How to choose a LMS for your small business

LMS: how does it work for a small business?

We have been in the eLearning business for a while now, and we’ve been working with a lot of companies from various industries. What have we learned from this? That corporate needs differ from one company to another, even if they operate in the same industry, even if they have quite the same number of employees, even if they might seem similar from the outside. And that’s especially true for small businesses that need solutions that address their particular pain points, their particular learning needs. 

Small businesses want to prevent turnover, to deliver qualitative onboarding programs that familiarize employees with the company and its culture, and to keep up with the new realities of remote training, imposed by this post-pandemic world. Thus, a LMS is needed. But as companies are different, LMSs are different too. So how do you choose the best LMS for your company? What features are important for your specific needs? How do your employees learn? What tools do you need to increase the knowledge retention and the engagement rates among your people?

Features to take into consideration

Price packages

You have to keep in mind that not all eLearning platforms are appropriate for small businesses, as some of them limit their clients based on the number of active users. That means that if you’re a small company, you have to check it twice if they have packages appropriate for you. However, at Knolyx, we think that eLearning is the best option for everyone, so that’s not a criterion for us. 

Intuitive interface

Usually, when it comes to big corporations, there is a person or a whole team in charge of the implementation of an eLearning platform. But for small companies, this is different and they usually need an intuitive interface that makes the sign-in process easy. 

Social learning

It’s a well-known fact that people prefer learning together, that this gives them a sense of inclusion and makes the learning process interactive and more engaging. And in times of a pandemic, this is exactly what every business needs: to find a way to enhance engagement, even when employees are not physically together. And a LMS should offer this. At Knolyx, we’ve translated the need of social learning into communities of practice, which bring people together to share insights and knowledge, to ask questions and to find solutions together. 

Progress tracking and reporting

The purpose of a LMS is not only to deliver knowledge, but also to to track the learning progress. eLearning platforms offer progress tracking and reporting options, the possibility of creating learning paths and of keeping track of the learners’ progress at every step of the training process. Before choosing a LMS, you should make sure that it comes with this options and that you can always be in full control of the progress. 

Good support

From time to time, you might encounter some issues with your eLearning platform. It happens. That’s why you need a LMS that has a friendly support team behind it, ready to help you overcome any technical issues. 

Accessibility

We live in an era of mobile phones and learning should be adapted to this context. That’s why you should make sure that the LMS that you choose is accessible on any device, from laptops to tablets and phones.