How (and What) Employee Training Tools Are Helping HR and Business Managers More Effectively Train the Workforce

What kind of workforce development tools do you use to help train your staff? Innovative employee training tools emerge every year, and they’re worth a look. Solutions abound to support training new employees and existing staff with onboarding, learning new skills, and advancing the skills they already possess. These tools can also be used to create a benchmark for tracking and measuring employee productivity and performance. Bonus: Some require very little end-user technical knowledge. That means that training managers and employees alike can look forward to a relatively intuitive experience whether teaching or learning.

Training programs that use online courses and videos play an increasing role in an overall employee development program. They can help your workforce with social learning, systems training, soft skills, and technical skills. They can even help with safety and compliance training. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular online employee training tools that you can begin exploring today.

The best of the best online training tools and software

Having the right training program in place with the right employee training software can help turn your workforce into productivity all-stars who are eager to learn and engage and apply their new skills.

Learning management systems (LMS) for training and development

LMS is a popular employee training tool, as it can be structured so that each set of courses is a learning path.

Have you ever heard of a CMS? CMS stands for content management system(s), and it’s the platform for controlling your website’s content. LMS is similar; it pertains to the learning-management systems for controlling courses and their training materials and other learning content. Some may be integrated with your own company website, while others live elsewhere. In fact, if you’ve ever hosted or attended online training or computer-based learning courses, they were probably hosted and delivered via an LMS.

Employees use LMS to expressly learn and collaborate. LMS is a popular employee training tool, as it can be structured so that each set of courses is a learning path. This helps your employees grow and advance to their next positions while excelling in their current positions. Popular LMS platforms that can help you deliver customized training sessions and learning materials include:

• Moodle: A free and open-source learning platform, it’s geared toward teachers but is scalable enough for business use. The primary benefit of Moodle is that it can be installed on your server, providing that server has PHP and a database. But since it’s open source, some people find it to be difficult to install and set up. You can also find extensions for Moodle.
• iSpring Learn: This LMS is easy to set up and use for learning initiatives, including product, sales, channel, and compliance training. Compare their pricing plans to see what suits your needs and budget.
• Adobe Captivate Prime: This LMS can be used for an array of purposes. Think customer education, employee reskilling and upskilling, as well as compliance, sales and product training, and partner and franchisee training. Adobe offers a free trial, and you can request a demo.

Mobile tools for the best employee training on the go

If you want your employees to take their online learning on the go, consider a platform that offers a mobile app. Mobile app options for employee training courses include:

• Moodle: This platform offers a mobile app to go along with the website integration.
• EdApp: EdApp can be used as a mobile learning platform due to its scalability and authoring tools.
• TalentCards: Train employees anywhere on compliance, communication, safety, and even soft skills like listening and conflict resolution.

Hosted course platforms

Hosted course platforms allow you to create, share, and sell your courses or buy someone else’s courses for your needs. Popular hosted course platforms include:

• Thinkific: Pick a template, create your course content with drag and drop editing, and publish it. The platform allows for the creation of live lessons, quizzes, surveys, and progress tracking.
• Kajabi: This platform allows you to create and sell online training courses. This means that you could create courses for your particular business, then sell them to other businesses.
• Teachable: Teachable also allows for the creation and selling of educational content. It boasts an easy-to-use design for individuals who do not know how to code.

Virtual learning environment

Virtual learning environments allow for interactive learning. They are similar to LMS but offer more student engagement and a deeper level of interaction with the training content. They can be built to allow both instructors and students to create course content, and they provide real-time tracking. Such connectivity may help promote an overall more productive workforce. Popular VLEs include:

• EdApp: This platform lets you create interactive training courses. Create quizzes and content via an authoring tool, and use virtual classrooms and video conferencing.
• LearnWorlds: This platform gives you the option to create course content via templates, eBooks, and a community.
• LearnCube: This platform is browser-based, so your employees can take their courses with them. It boasts an interactive whiteboard and the ability to record classes, as well as instant messaging.

Virtual learning environments allow for interactive learning. They are similar to LMS but offer more student engagement and a deeper level of interaction with the training content.

Web and video conferencing tools

If you’re more interested in hosting video training that can be watched either in real time or on demand, your best bet might be web and video conferencing tools. Popular video tools to help advance your learning and development programs include:

• Zoom: Think outside the conference calls and meetings box. Organizations also use Zoom to deliver training videos and webinars.
• GoToMeeting: This platform for video calls offers a calendar integration and conferencing software so that you can answer questions while you teach your employees.
• Slack: You may already use Slack for your workplace communications and meetings. But you can also use its video calls to deliver video training.

Microlearning platforms

Microlearning platforms offer online employee-training software solutions that allow you to deliver training in increments of 2 to 5 minutes. These are great when you know you have a busy workforce that doesn’t have hours to spend on a course each week. Popular platforms for delivering short learning content include:

• eduMe: This platform is mobile as well as micro. It offers a content-creation studio, analytics, surveys, and various integrations.
• Spekit: Spekit can be used for onboarding and sales training. It offers an extension for Chrome and integrations for Slack and Salesforce.
• LearnUpon: This platform is great for corporate learning. It offers course-creation help, portals, integrations, and gamification.

Learning experience platforms

Learning experience platforms (LXPs) offer AI technology, meaning they create personalized learning experiences based on the individual. To get the most out of these platforms, you need to provide the LXP access to documents on the employees. With that, it can analyze the information and recommend the best training courses. Popular LXP platforms include:

• Udemy Business: Designed for creating and uploading your own courses. They also have an extensive library of information.
• 360Learning: Great for collaborative learning when employees, managers and executives all need to participate in, and answer questions about, the training.
• Docebo: A platform dedicated to AI learning and training. It contains extensions for gamification, automation and certifications.

Digital employee training programs are a great addition to HR automation — and they don’t have to be boring and impersonal. Nor must they require that your employees sit at a computer for hours on end while they work through the material. Instead, you can use training software — like mobile apps, interactive AI training, and microtraining to help your employees gain what they need. In some ways it’s easier than ever to help them stay up to date on your industry, safety procedures, and even best practices for communication, sales, and more. With a bit of time and focus, you can select and integrate the best employee-training tools for your needs and help further develop your workforce and advance your business.