Eyeing the SME segment, Leaderonomics, a social enterprise focusing on leadership development, is offering online employee development courses for SMEs that are affordable, localised and convenient.
WITH its new e-learning platform for human resource development set to launch on March 9, Leaderonomics believes it can now offer SMEs a new way of developing their employees on a similar scale to big corporations — but with significantly less investment.
By providing easily accessible, localised and up-to-date content, with the option to complement with traditional (face-to-face) learning, these Leaderonomics Digital Learning solutions may just help SMEs to go to the next level.
“We create the opportunity to have a local knowledge partner that can empower their employees with new learning and development at their fingertips,” says Eva Christodoulou, business leader of Leaderonomics Digital Learning.
“We are taking our mission to grow people into leaders to new spheres through digital learning solutions, focusing specifically on SMEs, a segment that we have not reached thus far.
“Why? Because we feel this segment of the economy is the future. And we feel that while there are myriad digital learning offerings out there servicing the big companies and individual learners, SMEs have largely been left out,” she says.
Leaderonomics is confident that its new offering will provide an opportunity for SMEs to have a consistent, planned and affordable tool that will allow them to develop their people and help the company reach greater heights.
The Leaderonomics Digital Learning provides a library of courses aimed at helping people at different levels of the organisation build leadership skills. Courses are designed to enhance applicability and relevance, bearing in mind all the learning styles and needs.
Leaderonomics is collaborating with a reputable learning platform, CourseNetworking, developed in the Indiana University (IUPUI), that allows easy access to user analytics, with tracking capabilities to measure completion of course and the degree of engagement.
It also has a friendly interface, an internal social networking/collaboration space that companies can make use of, and a significant degree of gamification through badges, collection of points, and leaderboards.
Initially built for academic purposes, the platform provides the perfect space for ongoing discussions, participants sharing related materials with their “classmates”, and a space where employees can come together and organise many other facets of their work, in addition to learning.
Developing employees is a struggle for businesses of any size, especially so for SMEs.
A study by Brown, Murphy and Wade called “Corporate eLearning: Human Resource Development Implications for Large and Small Organisations” suggests that SMEs have a much lower uptake of digital learning compared to larger corporations.
Barriers such as affordability (42%), lack of availability (25%) and beliefs that it may be too disruptive to release personnel (74%) are found to be the main reasons.
Cost of server software applications and difficulties in installing and maintaining served-based systems also makes it difficult for SMEs to adopt this form of learning.
Developing people, of course, does not equate to just training. It could happen through a variety of methods — on-the-job experience, coaching and mentoring, project assignments, even by throwing someone in the deep end of the pool.
Nevertheless, some things are better taught through some form of training — be it classroom, online, or by reading. That is why online learning is a great way to get the content part of learning covered.
Brown, Murphy and Wade’s paper reports the findings of a survey of 1,000 executives across Europe, Asia and North America. The executives identified four issues that e-learning could effectively target: retention, employee attitudes and culture, improved performance, and customer service.
The other, more obvious advantages of e-learning include reducing training costs, saving time, being more effective and environment-friendly. The new solution, officially launching on March 9, will hopefully allow SMEs to find a fresh, interesting, well-planned and affordable way for developing their people.
As such, development no longer needs to be sidelined.
Leaderonomics Digital Learning officially kicks off on March 9. This will be in conjunction with a CEO learning session – “The SME Gamechanger: Revolutionise Your Business” – in which CEOs come together to share their experiences. If you are a SME CEO and would like to attend or find out more about Leaderonomics Digital Learning, please email learn@leaderonomics.com.
Source - http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/smebiz/people/2016/02/22/train-your-people-online/