E-learning or face-to-face: how best to carry out HRMS training

HRMS training is essential to ensure that you are getting the best return on investment from your HR software application. An HR team who is knowledgeable about how to retrieve data is able to make more informed decisions in an efficient manner. Should you focus on e-learning or face-to-face training? Here are the key points to consider when designing your HRMS training strategy.

E-learning advantages

E-learning is a cost effective way to provide knowledge to your staff with training delivered remotely. There is no loss for travel time either as your employees can log in from their normal work location.

Recommended reading: HRMS training is just one part of implementing a new system - make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible with these nine steps to HRMS implementation success.

Recording e-learning sessions is another positive aspect as employees can later return to the training as a refresher or it can be done at a convenient time for individual employees. This option is especially attractive to large global companies on different time zones where a number of employees all need to take the same course.

E-learning disadvantages

One risk of e-learning is that it is easy for an employee to be distracted by interruptions as they are in their normal place of work and it’s easy to take a phone call or read emails on the side while trying to follow a remote HRMS training session.

Participants often feel disconnected from other participants and the instructor when everyone is remote. Networking is more difficult when you’re not directly meeting but are only connected via a network.

Face-to-face advantages

When an employee is in a classroom setting they are able to fully focus on the course content without distractions. If you are using external training providers it sends the message that you are investing in career development as there is a cost for courses.

An instructor is able to monitor the room and to watch faces to see if the material is being absorbed. They are better able to see progress and judge whether hands-on training exercises are being understood through being in the same environment. Face-to-face is particularly useful for training complex or detailed topics such as how to enter a new hire or build an advanced HRMS report.

Face-to-face is especially relevant for companies who have HR employees concentrated at a limited number of sites.

Face-to-face disadvantages

When a classroom full of employees will have a wide range of knowledge or experience in HRMS software, more advanced students may start to tune out when the course content is less relevant to their roles. As the group usually needs to move at the same pace it can be frustrating for an end user to have to wait for others to catch up.

E-learning and face-to-face methods of training employees to use your HRMS each have their advantages and disadvantages, the key takeaway is to understand their strengths and to apply accordingly to your organization.