Employee onboarding has always been a critical element for any company’s success. Its importance has increased manifolds in the last two years given the massive number of changes in the learning and development landscape.

However, a recent Gallup poll has revealed that only 12% of employees agree that their organization does onboarding well, which means the rest 82% are dissatisfied with the resources they have received to succeed in their new role. Another research has shown that above average employee onboarding can enhance employee retention by almost 82%. This means lesser time and money as well as increased employee satisfaction.

All of these numbers clearly point to how important it is to get new hires up to speed towards company policies and culture, so that they are well positioned to adapt to ups and downs.

Employee onboarding programs, undoubtedly, need to be carefully designed with a mix of motivation, engagement, and information. A robust LMS is the perfect solution to develop and manage a comprehensive onboarding program that welcomes new hires and accelerates their integration within the organization. The right LMS lays the foundation for a formal onboarding strategy that companies can use to import, create, assign, deliver, and track end-to-end training.

But for the employee onboarding process to be right, an LMS needs to have certain features and functionalities. Here’s a look at the top 8 LMS must-haves that can make or break the onboarding program:

1. Flexibility and Responsiveness

Training can hardly be effective if it’s inconsistent, or portions of it are inaccessible, or when it cannot be viewed properly as per the device being used. Flexibility is vital here and it matters a lot in an LMS especially with respect to employee onboarding as it sets the tone for the entire corporate experience ahead.

The growing popularity of mobile-friendly eLearning calls for a Responsive design that opens the doors for a single online course to be viewed on any device and platform, without compromising the navigability or the aesthetic appeal. There are several benefits to flexibility in training but the most prominent is increased training effectiveness.

Also, for a remote or hybrid workforce, a Mobile LMS with its myriad benefits is the go-to option for efficient onboarding. An app-based mLearning platform with support for Offline Learning can save valuable time while providing anytime, anywhere learning.

2. User-friendly

An important aspect of onboarding programs is that new joinees get a proper hang of the company’s system. An LMS with a user-friendly UI and high usability across devices and platforms ensures that the employees can hit the ground running from day 1.

Also, for the new employees, the LMS is often their first interaction with the organization, its processes, its solutions, and the people. So it’s critical that they be given a peek into the company’s future as well as their own place in it in the most positive way possible.

3. Multi-media Training Formats

The whole nine yards of multimedia including videos, interactive eLearning, documents, presentations are vital ingredients of an immersive online training, and more so for an onboarding program. Add to this Blended Learning and Self-Paced Learning to ensure that the learner is engaged.

4. Social/ Informal learning

While formal training is critical for the success of an onboarding program, the importance of Informal Learning through Social Media and Knowledge Collaboration tools cannot be underrated. Social Learning creates the much needed informal learning setting where learners can network, share, collaborate, and exchange ideas and knowledge, and solve problems by going beyond the boundaries of designations, roles, and structured training programs.

Social Learning plays an important role in the employee onboarding process because it helps new learners to interact with their peers and learn from them. And progressive organizations understand well the need to keep their new employees engaged in training beyond the training hours!

5. Ready Integration with Online Content Marketplace

An LMS should be able to easily integrate with online libraries/ course marketplaces. From a learner and an organization perspective, an LMS with support for Online Course Marketplace gives a massive advantage as it opens the door to a wide learning repository, sometimes beyond what is available in-house/ proprietary with the company.

6. Configurability

A large chunk of the employee onboarding process is introducing new employees to the company’s culture. And what better way to initiate the right introduction than with an LMS that reflects the company’s corporate identity and gives an insight into the company’s image.

To this end, an LMS should allow uploading of the company’s logo and banner images, while also choosing the color theme and font typepace in tandem with the company’s branding. In short, the new learners should be able to experience the LMS as an extension of the company’s brand.

7. Learning Paths

The Curriculum feature is a great way to define the learner’s learning path. In the context of onboarding, an LMS with an ability to sequence the training contents (within a curriculum) as per the order of priority/ information flow and manage the visibility of the curriculum itself (based on the pre-set start date).

Setting such rules for completing a Learning Path allows learners to master materials in small steps, and eventually makes the training more personalized and effective.

8. MIS and Reporting

An LMS that comes with features like MIS and Reporting work the best especially when measuring the ROI because they offer deep insights into how effective the training program is proving to be for the learners, and how well the strategy meets the designated learning goals and objectives.

Reporting data also provides better learner management capabilities, as it allows to see who is excelling in which areas and what field needs more focus. Tracking the triumphs of an LMS is possible through the MIS & Reporting facet that provides data on desired performance parameters.

In conclusion

As businesses continue to adapt to change in a post-pandemic world, it’s best to prepare old as well as new employees for challenges. Employee onboarding programs set the tone for the new hires’ association with the organization and is an all-important first impression. An LMS contributes a great deal in making this experience truly engaging and learning-centric.

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