We wrap up some cost and time-saving hacks that you can expect to achieve with a BuildEmpire LMS.
L&D teams are facing increasing pressure.
As the skills gap widens, technology evolves, and the demand for faster content delivery grows, L&D professionals are racing against time to provide the training necessary to equip teams with the skills required for their roles.
By 2030, it’s estimated that 20% of the UK workforce will be significantly underskilled for their jobs.
This puts added pressure on learning and development teams to produce content that helps close the gap.
However, 84% of employees are somewhat or extremely concerned that ‘managers’ reluctance to embrace new learning and working methods’ is holding L&D teams back.
With expectations rising, how can L&D professionals stay ahead?
One solution is leveraging the right LMS to reduce the workload and boost productivity.
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In this blog we’ll look at:
- What an LMS is
- The current issue with learning and development
- 10 features and tools in the BuildEmpire LMS that can help you save time
Let’s get started.
What is a learning management system?
A learning management system is a tool used by HR or L&D teams to create, share and manage employee training content.
It’s a one-stop-shop for employees to find and engage with learning resources to improve job performance and develop their skills.
Ok, we know you probably know this, but it’s worth reiterating.
And remember, there are a lot of different types of LMS out there. Totara vs Moodle, or a totally independent LMS, all of which have their strengths and weaknesses.
What works best for you won’t necessarily be best for another company.
So, first, you should outline your goals.
Make sure you know what you need your LMS to actually do.
Related: 100+ L&D statistics you need to know
The current issue with learning and development
L&D is constantly chasing its tail.
As they create new content, processes and protocols change, and so that content needs updating.
New technologies are released, or teams change tools, and so subsequent training content needs to change too.
Plus, 75% of 1,500 L&D professionals agree that their companies will be developing more custom learning content.
Having a tool that has your back to allow you to focus on what truly matters is absolutely key.
Simplifying content creation, better managing processes and automating reporting is essential to reducing time spent on busywork.
Some tasks that can start to eat time include:
- Manually adding new users
- Individually adding learners to courses
- Creating and sharing certificates
So, how can you reduce the impact of these?
How to save time in your LMS
There are two ways to look at how a BuildEmpire LMS can help you save time. First, are the features and tools that are available through Totara.
Then, there are extra tools that we’ve created for customers to further that functionality.
These include:
- Automated reporting and analytics
- Configurable dashboards
- Bulk user management
- Automated enrollment
- Automated notifications
- Course templates and duplication
- User-generated content
- Course creation through an API
- Integrations
- Automated certification and compliance tracking
Let’s go through them:
Automated reporting and analytics
Within Totara, there are two types of reports.
The first is admin-access only and non-customisable. These are site reports and give you overall numbers, which while helpful for L&D teams, may not be use for other stakeholders.
The second type of report is made in the report builder.
Using the custom report builder, you can quickly and easily create new reports from scratch or modify pre-set report templates to your specific reporting requirements.
Access to reports can be assigned to specific user roles within the system and reports are automatically sent to nominated individuals or groups on a set schedule, ensuring the right people see the right information, at the right time.
A whole host of templates are pre-created for your ease, such as learner course completion status overviews or manager goal status overviews.
Remember, Totara now works with Intelliboard to help you create more bespoke and useful reports.
Intelliboard helps you extract data collected within Totara Learn and present it to you in easy-to-read, customizable, coherent dashboards, charts, graphs, and analytics.
Why will this save you time?
Well, think about how often you’re asked for stats and numbers.
Instead of having to manually pull data each time, it will just already exist.
Plus, you can share access to these reports meaning you’re no longer the middle man.
Reporting on your success and impact is now so much easier, and quicker.
Configurable dashboards
First impressions count, and thanks to Totara’s dashboards, you can make sure you make a good one from the offset.
Dashboards show specific content on a users’ home page.
You can assign dashboards to specific audiences, for example an onboarding dashboard for new starters.
Plus, you won’t have to manually update their dashboards.
You can set parameters based on how long they’re in the company before they change dashboards.
Dashboards are really easy to configure and customise. You can add the data you need where you need it most.
Plus, it’s not just you that will save time. Learners will also save time as they’ll be able to easily and quickly find the content they need.
Bulk user management
Totara audiences are powerful.
Audience management allows you to populate user groups manually or dynamically using rule combinations built on supplied HR data, user completion records and other user metrics.
You can:
- Auto enrol users in any number of courses, programmes and certifications
- Give learners access to particular courses, programmes and certifications
- Share learning plan templates or pre-populated learning plans
- Give access to company goals
This tool is especially useful when it’s used alongside HR import. You can access a range of administrative and enrolment actions which can be automated based on your regular HR feed.
This takes time out of mass updates to user profiles and helps streamline processes like user onboarding for new starters.
On top of this core Totara function, we’ve added our own tool.
We created enhanced permissions to better oversee learner training records.
This includes the ability to:
Create Learning Plans: Training managers can assemble comprehensive learning plans by combining individual courses. This feature enables you to curate a tailored learning journey for their teams.
Create Teams: You can create and manage teams, facilitating the organisation of delegates based on specific criteria or requirements.
Assign Courses or Learning Plans: Training managers have the authority to assign courses or complete learning plans to individual learners or entire teams. This functionality streamlines the distribution of training materials and learning objectives.
These tools and permissions serve as valuable resources for training managers, enabling them to effectively oversee and optimise the learning experience for their delegates.
Automated enrollment
We’ve already mentioned automatic enrollment as part of audience management.
But it’s so important that we’ve mentioned it twice.
Automated enrolment, as well as expiry rules, enable admins to set rules for automatic course enrollment as well as access expiration.
This streamlines the management of training cohorts and ensures timely access to relevant content.
And, all at the touch of a button.
You don’t need to spend hours searching for individuals to manually add and remove them from learning content anymore!
Automated notifications
Do you spend time creating communications to your learners? Or, do you find yourself having to remind them to complete mandatory training regularly?
Both of these can be a huge time sink.
With a Totara-based LMS, you can save time using the notifications feature, as well as push notifications in the app.
We offer more customisation options too, meaning you can send brand-ready comms to your people.
Course templates and duplication
In Totara v18 you can find programme duplication options.
So if you’re creating courses and content from scratch that is repeatable, or follows a similar pattern or layout, you can now save hours of time by simply duplicating a previous course.
This is really useful for if you want to create a new version of a piece of learning content.
Or, if some of your learning follows set patterns and processes that you wish to replicate.
User-generated content
Content creation in L&D is time-heavy.
From creating images, writing copy and building learning content, there are huge content gaps to fill for each individual course.
With Totara, you can now search through user-generated content, meaning that learners and subject matter experts can now contribute to content.
This is a huge time-saver for L&D teams as you can crowdsource your content creation, as well as foster a collaborative learning environment.
Course creation through an API
On the topic of course content creation, it’s worth sharing about our add-on feature that we created with a customer.
One of our customers use a consistent course structure which led to creating a course creation tool via an API.
All they need to do is add:
- Course name
- Category
- Description
- Associated videos or resources
- Quiz questions and answers
With all of this data in tow, the webhook automatically generates the course using the predefined template.
This massively expedites course creation compared to manual configuration.
Integrations
One easy way to save time in your LMS is to properly integrate all of your tools.
Totara is capable of integrating with plenty of key tools and systems, but we are able to connect you to basically any tool you use.
We work with Workato which allows us to sync data across applications to push and pull the data you need, where you need it.
This can help you to save time on manual data entry, and it also means you can ensure more consistent data too.
Automated certification and compliance tracking
Do you find yourself spending too much time creating certificates manually for your learners?
Totara’s certificate module means learners are automatically sent certificates with the relevant data on, with no intervention needed from you.
And the same is true for certification and compliance tracking.
You can create repeat compliance reports that will auto-send to the relevant people or departments, so that they can remain up-to-date with their current status.
This saves you having to manually pull and/or send data each time.
Start saving time with your LMS
Ready to make your LMS more efficient and remove busywork tasks?
BuildEmpire uses Totara’s basecode LMS to create a platform that suits your needs.
Whether that’s a fully customised solution or a more out-of-the-box solution.
Book a demo of BuildEmpire to see how our customisations can help you take your learning to the next level.