A popular benefit for employees in the corporate world is the opportunity to advance their careers with on-the-job training. This is often in addition to the requisite skills acquisition and corporate policy and procedural training employees are provided. Long before the global pandemic changed the paradigm for much of human interactions, corporate eLearning was on its way to existing almost exclusively online and away from classrooms, both as a time and cost savings but also because people actually prefer it. Through the spring of 2020 and beyond classroom learning in the corporate world has become nonexistent. And this actually seems to be a positive, as classroom lectures are less effective than interactive learning at one’s own pace, where and when you want.
So because corporate eLearning is still growing and changing (and is one of my favorite things as a voice over artist to narrate), let’s take a look at how corporations are saving money and improving their workforce with eLearning.
eLearning Saves Time And Money
It’s no surprise that implementing a business strategy that aims to remain ahead or on top of rapidly changing markets requires continued training. And training isn’t cheap. Especially in-person, where training office space is needed, equipment to learn on required, and travel expenses, hotels and meals are incurred for any geographically diverse workforce to attend. Not to mention the loss of productivity while employees are traveling and attending the training. eLearning saves corporations time and money.
In fact, corporations who replaced face-to-face instruction with eLearning saw a cost reduction as high as 50-70% in some cases. eLearning means custom content delivery is possible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This easy to access and quick-to-digest chunks of information enables learners in a couple of ways – they can seek training anytime, anywhere, and even on the go, and employees who are geographically diverse can share the same training experience and participate as a group.
Because time is almost more valuable (or at least as valuable) as money, this group learning is an important saving. Workplace experience research and analyst firm Brandon Hall says online learning takes 4-6% less time than classroom learning experiences and corporations as large and with as many franchises as McDonald’s, for example, found that with eLearning, employees were spending less time onboarding (66% in the case of Mickey D’s) and that time translates into dollars that can be spent elsewhere.
eLearning Sees Higher Retention Rates & Better Employee Performance
In addition to saving time and money, companies benefit from the flexibility and immediacy that eLearning can provide and this in turn can lead to higher retention rates and better employee performance. According to Forbes, the Research Institute of America concluded that eLearning boosts retention rates by 25% to 60%, compared to retention rates of 8% to 10% with traditional training. Once created an online educational offering can be deployed simultaneously company-wide, allowing employees to gain the information quickly and efficiently and collaborate with other team members who are also consuming the course at the same time. Also noted by Forbes, “Every dollar invested in online training results in a $30 increase in productivity. Companies that use eLearning technology achieve an 18% boost in employee engagement.”
Employees stay engaged when they can take their education with them and take in lessons in bits and bytes on a device of their choice (work computer, home computer, iPad, or other mobile devices). And it is easier than ever to keep them engaged with videos, animations, podcasts, games, and other choices for interaction. This in turn ups their skill set and makes them available for other internal opportunities to advance. A recent HR eLearning program I narrated stated it costs 1-2 times an employee’s salary to find and train a new hire vs the 5-15% of that same salary to promote someone within the organization.
Interesting and fun options for learning also make retention easier, such as gamification. According to eLearning Learning, a resource curated by the Learning Guild, “game-based corporate e-learning, with its badges, leaderboards, and avatars, brings an element of healthy competition between peers and increased engagement amongst learners. Including gaming into your corporate e-learning experience can raise participation and retention of information.”
Opportunities For Narrators Abound
If you narrate online training, then you’ll be happy to know that the educational offerings needing skilled eLearning narrators is always expanding. Here are just some of the types of corporate eLearning programs seen in the business world:
- HR – onboarding
- Safety
- Software
- Legal
- Compliance
- Health
- Improve Skillset
- Improve knowledge base
- Sales
- Marketing
Knowing the trends in this industry will give you an advantage when it comes to seeking out opportunities to match your voice over skills with eLearning projects. Because with this much benefit to corporations, eLearning is definitely here to stay.