Managing People in a Learning Management System

Oct 8, 2015
Managing People in a Learning Management System

final smallAt it’s core a Learning Management System (LMS) is all about managing the learning that an organization’s people need. So let’s review some LMS features that

enable the successful learning management of a company’s employees.

Primarily, and around which other management features revolve, is the need to visually arrange learners based upon the company’s multi-level organizational and supervisory structure. If managers cannot centrally and easily view their people, then using other features to support their learning is difficult at best. Let’s review a handful of these features and explain why they are important.

LMSs should provide supervisors with the means to create & update enrollments as well as to approve and complete them for both eLearning and instructor led training. Supervisors should also be able to completely review current and historical enrollment data and easily find new training for learners based on multiple parameters.

Using GyrusAim’s “Manage My People” screen, complete enrollment administration is easy, and several methods exist for finding new training for learners.

GyrusAim is skill-centric, and training is determined by the learner’s Individual Development Plan (IDP) which identifies requirements based on personal, job, organization, or certification goals. Skill Gap Analysis is also readily accessed which shows all required skills for any organization, job, or certification within the company, providing a clear set of objectives for improved workforce planning. Thus, complete metrics are available in a single centralized area for efficient management of skills, training, and related data.

Other ancillary, yet still important functions should also be included in an LMS’s people management screen. One of these functions must be the ability for the manager to quickly communicate with their personnel. For example, with one or two clicks in GyrusAim a manager can send an eMail to users with a list of their required skills, in this way reminding them to complete (or begin) their training. Having a fully functional and integrated communication system in an LMS eliminates the need to copy and paste or manually retype training information from the application into another separate eMail program, thus improving accuracy and saving time.

Other useful features to note in GyrusAim’s “Manage My People” screen are exhibited assessments and quick access to employee details, both which can be accessed in seconds.

Managing employee development can be complex, however using an application that simplifies this complexity by arranging important functions in an easy-to-use interface will improve a company’s ability to successfully achieve their training program goals. When reviewing and qualifying LMS applications, look for such an interface.