The Benefits of eLearning for Training New Employees

Investing in the onboarding process has saved organizations much more money than when neglected. A recent study showed that companies with effective onboarding processes have an improved new employee retention rate of 82%, with productivity rising to an unbelievable 70%. Unfortunately, a whopping 88% of employees don’t think that their organizations onboard well, which could be why the average turnover rate in the US went from 36.4% in 2019 to 57.3% in 2021.

This data proves that hiring teams should not neglect the onboarding process for new employees. Different organizations have unique approaches to onboarding. For optimal results, an onboarding exercise has to:

• Give a new employee a thorough understanding of company ethics, goals, and culture.
• Establish a strong foundation for developing relationships with other members of the organization.
• Help new employees to get off to a great start in carrying out their organizational duties.
• State very clearly the expectations the company has for the new hire.

Achieving these three objectives can be guaranteed when organizations adopt the e-learning approach to training new employees. When done efficiently, e-learning during onboarding can have benefits such as:

Onboarding in most organizations is initiated and sometimes run entirely by HR or recruiting team members. An instructor-led approach can be quite interactive and personalized for new hires. However, there is no assurance of standardization and consistency across the board because the focus, structure, and quality of this form of training will not remain consistent for every hire.

With e-learning, new employees will receive the same information through the same channels and of the same quality. This would help them easily blend into the company processes without losing out on a piece of essential information. E-learning also ensures that all new hires receive the same orientation and thus promotes synergy between teams because they are geared towards the same goal.

Before the end of a standard onboarding process, new hires typically have to carry out over 50 activities. In some cases, that amount of work is squeezed into one or two days, and the new employee ends up getting overwhelmed. Chances are they will not remember a large part of what they learned.

The e-learning approach of onboarding solves this problem by allowing the employee’s orientation to be self-paced. This form of learning increases retention time and promotes independent and critical thinking amongst learners. The employee learns according to their learning needs and is not pressured to understand everything within a short period.

Onboarding can be tiresome if the new hire does not have the chance to be engaged in the action. Eventually, this can have a negative effect on the employee’s motivation to work. But with e-learning, there is the chance to make training more interactive. New employees would not just read and assimilate content; they can take quizzes and tests to ascertain if they are absorbing the information shared. Custom e-learning platforms can even use gamification features that award badges and certificates to employees for their achievements during the training. This engaging approach would make onboarding an exciting and exciting experience for new hires.

A study shows that in the first 30 days, new employees have their productivity level hovering around 25%. This is usually because the onboarding exercise did not fully prepare them for their roles in the organization. With e-learning, the training can be broken down into modules and spread across a period. By integrating knowledge gotten from the modules into the employee’s daily tasks, e-learning helps increase their productivity. New hires will have a clear idea of how to go about their everyday tasks and get the opportunity to utilize the knowledge they received during training immediately. This level of engagement will increase employee curiosity and improve productivity levels as they would be more motivated to work, even in their early days in the organization.

The initial cost of setting up an e-learning program might be on the high side. Still, it is a one-time expenditure as opposed to the recurring expenses of typical onboarding sessions. BambooHr states that the typical cost of onboarding a new employee is about $4,125, excluding the extra expenses that are usually overlooked. Even maintenance of the e-learning platform would usually not take as much as onboarding does.

E-learning is also a more convenient way of training new employees as organizations can save time and resources spent in preparations for onboarding.

Most organizations have understood the importance of onboarding employees, but their methods are still lacking or ineffective. Shortcomings in onboarding can easily have a detrimental effect on their retention rate. Choosing the e-learning form of onboarding guarantees multiple benefits that will go a long way in achieving organizational goals, increasing employee productivity, and boosting workplace satisfaction.