Companies spend a significant amount each year on employee onboarding and training. While onboarding programs help in introducing the employee to the company culture, L&D programs help in upskilling employees so they perform better in their jobs.
Considering no two employees have the same learning style nor consume information at the same pace, companies are now turning to a blended learning approach to provide employees an optimal solution for their learning needs.
Let’s first understand what blended learning is. It brings together self-paced online courses and the traditional instructor-led classroom session to ensure employees get the best of both worlds. This fusion helps in upskilling all kinds of employees regardless of their preferred learning style.
If your company has yet not ventured into providing employees blended learning support, here are five benefits to convince you to do so:
1. Better retention of information:
With a blended learning approach, employees are motivated to first go through online learning courses and learn at their own pace. This enables them to learn from anywhere at any place. Then it brings them together for sessions with an instructor to recreate a classroom session.
This gives employees a chance to get clarity on topics that they face difficulty with while learning alone. With training platforms like Docebo, employees also get a chance to engage with other employees through discussion forums so they can help each other out whenever required.
2. Saves time spent on learning:
Training programs become extremely long if a company trains employees through only classroom or instructor-led training sessions. When it comes to online courses, employees may get stuck at a topic if they are unable to understand it, leading to a lot of wastage of time.
Blended learning reduces the time employees spend on learning by ensuring they get exactly what they need through short micro-modules and instructor help whenever required. Having a well-planned blended learning-based training program can ensure a company delivers an effective training program that saves valuable employee time.
3. Saves training costs:
Blended learning cuts down the amount of the company’s spend on employee learning & development by reducing the need to have a physical training setup. Employees can access online learning course modules from anywhere. Moreover, it provides employees storage of information that they can come back to any time they want.
The instructor-led sessions can also be conducted online through video conferencing tools. This saves companies from getting everyone in the same room for an instructor-led session. This reduces training expenses like finding a training venue and printing training material.
4. Makes training interactive & fun:
Older employees often find self-paced eLearning courses very boring after a certain point as they have to learn alone. Young millennials find classroom sessions boring as they have to sit for long hours in a single place.
With blended learning, employees get to learn through a variety of activities as it brings together synchronous and asynchronous learning styles. This reduces boredom and makes learning fun & interactive.
5. Makes training programs more effective:
The absence of social engagement in a self-paced eLearning course makes it difficult for employees to engage with the training content. On the other hand, employees may miss out on certain concepts in a classroom training session not everyone can learn at the same speed.
A combination of both provides employees the opportunity to learn on their own first through eLearning courses and then engage in a discussion with instructor & co-workers. This makes your training program more effective as employees get a good balance of both learning styles.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, blended learning is a win-win strategy for both the company and its employees. It increases employee engagement without increasing training costs.
Also Read: Reasons Large Enterprises Should Outsource Training
