Streamline Your Job With a Learning Management System (Not a sales pitch)

Some of you may not know. This blog focuses on my experiences being a one-person training department. This information can apply to everyone.

REMINDER: I write all of my posts on my iPhone. You may find errors or typos in the post. Proofing posts on an iPhone are not easy. Therefore, I ask you to focus on the content, rather the mistakes. It is not an accurate reflection of the work I produce on the job. 

You may be like me. You have a large pile of work to complete as a one-person training department. You have projects to tackle in addition to the daily administration work (e.g. course assignments, documentation, etc.). You likely roll your eyes at some at the admin work. 

Most companies utilize a learning management system (LMS) to increase training visibility and enhance record keeping. In my experience, I found many companies do not utilize the full functionality of the LMS. There are many reasons why. Maybe you do not have the time to set it up, maybe you are not familiar with these features, or maybe you did not set up your system properly. Personally, I believe there is a long-term benefit to making this solution work. Reduce the time spent processing enrollments by setting up rules in the system to automatically enroll employees. 

Here are some best practices to set up this functionality:

• Ask your LMS provider about automatic enrollment capabilities. Most systems will have the capability. Learn how the system will identify employees and where the system pulls the data (e.g. employee groups or employee profile).
• Add all and any information about employees to their profiles. This is helpful if your system allows you to create custom fields. You will have far more flexibility by adding as much information as possible. 
• Determine the criteria for your group (e.g. hire date, employment type, department, supervisor, etc.).
• Do not be discouraged if the employee profile field does not work as you expected. Think about workarounds. Here is an example:
• I wanted the ability to assign courses to learners a certain number of days after hiring. I was able to enter hire date in the employee profile. However, the system would not permit automatic enrollments based on the field. Luckily, I found a solution. I created a custom field titled "days since hire." and updated my user import reports. I set up my user imports to update daily. I created my rule to say,"When 'days since hire' = 3, assign the course). It worked! Problem solved and it made my job easier. 
• Do not be afraid to push your vendor. I hate when vendors tell me,"the system can't do that." Do not be afraid to push back. Brainstorm with your vendor and say,"help me figure out a workaround." Some of the customer support staff may not be willing to assist. Ask for their supervisor if this occurs. Most of my solutions were discovered by brainstorming with the vendor to find a solution.
• Write out the logic for your the automatic assignments before entering it into the learning management system. You can easily lose track of what you enter, especially after entering multiple rules. Trust me, you do not want to accidentally enroll the entire company in a course.
• Most importantly, make sure the automatic assignment works! Run a report to confirm enrollments processed correctly. I also suggest calling people to ensure they were notified of the enrollment.
• Last, document all your automatic assignments in an Excel or Word file. You will get to the point where you have tons of automated actions. Creating a document that specifies the name and what the rule does will be very helpful. It is also beneficial when you need to explain to leadership the current enrollments. I promise it will save you time and effort.

Unfortunately, I need to get back to work. I do not mean to end this article abruptly. However, this is a feature that all organizations with a learning management system (not HRIS) should utilize.