Companies seeing quick returns on e-learning, new study says
Although still in its infancy, e-learning is demonstrating return on investment for retailers, says new research from consultants Bersin & Associates. The study, "Blended Learning: What Works,” reports that retailers are using e-learning to bring store personnel up to speed faster so they are generating sales sooner and to roll out products faster.
In addition, like almost every other technology investment these days, retailers are looking to take little steps that will build up to bigger initiatives, says Josh Bersin, principal and research director. “Retailers typically do not have sophisticated training organizations, so the concept of e-learning is a bit much,” he says. “They’re looking for simply ways of doing this without investing millions of dollars.” Bersin says companies are seeing returns as high as 700% on their e-learning investments.
Bersin cites Kinko’s as a prime example of how to use e-learning without a major investment. “They’ve developed a methodology where they meet with the appropriate parties when a problem arises, then within a few hours of the meeting, identify whether the solution warrants a course, a web page, a job aid or a conference call,” he says. “With e-learning, people have a tendency to believe that they need to build a course every time they want to deal with something. But at $30,000 to $50,000 a course, it’s expensive and they don’t need to.” Often, he says, a brief audio or video update will suffice.
Retailers also often need speed in getting information to the marketplace and that’s another area where small e-learning initiatives can make a difference, says Bersin, who is a former executive with e-learning technology vendor DigitalThink Inc. “If you have a 90-day promotion, you can’t spend 60 days building the information you need to get to stores,” he says.
Bersin notes, however, that e-learning needs to work with other forms of learning as well. "This study demonstrates that blended learning--training programs combining a number of modalities such as e-learning, live instruction, and teleconferencing--has broken through as a major corporate application which is helping the world`s largest, best-known companies increase productivity, time-to-market, product and process quality, and revenues," Bersin says.
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