Social Learning

4 Ways a Social Learning Management System Can Improve Communication

by Debbie Williams

Is the idea of implementing an LMS new for you? Learn more about what a social learning management system is and can do for your organization in our blog article What is an LMS?

The Effects of Poor Communication in the Workplace

While a plethora of modes of communication meets individual needs well, it can complicate communication in the workplace. OneDesk reported on teamwork and collaboration in the workforce, and the results reveal poor communication. The source mentioned, 

“Average time spent in offices per day:

  • 74 minutes trying to contact customers or colleagues
  • 67 minutes trying to find key information
  • 39 minutes duplicating communications
  • 20% of time spent searching for internal information and colleagues
  • 28 hours a week spent writing emails, searching for information, and collaborating internally
  • 59% of middle managers miss valuable information every day, simply because they can’t find it or never see it.”¹

These eye-opening statistics should shake corporate leaders to take actions that will improve office-wide communication. Productivity, the employee experience, employee satisfaction rates, and efficiency will likely increase as a result of better corporate communication. Also, Vitru reported that “businesses with effective communication are 50% more likely to have lower employee turnover.”² Are these not sufficient reasons to do whatever it takes to create communicative company cultures?

“96% of executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communications for workplace failures.”³

social learning management system 

How a Social Learning Management System Can Improve Corporate Communication 

A powerful way to improve communication in the workplace is to implement a social learning management system (LMS). An LMS bolsters communication in a few key ways:

  1. An LMS allows users to communicate easily and intuitively with teams through ‘analytics’ features.
  2. An LMS gives learners a voice by enabling them to submit their own training materials and comment on existing training. This differs from traditional, classroom-based learning that resembles more a dictatorship than a democracy. eLearning Industry wrote, “Today’s digital natives are used to having their say and making their opinions heard. If you want your LMS to become the central hub for communication in your organization, you need a more democratic solution that meets their expectations.”³ A social learning platform can be an incredibly collaborative, communication-promoting tool if its administrators steer clear a top-down training structure.
  3. An LMS facilitates communication and informal learning with social learning tools. Social learning tools like realtime chat, forums, video conferencing, and screen sharing make it possible for employees to effortlessly get in sync with one another. This lets LMS users choose the communication tools that suit them best, all conveniently stored in one location. 
  4. An LMS enables users to interact with peers and training in their native language through ‘language localization’ features. These tools deploy a social learning management system in a whatever language users understand best, breaking down communication barriers.     

 Improve Communication in Your Workplace: Demo an LMS 

Hit the fast track to better corporate communication by requesting a free demo of TOPYX LMS.

REQUEST A DEMO


References

1.  OneDesk. Teamwork and collaboration: revealing statistics. https://www.onedesk.com/teamwork-and-collaboration-revealing-statistics/. July 12, 2013. 

2.  Vitru. Stats, anyone? http://govitru.com/workplace-statistics/. 

3.  eLearning Industry. 5 ways a social learning management system can improve communication. https://elearningindustry.com/social-learning-management-system-can-improve-communication-5-ways. September 19, 2017. 

Debbie Williams

Debbie Williams

Director, Marketing