Key Features Your LMS Must Have

 Training and education are key parts of the employee development plans for many organizations, and for those in which they aren’t, they should be. Obviously, employers would love to hire employees who are well-educated and highly experienced in their industry; however, according to a recent CBS News interview with LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Dan Roth, businesses are struggling to find qualified workers despite reporting double-digit percentage growth in hiring.


Even if you hire a highly qualified employee, you still must get that employee up to speed on the specific business goals, processes, values, and mission of your particular organization. Traditional training programs can be challenging from both a logistics and efficiency standpoint. Training multiple employees at once can be difficult from a scheduling standpoint, not to mention the challenges inherent in an increasingly geographically distributed workforce.
To address these issues, many employees are turning to a learning management system (LMS). Docebo’s “The Complete Guide to Learning Management Systems” defines the tool as “a software-based platform that facilitates the management, delivery, and measurement of an organization’s corporate eLearning programs.”
LMSs have two primary users: learners—those taking courses, reporting their efforts, and being evaluated—and administrators—those managing the process of delivering course content, measuring results, and evaluating. Here, we’re focusing on employees as the learners, but it’s important to note that customers and business partners can also be learners, depending on the business goal.
The Docebo article notes that there are over 700 LMS solutions available on the market, but there are some key elements that every LMS should include. Docebo lists 14, but here are the 4 most crucial:

1. Course and catalog management—a system to maintain all of the educational offerings in an easy-to-manage and easy-to-navigate format;
2. Mobility—the ability to access the LMS remotely from virtually anywhere;
3. Content Marketplace—access to noninternal content from third parties; and
4. Reporting—the actual tracking and monitoring of employee (or customer or partner) completion and aptitude at the various courses.

Training employees is a crucial aspect of employee development, regardless of the industry, company, or employee. An LMS can be an extremely cost-effective and efficient way to leverage your internal expertise and quickly bring new talent up to speed.