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Learning and development (L&D)

Opportunities and options for SMEs

 
 

SMEs all over the country are struggling with the same challenges: A shortage of skilled workers, a tense economic situation, and rapid changes due to technological developments. Companies that want to maintain their position long-term need new, sustainable ways to tackle this challenge. The solution: Well-trained employees who react to situations with confidence and contribute their expertise effectively. 

Learning and development (L&D) plays a central role in training and developing outstanding employees. By developing your staff in a targeted manner, you both strengthen their skills and increase your company’s competitiveness and innovative strength. In this article, you’ll find out what opportunities and options L&D offers for SMEs, and how you can successfully implement digital learning and development methods at your company.

 

What is learning and development?

Learning and development, or L&D for short, encompasses all employee training and development measures. It aims to expand their skills and competencies to meet the needs of both the company and the wider market. L&D covers a wide range of activities, from traditional training courses and workshops to modern eLearning solutions and coaching programs. A strategically planned L&D program not only bolsters your employees’ role-related expertise, but also their personal and professional development. 

 

Digital learning and development with eLearning

Digitalization is having a major impact on learning and development. eLearning, i.e. learning via digital media and platforms, is becoming increasingly important. It facilitates flexible, location-independent learning, which is particularly beneficial in times like these, where working from home and mobile workplaces are prevalent. eLearning covers a variety of formats, including webinars, online courses, virtual classrooms, and interactive learning modules. This form of learning builds your employees’ independence and enables the content to be adapted to their learning needs and speeds.

 

eLearning vs. traditional in-person L&D

If they hadn’t already done so, the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 was the trigger for many companies to start opening up to digital education and training. Online events are now preferred to conducting training courses in packed meeting rooms. Nevertheless, a video call is no substitute for training. Digital learning and development requires a different approach to traditional face-to-face training. Professional eLearning offers companies and their employees new, asynchronous learning methods that are perfectly adapted to the challenges of digital learning. Both methods have clear advantages and disadvantages that you should weigh up carefully. However, it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation when it comes to choosing digital or in-person approaches. A combination of both, referred to as blended learning, is a popular and proven strategy for corporate learning and development.

Below, we have provided a direct comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of eLearning and face-to-face training.

 

L&D with eLearning

  • learning is flexible—anytime, anywhere
  • low running costs
  • high degree of customization, e.g. based on prior knowledge, department…
  • multimedia content and interactive elements boost attention and engagement
  • direct social interaction between learners is difficult
  • acquisition costs for specialist software to create and manage digital training courses and devices
  • many practical skills such as operating a machine and processing materials simply cannot be taught digitally

Traditional in-person personnel development

  • all participants have to come together at the same time
  • room rental, travel, and trainers can incur high costs
  • training must be targeted at all learners and respond to each individual’s level of knowledge, which leads to people feeling over- and underchallenged
  • classroom teaching is often boring and learners’ attention wanes over time
  • group work and collaborative learning can be better implemented in-person
  • no acquisition costs for software or hardware
  • most practical skills can only be taught in-person
 

How SMEs can benefit from strategic L&D

Learning and development is not just for large companies. You don’t have to have thousands of employees or multiple locations to reap the benefits of a well-designed L&D program.  Even SMEs can find the solution to many of their problems and challenges in structured personnel development. Learning and development helps you counteract skill shortages and retain talent at your company. Continuous training keeps your employees at the cutting edge of technology and methodology, which strengthens your company’s innovative power and competitiveness. L&D also boosts employee satisfaction and loyalty, as your employees appreciate having the opportunity for personal and professional development. Furthermore, you can free your budget from the high costs of compliance training, reduce recruitment costs, and boost new employees’ productivity.

 

Advantages for companies

  • Increased competitiveness: Regular training keeps your employees up-to-date and gives them the opportunity to contribute innovative ideas.
  • Reduced costs: eLearning reduces travel expenses and enables you to run training courses cost-effectively.
  • Increased employee loyalty: Development programs show your employees that you are investing in their future, which increases satisfaction and loyalty.
  • Counteracting the skilled worker shortage: Targeted training enables you to develop your own talents in-house, so you are less dependent on the external job market.

Advantages for employees

  • Personal development: L&D measures foster individual skills and highlight career opportunities.
  • Flexible learning: eLearning enables learners to access learning content anytime and anywhere, which improves their work-life balance.
  • Motivation and engagement: Training increases motivation as employees feel valued and supported.
  • Networking: Face-to-face events and workshops provide an opportunity to make valuable contacts and exchange ideas.
 

Learning and development methods for companies

There are a variety of learning methods that can support your L&D strategy. Which one will work best for you depends on various factors. 

  • number of participants
  • participants’ learning preferences
  • learning objective
  • learning content
  • corporate and learning culture
  • time frame

 

Tip: Create learner personas to find out more about your learners’ preferences.
 

Online courses

Online courses are more than just a digital version of a textbook. They contain multimedia content, interactive elements, and knowledge tests.

Blended learning

In blended learning, you combine online learning modules with face-to-face events to take advantage of the benefits of both learning environments and boost engagement.

Mentoring

Encourage the transfer of knowledge between experienced and less experienced employees with a mentoring program.

Collaborative learning

Organize workshops and group activities that encourage collaborative interaction and cooperation between participants,

Microlearning

Provide short pieces of easily digestible learning content to motivate employees who have little spare time.

Mobile learning

Give your employees access to mobile learning via smartphones or tablets.

Peer-to-peer learning

With peer-to-peer learning, you encourage interaction between your employees and give them the opportunity to learn from each other.

Scenario-based learning

Develop interactive scenarios that simulate real-world challenges to facilitate hands-on learning and sharpen critical problem-solving skills.

Video learning

With video learning, you use high-quality video productions in your training to convey complex content in an appealing and understandable way.

 

You can’t avoid these L&D trends

Digitalization offers numerous, innovative opportunities to make learning and development (L&D) even more effective and efficient. Some trends are particularly prevalent and offer enormous advantages that you should definitely integrate into your L&D strategy. These trends are not only perfectly suited to the climate we find ourselves in today, but also look ahead and will help you support your employees effectively and futureproof your company going forward.

 

Corporate academy

If you establish your own corporate academy, you can create a customized learning environment that is precisely tailored to the needs and goals of both your company and your employees. This kind of platform offers structured career paths, certified programs, and a wide range of courses that continuously educate your employees. The benefits of a corporate academy are manifold: It strengthens your employees’ loyalty, fosters a culture of lifelong learning, and ensures that your teams always have the latest skills and knowledge. Invest in a corporate academy and position your company as an attractive employer that invests in its employees’ futures.

 

Digital onboarding

Efficient and effective onboarding determines whether new employees will become productive quickly or leave the company within the first year. Digital onboarding enables you to standardize and optimize the induction process and make it more flexible at the same time. Digital onboarding programs give new employees access to all the information, training, and resources they need from anywhere, at any time. Interactive modules, videos, and quizzes make it easier to understand the company’s guidelines, culture, and work processes. Digital onboarding platforms also facilitate rapid feedback and responses to questions, allowing new employees to integrate and become productive more quickly.

 

Digital compliance training

Compliance training is essential to ensure that your employees are aware of and comply with all of the relevant legal regulations and your company-specific ones. Digital compliance training offers a flexible and efficient way to convey this important content. Your employees always have the latest knowledge with interactive modules, case studies, and regular updates. Digital training also provides easy documentation and learning progress tracking, which is very important for audits and reporting. Digital compliance training minimizes risks and strengthens confidence in compliance within your company.

 

AI in eLearning

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of modern eLearning. AI-driven learning platforms enable you to personalize and optimize the learning process for your employees. These systems analyze their behavior and progress and adapt the learning content accordingly. This means that every employee receives exactly the support and resources they need to learn effectively. AI can also be used in the form of chatbots and virtual tutors that are available to answer questions and provide assistance around the clock. This personalized support not only boosts learning outcomes, but also motivation levels among your employees. 

Authoring tools with modern AI assistants make it easier for you to create content, and speed up your internationalization process. For example, the KI-KAI tool in Knowledgeworker Create can:

  • create content structures, quizzes and texts
  • design content with high-quality AI-generated imagery
  • internationalize your content 
  • convert PDF and PPTX files into eLearning courses
     
 

Gamification

Gamification is a powerful tool for making the learning process more exciting and effective. Integrating gaming-inspired elements into your learning and development measures increases motivation and engagement among your employees. Points, badges, leaderboards, and challenges make learning a fun and rewarding experience. Gamification not only encourages competition, but also collaboration within your teams. Employees learn to solve complex problems and develop innovative solutions in a fun way. Regular rewards and recognition keep the learning process dynamic and motivating. Bring gamification into your L&D strategy and see how dry training courses instantly become exciting learning adventures.

 

Personalized learning paths

Personalized learning paths facilitate effective and targeted training. Instead of lumping all of your employees together, personalized learning paths offer individual training journeys that are tailored to the specific needs and goals of each individual. Learning paths take into account their existing knowledge, skills, and career goals and offer customized content and resources. This individual approach maximizes learning outcomes and ensures that each employee learns exactly what they need to for their professional development. With personalized learning paths, you not only foster professional competence, but also employee motivation and satisfaction.

 

Lifelong learning

Strictly speaking, lifelong learning is not a trend, but a necessity. To a certain extent, it’s a natural human need. Establish a culture of lifelong learning and encourage the continuous training and development of your employees. Digital methods go far beyond what traditional training and educational measures can manage.

 Lifelong learning keeps your employees at the cutting edge of technology and methodology, which strengthens your company’s innovative power and competitiveness. Foster an environment in which learning is seen as a continuous process and an opportunity for personal and professional development. Support your employees with access to a wide range of learning resources, regular training, and development opportunities. Making lifelong learning a part of your corporate culture is an investment in the future of your company and your employees.

 

Challenges for learning and development initiatives

Acceptance

One of the biggest challenges is encouraging acceptance of L&D measures among your employees. Employees often see training as an additional burden, or do not understand the direct benefits. To overcome this obstacle, it is crucial to clearly communicate the benefits and value of L&D programs. Successful companies create transparency around the objectives of their training measures and highlight specific career and development opportunities. Involving managers as role models and supporters can significantly increase acceptance.

Technical obstacles

You need the appropriate technical infrastructure to implement digital L&D programs. Not all employees are equally tech-savvy, or have the necessary equipment and access. This can impair the uptake and success of L&D initiatives. Companies should ensure that all employees have access to the necessary technologies and are able to use them. Offering regular training on the use of eLearning platforms and providing technical support are essential. The tools should also be designed to be user-friendly and intuitive to minimize the barriers to entry.

Resources

Time and budget constraints pose a further challenge. The development and implementation of effective L&D programs require investments in personnel, technology, and content. SMEs often have to make do with limited resources and carefully weigh up how best to use them. One solution may be to partner with external providers who offer ready-made eLearning platforms and content. Companies should also prioritize and identify the most urgent training needs so that they can make targeted and efficient investments.

Measurability

Measuring the success and effectiveness of learning and development measures is essential to evaluating their benefits and continuously improving them. However, there is often a lack of suitable KPIs and methods to measure learning outcomes and the long-term impact of training on the company. Define clear learning objectives and success criteria, and carry out regular evaluations. Feedback from participants, performance evaluations, and performance data analyses can provide you with important insights. Modern learning platforms often offer integrated analysis tools that support these processes.

Adaptability

Learning and development strategies must be flexible and adaptable in order to provide learners with up-to-date and relevant content. This requires you to continuously review and update the learning content and methods. Establish agile processes that enable you to react quickly to new developments and requirements. Integrating employee feedback and market analyses helps you adapt and develop your L&D initiatives rapidly.

Employee motivation

Another challenge is continuously motivating employees to participate in L&D measures. Even the best learning programs are of little use if employees are not motivated to participate. Gamification elements, personalized learning paths, and recognition systems can help increase motivation. Companies should also foster a learning culture in which further training is seen as an integral part of everyday working life, and an opportunity for personal and professional development.

Integration into everyday working life

L&D measures must be designed in such a way that they can be seamlessly integrated into employees’ day-to-day work. Time pressures and operational demands can make it difficult to attend training courses regularly. Microlearning formats—which offer learning content short and concise enough to be easily integrated into the daily routine—are particularly effective here. Companies should also grant flexibility in terms of learning times and locations in order to meet the individual needs of their employees.

 

These tools support your learning and development initiatives

L&D can be a very complex topic. Companies differ in an infinite number of ways, and so too do their personnel development measures. Fortunately, there are a number of tools that can help you to take your employees’ training and development to the next level. Whether you’re a craft business with 100 employees or a 1500-strong IT company, there’s an L&D solution for every use case and every budget. A small selection of practical tools and their functions can be found in the table below: 

Learning management systems (LMSs)

Platforms for managing and organizing learning content and activities.

Training plan, course management, tests and exams, forums, integration of multimedia content, and much more.

Learning experience platforms (LXPs)

User-centric platforms that offer personalized learning experiences and content.

Personal recommendations, AI-supported learning paths, analyses, integration of multimedia content

Authoring tools

Software for creating interactive, multimedia learning content.

Course creation, integration of multimedia content, interactive elements, quizzes, and much more.

Talent management software

Comprehensive software solutions for managing and developing talent.

Course administration, performance management, recruitment, succession planning, learning analytics

Skill management software

Platforms for managing and developing specific skills within a company.

Skill assessments, competency management, learning paths, analyses, and reports

Flashcard apps

Mobile apps for learning with flashcards, ideal for repeating and consolidating knowledge.

Flashcard creation and management, mobile use, gamification, progress monitoring

Digital conversation trainers

Tools to improve communication and soft skills through simulations and interactive scenarios.

Conversation simulations, real-time feedback, conversation analysis, adaptation to different scenarios

 

How to implement digital learning and development in your HR work

1. Determine requirements

The first step in developing a learning and development program is to identify the training needs of your employees and your company. You’ll need to:

  • Analyze current competencies: Carry out a comprehensive analysis of your employees’ existing skills and knowledge.
  • Identify knowledge gaps: Determine what knowledge and skills you currently lack that will help you achieve your business goals.
  • Survey your employees: Ask your employees about their individual training needs and wants.
  • Market and industry analysis: Analyze requirements and trends in your industry to anticipate future training needs.
     
 

2. Set clear objectives

Define clear, measurable goals for your L&D program. These should align with the needs of both the company and its employees:

  • Corporate goals: Which strategic goals need support in the form of further training (e.g. increasing innovative strength, increasing productivity)?
  • Employee goals: What individual development goals do you want your employees to achieve (e.g. improving specific skills, preparing for management positions)?
  • SMART criteria: Formulate your goals in a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound way.
 

3. Select suitable L&D methods

Choose the learning and development methods that best suit your goals and needs. You’ll find a selection of proven learning and development methods above

Our experienced training consultants will advise you on selecting the right learning methods for your strategy. 

 

4. Choose the right tools

Choose the right tools to support your L&D methods. What tools you’ll need will depend on your objectives and the methods you choose. We can support you in selecting the right software for your learning and development strategy with our free eLearning consultation.

 

5. Create and/or purchase learning content

Make sure your training content is always up-to-date, attractive, and relevant.

  • Create content: Develop your own learning content that aligns with the specific needs of your company.
  • Purchase content: Use external resources and platforms to buy in high-quality learning content.
  • Multimedia approach: Use different media such as videos, text, interactive modules, and quizzes to make the content appealing.
  • Involve experts: Work with internal and external subject matter experts to ensure the quality and relevance of the content.
 

6. Implementation and rollout

Plan and implement the launch of your L&D program in a structured manner:

  • Pilot phase: Start with a pilot phase to test the program and gather feedback.
  • Communication: Inform your employees about the new L&D program and its benefits.
  • Training: Offer training on how to use the new tools and platforms.
  • Support: Provide technical and instructional support to ensure your staff can use the L&D offerings effectively.
 

7. Continuous monitoring and optimization

Continuously monitor and optimize your L&D program to ensure its effectiveness:

  • Collect feedback: Obtain regular feedback from participants to identify potential areas for improvement.
  • Track learning progress: Use analyses and reports to track employee progress and performance.
  • Make adjustments: Adapt the content and methods regularly to changing needs and objectives.
  • Measure success: Evaluate the success of your L&D program based on the previously defined goals and KPIs.
 

Case studies: Companies that are already benefiting from L&D

To make the theoretical concepts and benefits of learning and development (L&D) more tangible, let’s take a look at some successful case studies. These examples show how companies have been able to drive their employee development measures forward with targeted L&D initiatives, while also increasing operational efficiency and employee satisfaction.

Case studies offer valuable insights into proven methods and innovative approaches, and can also serve as a source of inspiration for your company. Learn from other businesses that have already successfully implemented digital L&D measures, and discover how you can achieve similar success in your own company.

 

Digital onboarding at Fressnapf

Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH, a leading pet supply retailer, relies on committed, satisfied, and highly trained employees to ensure it provides first-class customer service and sound advice. The first few months are crucial for ensuring that new employees feel part of the business, for motivating them, and for helping them take pleasure in their work. Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH therefore launched an international onboarding project in 2021 in order to map the process digitally and efficiently. This enabled them to reduce onboarding times while increasing employee and customer satisfaction.

 
Leonie Lichte

Leonie Lipka

Expert Corporate Academy

Fressnapf logo

We’ve been developing and implementing our blended learning strategy since 2012, using Knowledgeworker Create to deliver our content. chemmedia brings a professional approach to our large-scale eLearning projects such as onboarding, offering flexible project management and rapid implementation of high-quality courses. The team is always there for us, providing tailor-made solutions and outstanding service. A big thank you!

 

By switching to a digital onboarding process, the store managers were able to cut down time spent on the induction phase by 50%, and the new employees felt at home right from the start. chemmedia AG and Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH received the 2023 eLearning Award in the Onboarding category for this L&D initiative.

 

Case Study

Case Study Digital Onboarding
[Translate to English:] Case Study Digital Onboarding
Logo Fressnapf

Our pet project: delivering outstanding onboarding

How Fressnapf supports new employees through the first half of the year and takes the pressure off store management.

 

Digital learning and development at COOP

Delivering eLearning courses to 90,000 employees in 15 countries and 11 languages. All with one small core team. Thanks to digital learning and development strategies and a suitable authoring tool, COOP was able to make better use of the synergies within the Group and optimize collaboration across international borders. Increasing quantity and improving quality with less effort and lower costs.

 
Mario Rümmler | Coop

Mario Rümmler

Head Digital Learning

Coop logo

Lifelong learning is a big topic. And it has to be well organized in companies. The solution is eLearning. eLearning is a tool that enables us to train valuable competencies in a targeted manner. Knowledgeworker helps us to design the best possible process.

 
 

Case Study

Case Study E‑Learning Coop Internationalisation
Case Study E‑Learning Coop Internationalisation

Internationalization of eLearning

How the Coop Group creates international online courses for 90,000 employees in 15 countries and 11 languages with the Knowledgeworker Create authoring tool

 

The bottom line.

Digital learning and development (L&D) measures offer SMEs immense advantages. They encourage employee development, increase competitiveness, and strengthen employees’ loyalty to their company. Innovative approaches such as corporate academies, AI-supported eLearning, gamification, and personalized learning paths make training flexible and effective.

Take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital L&D measures to take your employees and your company to the next level. Get in touch with us to discuss how digital L&D measures could work for you, with no obligation to buy. Our experts will be happy to provide you with individual advice and help you find the best solution for your company. Invest in the future of your employees and your company—together we can achieve your learning and development goals.

 
Nadine Pedro
[Translate to English:] Nadine Pedro, chemmedia AG
Nadine Pedro
Copywriter
 

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