Online Training – Does it Work for Smaller Businesses?

May 5, 2010 9280 Comments2010-05-05+05%3A05%3A19Ben+Nash

Large corporations can afford to send employees to expensive external training courses or to bring trainers in-house for workshops, seminars and other educational programs. But how can small businesses make sure that their employees have similar opportunities to learn and develop their skills? The answer – more small businesses are turning to online learning for high quality learning for much less money.

The primary benefit of online learning for small business is cost savings. Let’s say you wanted to become a Microsoft-certified systems engineer, which requires a multi-day course. That would run about $2,000 per person. But online, you could get the same instruction for under $200 per person. When you factor in the cost of airfare, hotel, and other incidental costs, the savings can be even more dramatic.

Online learning can also be a boon to time management, particularly for small companies. Having people out of the office for a day or two of training can be a problem, but with online learning people can attend the training any time – day or night.

Of course there are downsides to online learning. Some people simply prefer learning in a classroom environment. What’s more, the cost for designing and producing a fully customized online course can be prohibitive. Luckily there are numerous vendors who have already developed courses on a broad range of topics. So most companies don’t need to develop their own online courses unless they have something specific they want training on.

The key to successfully implementing online learning for your employees is to give them the information they need to do their jobs better. Also, if you give them training that they can’t immediately apply on the job, the odds are that it won’t be remembered or used.

Consider supplementing the online material with a live course or two to fill any knowledge gaps. An off-the-shelf training course will be a nice, generic course. But unless you customize it’s hard to make it fit all your needs so you can fill the gaps in the classroom.

There’s an abundance of e-learning providers in the marketplace today. Before you enroll, be sure to investigate the quality and depth of training, and look for a provider with established credentials who will readily share references. Many providers also have online demonstrations so you can review the course before you sign-up.