7 Top Blended Learning Benefits For Corporate Training
Blended learning for corporate training is not only cost effective, but it is also a more natural way to learn and work at the same time. In this article, I’ll reveal 7 top blended learning benefits for corporate training, so that you can empower employees to become active participants in your company’s success.
The Blended Learning Benefits For Corporate Training
If you need just one word to describe using blended learning for corporate training, that is “flexibility”. Combining traditional with online training will allow you to have complete control over how, when, and where you want to train your employees, in order to help them develop their skill sets and thus boost their work performance. A blended learning strategy can benefit your employees, as a variety of learning approaches can stimulate their interest and increase their engagement, and has also been proven to increase their productivity levels. In this article, I’ll share 7 top blended learning benefits for corporate training in order to help you look beyond traditional boundaries and encourage your employees to convert their training into action.
1. It offers the best of both worlds.
Having a mixture of both offline and online training activities gets you the best of both strategies. Blended learning for corporate training allows your employees to learn at their own pace and have the support they need if and when required. Choosing the right blended learning model will help you break the monotony of corporate training, reinforce your employees on their online training, and increase the engagement and motivation
2. It enhances corporate training effectiveness.
It is well known that knowledge retention can be significantly improved with the addition of a new element in the learning process, even if it is something as simple as a drag and drop interaction. Blended learning for corporate training, by offering a variety of different approaches, can certainly make a big difference in this field. Blending face-to-face and online training delivers a much richer training experience and helps your employees retain the eLearning content much easier than they would if they were just offered a traditional approach. Blended learning for corporate training can have a profound impact on your organization’s business results, as it trains your workforce more effectively by optimizing their ability to obtain your eLearning objectives, and thus be able to develop their skill sets and boost their work performance.
3. It simplifies corporate training logistics.
Both online and traditional corporate training have their advantages and disadvantages, and complicated logistics are a big disadvantage of the latter, as organizing a number of corporate seminars and workshops can be a real headache. However, it is not always possible for companies to fully replace their traditional training programs with online ones, as they still need some of the benefits that traditional training has to offer, such as social interaction among employees. This is where blended learning for corporate training comes in: by using a blended approach you can reduce the number of live seminars and organize the rest via video conferences without worrying about locations not being convenient for all of your employees. This way, you can easily distribute your training material through your Learning Management System and, of course, contribute to the follow up of both your online and live seminars by offering additional information for further online discussion, or conducting surveys and polls to evaluate the effectiveness of your training. Last but not least, a blended approach is not only more convenient, but also much more eco-friendly; just imagine saving printing material for so many employees.
4. It is cost-effective.
Speaking of facilitating training logistics, note that you can reduce your training costs through blended learning. Simply put, fewer trainers for less time, means less expenses for travel, transportation, accommodation, and meals. Of course, neither online training is free of charge; it requires multiple resources and high skill professionals to design and develop high quality online training deliverables. However, you can keep its cost at low levels by taking advantage of the free educational technologies that are available today. All in all, blending different delivering modes in your corporate training can significantly increase your training’s ROI, as reducing traditional training costs can be effectively combined with improved staff performance.
5. It allows your employees to have control over their training.
Blended learning for corporate training allows your employees to participate in their training program using mobile devices or their laptops anytime, anywhere, and it offers them control in a way that traditional corporate training cannot. By providing your audience with supplementary online material, such as additional links or further online resources, you give them the opportunity to use the additional information when needed and at their own pace. When your employees are given power over their learning, by being able to combine their face to face training sessions with online self study, they feel that their unique learning needs and behaviors are met; this way, their training becomes much more effective.
6. It enhances employees soft skills.
Businesses become global, telephone conferences, video calls, and online meetings among people who live in different parts of the world are often necessary, and thus more and more different aspects of communication need to be developed. The importance of employees being able to communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively with their colleagues, clients, and customers goes without saying. However, traditional corporate training cannot really cover the development of all communication skills that your workforce needs. Blended learning for corporate training will allow to you to help your employees develop their virtual communication skills, as you can follow a social learning approach, by which your staff can connect, interact, and share ideas with each other in a virtual environment, so they can effectively learn how to function and communicate both in the real and the virtual world.
7. It facilitates corporate training feedback.
Finally, a blended approach can save you valuable time from collecting training feedback in a physical environment. Blended learning for corporate training allows you to gather valuable data about your employees’ performance improvement via online quizzes and tests, whereas your Learning Management System can itself generate feedback in the form of automatic reports. Moreover, a blended learning approach can help you measure the effectiveness of your overall training program, as feedback from employees cannot only be used as an indication of their performance levels, but also as a training strategy evaluation tool. Finally, employees benefit as well, since they are able to review their progress, weaknesses, and strengths.
