Before now, it’s unlikely that you ever thought an LMS (learning management system) had anything to do with how you manage your intranet platform. After all, they’re separate pieces of software that do different things, right?
Not anymore.
The rise of all-in-one intranet packages means that LMS software – as well as other productivity tools like e-forms, process automations, project management systems, and communication apps – is now part of a centralised platform, rather than its own standalone app.
Indeed, standalone apps that don’t communicate with each other are fast becoming a thing of the past. Research published in Forbes reveals that workers are losing up to 32 days a year in workplace productivity because they have to toggle between different apps up to 10 times an hour. It’s no surprise, then, that 30% of remote workers are urgently calling for more streamlined tech instead of fragmented systems, according to our Remote Work in the UK report.
Therefore, minimising app overload and streamlining workflows should be at the top of your priority list. Unifying your LMS and intranet is a great first step to achieving this, and you’ll quickly find that LMS software and intranets work in perfect harmony. Let’s explore this a little more.
What are learning management systems?
A quick explainer for those who are unfamiliar with learning management system (LMS) software: learning management systems provide organisations with an online learning portal to manage their teams’ personal development programmes.
Example of Claromentis’ learning management system
Essential LMS features include online courses and training materials, as well as the ability to set learning objectives and monitor learner progress. An LMS should make it easy for L&D professionals to manage courses and deliver training, all whilst minimising training costs.
Of course, it’s difficult to expect teams to retain any knowledge from their online training if they’re having to constantly switch between multiple apps. It takes the average person 23 minutes and 15 seconds to recover from a distraction and get back to what they were doing, so this will quickly add up if staff are toggling between their LMS, intranet, email, Slack, and whatever else they use to do their job.
This is why intranet and LMS software should be unified into an all-in-one platform, rather than be separate systems. Combining them will liberate your teams from the constant distractions that come with app overload, enabling them to work productively and improve their skills.
How does an LMS and intranet work together?
It’s clear that an LMS platform and intranet should be integrated to deliver as much value to your teams as possible.
Here at Claromentis, all of our products are unified into an all-in-one digital workplace platform, meaning our intranet and LMS (amongst our other apps) are accessible from within the same system as standard.
We’re always looking at new ways to improve our product integrations to help organisations streamline their workflows, increase team collaboration, and boost productivity. And so we built LMS Triggers, a dedicated LMS integration that brings your intranet and LMS even closer together.
In a nutshell, our new LMS technology ties your teams’ intranet experience to their progress in an employee training programme. LMS Triggers works by enabling your L&D professionals to set up rules based on learner progress. For example, a rule could be set up to automatically add an employee to an intranet user group when they complete an online training course.
This is really powerful stuff, because it means that your teams’ intranet experience will instantly change as soon as they finish their training (watch our LMS Triggers video to see this in action!)
How does LMS Triggers help you manage your intranet?
To expand on the example above; imagine your organisation needs to comply with industry standards to run successfully. This will be the case for the vast majority of businesses, including those who handle customer data, and those in healthcare or financial services who manage highly sensitive information.
By using LMS Triggers, your L&D professionals can create a rule that only allows teams to have access to sensitive data once they have completed the relevant compliance training. This will ensure that only qualified staff – who have understood the importance of keeping sensitive data secure and passed the required compliance training to demonstrate their understanding – can view and manage this data.
Use LMS Triggers to automatically change what data your teams can access once they’ve passed the relevant training
Better still, managers can run LMS reports to get full visibility of who has and hasn’t passed their training, and set up automatic notifications to remind staff that they have online learning courses to complete.
In this way, your LMS acts as a gatekeeper to all the information and apps stored on your intranet. This will help streamline your workflows in several ways:
- Teams will no longer need to toggle between different apps – which is a known productivity drain – to do their work and learn new skills, because it’s all there within the same system.
- L&D teams can save time from manually enabling employee access to sensitive information by using LMS Triggers to automate the process.
- Organisations can improve data protection and compliance by using LMS Triggers to restrict access until staff have completed the relevant training.
The benefits of integrating your LMS training programmes with your intranet
Beyond time savings, increased data security, and enhanced productivity, there are many other reasons why integrating LMS platforms with intranet software is beneficial. Here are a few of our favourites:
All training content is in one place
Learning management systems provided by traditional LMS vendors often contain little more than a library of online training courses and quizzes. Whilst this may be “good enough”, L&D professionals will know that a truly effective employee training programme should be much more holistic.
For instance, an LMS should provide an all-encompassing learning environment that enables staff to access all the tools they need to expand their knowledge – not just a selection of them as dictated by an LMS vendor.
Employees learn in different ways, so it makes sense that they should have access to different types of learning materials such as slides, videos, reading materials, interactive courses, external resources, and so on. An organisation’s intranet will more than likely host this information already, either within its document management system or knowledge base library. In this way, an LMS and intranet are the perfect pairing for delivering the unified learning environment your teams need.
Create a personalised learning experience
Online training programmes should deliver so much more than generic training content and learning materials for it to be effective.
The learning experience should be personalised to each team member, and is the key to increasing engagement and information retention. In fact, according to statistics compiled by eLearning Industry, 77% of L&D professionals believe this to be the case.
With an integrated learning management system and intranet at your disposal, your L&D managers can create personalised training programmes that provide staff with unique training materials tailored to their ability or role, as well as build bespoke learning paths for them to follow at their own pace.
Increase learner engagement using gamification
Time and time again, it’s been shown that gamification improves learner engagement. Both LMS and online intranet software include gamification tools such as progress bars, training certifications, and points that, together, create a powerful learning environment that will motivate teams.
In addition, you can use your intranet’s employee recognition tools in combination with your learning management system to reward staff when they pass a course. Even better, you can use LMS Triggers to completely automate this process. We’ll reveal more about this in our next blog, so stay tuned!
