With the current state of the Nigerian economy, cost savings are a major concern for directors, managers, and business owners. One of the major ways to reduce cost is by reducing the escalating costs associated with traditional training, without giving up training completely.
The cost associated with the traditional training sessions can be extremely high compared to the cost associated with having the same information online and giving staff members access via the Internet.
E-Learning is a very cost-effective training option. It involves virtually no physical space and many of its components, services, and operations can be outsourced, meaning you can engage independent providers and pay very little for the delivery of the electronic programs. This reason alone is why so many organizations have overcome the inertia of continuing in traditional training and made the switch to e-Learning.
Also, by providing your staff with 24/7 training access and convenient delivery to their home, office, or mobile environment, you can increase cost savings. Time is the most critical factor in learning and employees continue to express the need to learn on their schedule. In other words, they are calling for delivery solutions that meet their needs and are on their schedules, not the schedule of the training organization. E-learning meets this requirement and saves the organization work hours and money, while information is maintained and updated much more effectively.
Apart from increasing direct cost savings, e-Learning also improves staff performance. Consider this: Your staff is already trained and very good at their jobs, hence the reason for hiring them. But yet, even the best employees need enhanced training throughout the course of their employment. As the world changes, so too the abilities and knowledge of your staff will need to change, without taxing the budget.
For instance, each new staff should learn about customer service principles and refresh this knowledge periodically. A prime solution can be an e-Learning course facilitated by a website designed to train staff on critical elements of customer service. Here, staff members can interact with the website material and use the data, analysis, strategy, progress reports, and discussion tools to create a community of knowledgeable staff members. In this regard, you have created an online training resource that is current, readily available, and with minimal costs—a feat that cannot be accomplished through periodic traditional training programs.
Taken together, whether a company has a staff of five or five thousand, a budget of thousands or millions, e-learning offers employee knowledge and skill development that can increase profits, cut costs, and offer an optimal return on your investment.
In Nigeria, there is no better time to utilize the potential efficiencies and cost savings of e-Learning than now. This is because the internet has become more reliable and available, budgets are tight, there is an increasing population of young employees who are comfortable with technology, and most importantly, the upfront cost for switching to e-Learning is dramatically reduced through cloud computing.
If your organization is not ready to make a complete switch, you could take the hybrid approach – traditional training for some courses and e-learning for others.
