We’re just going to come out and say it – Learning and performance management should go hand in hand. They should be like bread and butter, Batman and Robin, the Himalayas and goats…
So why is learning management so often kept separate from performance management?
It’s kind of like salt and pepper shakers. They are kept separate but close together and they’re often combined when it comes to mealtime. The management of learning and the management of performance are two distinct things, but they complement each other in obvious ways. If you don’t have a system that brings this connection to life, then you could be missing a trick. What would life be like without salt and pepper?
After all, the ultimate goal for a Learning Management System is to improve performance. As your employees work their way through training content, you’d expect to see them hitting more targets, assuming the training is good of course!
Here are five very compelling reasons why bringing learning and performance management results in a happy marriage:
1. Cut costs
This is sure to get everyone in your organisation smiling! Why splash the company cash on two systems when it’s likely that you’d spend less by combining them into one super, Megazord or Captain Planet-like platform?
Then there are the savings you’ll make in managing the system. By having everything in the same place, and on a single database, administration time (and hence costs) is slashed!
For example, one of our Academy LMS clients makes such fantastic use of the Performance Centre that they’re able to provide training and performance management to 1,000 employees all around the globe using a team of just three people!
You’d struggle to get more cost-effective than that!
2. Cut the confusion
We guarantee that if you ask any member of staff what drew them to your company, the chance to use your performance management system won’t appear on their list.
They have plenty of other things to be getting on with, so having to learn how to use multiple different systems isn’t something they’ll want to spend time doing.
But by combining the two systems into one, you simplify everything and minimise any chances of confusion. Now your employees only need to add one URL to their bookmarks bar, they only need to remember one password, and they only need to set up one profile.
You could even set-up Single Sign-On access to your HR System, intranet, or other business applications so that all of your employee’s needs and wants are all housed under one glorious roof. Even the busiest of people will have time for that!
3. Boost engagement
For any of us whose job it is to manage learning or performance systems, one of the biggest hurdles is always in getting people engaged and using them. But by bringing the two systems together in a single place, this actually becomes easier.
Instead of trying to pull people to two separate locations, you can now focus your efforts on just one, which is a much more manageable task.
There’s also the fact that someone visiting the platform for some learning will see the performance tools and take a look at them while they’re there, and vice versa. So overall usage of both systems is sure to rise!
4. Easier reporting
Chances are that you face a constant struggle within your business to prove that your learning programmes are actually working and generating a real return on the investment.
Well by bringing learning and performance management together this becomes easier to prove! Now you can directly compare the employees who complete the most training with their performance, to see whether they’re hitting more targets as a result.
That’s sure to keep your bosses happy!
5. Intuitive Individual Development Plans
Another key benefit of integrating learning and performance management is that you can easily recommend the best learning content to plug any gaps in their knowledge, which might be hindering their performance.
With our Performance Centre this is literally a tick-box exercise, as a manager simply ticks which content they want to recommend to an employee. The employee then finds it in their Individual Development Plan and can see at a glance exactly what they’ve done and what they still need to do.
Want to bring these benefits to your organisation? Why not take a free tour of our Performance Centre to see how well it’s integrated into our Academy LMS?
