Well, one can completely agree with the scepticism about the benefits of social and collaborative eLearning solutions for professional organisations, as the word “social” is being used, and misused beyond proportions these days; especially ever since the emergence of “The Facebook” media, if we can say so. Professional organizations that slapped disciplinary action against employees for using sites and tools intended for socialising are now increasingly encouraging the use of these very tools. It proves beyond a point that professional organizations do benefit from social and collaborative tools as they have become the platforms of eLearning. Here is a list of the top five benefits of benefits of social learning solutions for professional organisations:
Unlimited Access to Knowledge: The various social and collaborative learning solutions open up the floodgates for creating, sharing knowledge via the exchange of ideas, information, and communication. Such a process happens in a geographically diverse area. Organisations invest in creating a knowledge base, forums that becomes a repository of ideas, information for the current and future employees. Members of the organisation enjoy un- restricted access to such tools.
Facilitates Organisation-wide Brainstorming: Ever imagined what would happen if Google shuts down for a day? Well, this tool is not only our source of information, but also, a great help when we face tricky and difficult tasks. Professional organisations face issues that are specific to the industry, business, and organisation. Such tasks need organization-wide brainstorming to find the best possible resolution. Social eLearning and collaborative tools help you coordinate with members of the organisation across the globe to find a resolution.
Savings in Training Costs: Organisations implementing social and collaborative eLearning methods (http://www.comcolors.com/why-should-we-use-elearning-method-1463-en.html) of training reported savings of almost 50%, as compared to those who still adopt the traditional methods of training their employees. Training employees offers a competitive advantage to organizations, and every organization spends a considerable amount of their money, and time in training its employees. Traditional methods of training require physical infrastructure, travel, food, stationary, etc. among other spending. Professional organisations implementing social eLearning solutions can do away with such unnecessary expenditure. It is also observed that Social and collaborative eLearning cuts down the training time by almost 60%. Time is a very valuable and precious resource for any organisation, savings of 60% of this resource is a great advantage to any organization.
ELearning Contributes to Green Environment: eLearning solutions facilitate social and collaborative learning. Unlimited number of employees receive training at the same time, and learning happens by interacting with each other. You do not have to spend on training rooms, electricity, training material, handouts, etc. Apart from savings in time and money, this helps protect our environment, as well!
Leads to Employee Satisfaction: According to a survey, 25% of the employees leave an organization for better learning opportunities. Collaborative and social eLearning solutions encourage dialog, exchange of information and ideas, interaction between employees of an organization. It also creates a personal bond between the employees. An HR executive rightly said, “People do not leave organisations they leave people.” Professional organisations implementing social, collaborative eLearning encourage personal bonding among employees and curtail their attrition rate.
Well, the list of benefits of social and collaborative eLearning solutions has been never-ending, as the list of new and improved tools. Today, we have more social eLearning tools such as Webinars, blogs, forums, intranet, etc. Professional organisations implementing social and collaborative methods of learning experience 26% more revenue from each employee, also such eLearning methods help employees retain the knowledge, information for a longer period.