and dream of it becoming very big someday. We support that vision too here at Sapphital Enterprise, which is why we always produce ideas that can make you succeed.
Despite all the publicity about startups, we know that, still, many businesses still fail, some in their first year, others don't live till their 5th year anniversary.
Succeeding as a Business Owner.
There is no magic wand or prescription that fits all businesses. You just have to find your own formula. However, there are some critical things you must have in place to make the journey to success a lot smoother and these include:
A great product that solves a need in the market.
A very competent team, including your co-founders, managers and team members.
Access to market and customers.
A Good structure that allows the business to flourish in its early days without it being totally a One-Man Business. This includes proper registration and access to grants opportunities.
Access to capital or some form of funding including ploughing back revenue.
And much more
The Connecting Link
If you observe closely, there is something connecting all the above and that is - knowledge. As a business owner, you need your team members to be as knowledgeable as they can be. You may not have the finance to hire the most expensive staff or pay high-priced consultants. So you have to do with your people and they need knowledge about the following:
How to serve your customers
How to sell and carry out marketing activities
How to track their performance and report these on a regular basis
How to work as teams
How to grow, think like leaders and be strategic
Deep understanding of the business and its products
How to safe-guard the business
And of course, digital tools for efficiency, amongst several others.
From my experience consulting with businesses over the last 15 years across industries, I dare to say that without knowledge across key areas, your business will be threatened. And by knowledge, I am not referring to school certificates or degrees but the know-how, the skills and the attitudes that people must have to perform optimally and make your business succeed.
Acquiring Knowledge
The big questions are -
how do you get your employees to learn and keep learning, at their convenience, from any location and ensure that learning is tracked and where necessary certificates issued.
Where do you find training for your employees that go beyond watching videos on Youtube or using Wikipedia or other learning sources?
How do you design your own training packages for your specific company without breaking your budget?
I am sure you have heard of eLearning, but what you probably did not realize is that it is very easy to implement for startups and growing businesses and you can be up and running in a few weeks.
Using eLearning as a Strategic Tool
Startups should use an eLearning system since it improves all areas of a business at once, covering a wide variety of people, without boundaries or restrictions. Anyone can learn any topic, at any time, from any location. As a business founder, there is no limit - you can offer any type of training to your colleagues and employees - personal development, leadership, products and more. You can record your weekly words or wisdom and share with your staff at any time.
Unfortunately, many businesses put off implementing such a system until they are larger, when, in actuality, it can help with any size enterprise from the start. E-learning is a developmental strategy that supports and evolves with a business. Training is probably one of the most important things you need as an entrepreneur who has just launched a startup. You should consider eLearning as a solution to your training needs that is cost effective.
The Benefits of eLearning to your Business
Here are five reasons why startups should look into eLearning solutions.
1.Orienting New Hires
Any company's most valuable resource is its workforce. It is an exciting prospect to bring on your first group of employees, but it is more crucial to immediately integrate these new employees into your firm.
In a startup, founders are often short on time, but that does not mean they should put off teaching new employees about the company's guiding principles, rules, and business procedures. eLearning solutions enable you to teach new hires whenever you want, without interrupting regular operations, whether you have 10 or 25 of them. Additionally, spending money on new hire onboarding each time is an expense you wouldn't want to incur while you are expanding your personnel. Cost-effective onboarding training is possible using eLearning solutions.
2.Offering skill development
Employees in a startup will occasionally find themselves in unfamiliar waters, and it will help if the organization can prepare them to handle additional and higher responsibilities. eLearning solutions are neither difficult nor expensive to implement. Training employees on business processes is essential for startups, and this can be accomplished through the use of technology in the form of eLearning solutions.
3.Maintaining Compliance
Although it is not a simple process to train staff to remain compliant, eLearning solutions can be used to successfully handle this difficulty. Online compliance training can be tailored to meet the needs of your startup. It could be interactive to aid in learning retention. The most important thing to remember is that laws and regulations are frequently revised, and an eLearning solution makes it simpler to update content.
4. Educating Clients And Channel Partners
In addition to keeping staff up to date, training is important for channel partners, clients, resellers, and vendors as well. Customers can be introduced to new product concepts, and you can use the data gained through surveys and quizzes to better connect with them. In order to host and distribute your eLearning courses, you will need to choose a learning Management System (LMS) as a startup. Utilize the LMS's reporting features to extract data that will allow you to focus on the right consumer groups for additional training and communication.
Solutions for eLearning will be advantageous for startups that use a channel partnership model. You can increase sales by using eLearning programs to educate your partners on the benefits of your goods.
5. Team Motivation
Employees in startups are frequently expected to work longer hours than usual while still being innovative and creative. Employees may become psychologically and physically exhausted as a result. One strategy to increase employee retention is to keep the team motivated. Offering staff training communicates your appreciation for their work and accomplishments.
You need loyal employees just as much as you need loyal consumers to grow your business. eLearning encourages a learning culture and equips employees to perform at their highest level.
Conclusion - What you must do now
As you plunge forward into the deep blue ocean of possibilities and opportunities, you need all the help you can get. And you only need to do it once and it runs smoothly afterwards:
List out all the possible areas of training your employees need.
Bucket them into knowledge areas like Personal Development, Technical Skills, Leadership etc. You can also categorize them according to the levels and responsibilities.
Look for an eLearning partner. There are great organizations in Nigeria and Africa that understand this game very well.
They will convert your wishes into action and action into results. Your partner will give you the platform, the courses and work out how future courses will be added. They will train your staff and in a matter of 2-4 weeks, you can be up and running. Where you do not have enough budget to own, they can allow you to co-brand the Learning Platform.
And that’s it. You are up and running.
Should you require further help, please leave us a message. Until then, go out there, build a create company of knowledgeable people and make the best of your business opportunities