Mobile-friendly Online Training for Small Business

Millennials continue to be a driving force in the workplace. A recent study by Deloitte shows that by 2025, millennials will make up 75 percent of the global workforce. This growing demographic affects many things in the business sector, including how companies conduct training—from bringing new hires up-to-speed on company policies to educating employees on how their company structures holiday promotions.

As millennial expectations and attitudes become more prevalent, it’s clear the days of sitting in a conference room listening to an instructor are disappearing. More than two-thirds of Deloitte’s survey participants reported being strongly influenced by a company’s innovative nature when deciding whether or not they wanted to work there. Providing accessible, mobile training options to engage these innovation-hungry workers will play an important role as small and midsized business (SMB) operators compete for top talent.

online training for small business

No matter what kind of training your business needs, ensuring that it’s fast and easy for employees to use—at work, at home or on the road—is crucial to maximizing their participation. Fortunately, you can choose from a number of learning management system (LMS) platforms (also sometimes called e-learning) to streamline training and make it available on a variety of devices, all without stressing the budget.

So, in no particular order…

Go Mobile: 4 Learning Management Systems

1. BizLibrary

For small business owners and managers interested in generating their own training content, BizLibrary offers a hosted LMS module that features a customized branded portal. This platform lets you can track employee participation and generate detailed reports, making it a good solution for small businesses with compliance requirements or similar concerns. Trainees can also leave comments and rate courses.

Training from BizLibrary is compatible with desktop devices as well as iOS and both Android tablets and smartphones. Employees who use the mobile app can track which courses they’ve completed and how much training they have left directly from their mobile device. They’re also able to access supplemental course materials remotely, including program guides and PDF handouts.

BizLibrary offers a free trial.

2. ELeap

The eLeap platform makes courses available on any device with a Web browser. Navigation of the system was designed with mobile devices in mind, and its pages sport a clean, intuitive layout with easily-found buttons. As you add courses, the system sends employees notifications about new required training, and it includes an automated reminder function that keeps everyone on track.

As administrators create new courses, they can upload many different file types to the eLeap LMS platform—from PDFs to PowerPoint presentations. You can also incorporate photos and audio files—particularly handy if you’ve already recorded a past training session and would like to make the audio available to future attendees.

The system makes it easy to add existing Google Drive files and YouTube content to courses. Advanced features include customizable assessments and quizzes. Administrators also have the ability to generate a number of reports showing employees’ progress.

ELeap offers both free online help and phone access to support 24/7. A free trial is available.

3. Litmos

The Litmos platform offers customers custom domains and branded login pages to make employees’ training experiences unique. It’s also highly accessible, as once you create a course, the system automatically makes it available on iOS and Android devices. The same holds true for videos, which are optimized for desktop computers as well as smartphones, iPads and notebooks.

Quizzes let you see how well your employees assimilate information in each course. They can be given in several formats, including essay questions and multiple-choice. You can randomize a master list of questions for better variety. Reports let administrators quickly identify any employees who lag behind on training, and Litmos also lets you view team reports that include average assessment scores and other metrics. You can export reports can as PDF and Excel files.

Litmos offers a free trial.

4. TalentLMS

TalentLMS includes a host of features and powerful reporting tools. The cloud-based platform means that there’s nothing for you to download. With TalentLMS’s mobile-friendly navigation and design ensures a good experience on smartphones and tablets.

You can use custom domains, and branded, themed portals help to make the experience your own. Administrators can upload existing content from SharePoint, YouTube, even Wikipedia—no need to recreate the wheel.

You can separate different groups of employees and classes, which lets small business owners/managers create training paths for each department or store location. You can even share courses with non-registered users, a handy feature if you need to provide an important consultant with specific training materials.

A free plan (up to five users and 10 courses, with a 20 MB per-file upload limit) lets you try out the platform before committing dollars to it. All paid subscriptions include unlimited courses.

Julie Knudson is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in technology magazines including BizTech, Processor, and For The Record. She has covered technology issues for publications in other industries, from foodservice to insurance, and she also writes a recurring column in Integrated Systems Contractor magazine.

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