Learning technology challenges in the large enterprise

In the past, the only thing that differentiated large and small organizations’ approaches were the per-learner cost of their technology and a rigid focus on compliance.

Besides those two differentiating factors, everything else in the training process was universally “one-size-fits-all.”

In today’s age of personalization, contextualization and remote workers, however, larger organizations are facing a host of issues presented by the scale of their operations.

In this post, I’ll review the challenges of scaling effective and personalized learning in the large enterprise, and how the right learning technology leads the way forward.

Complexity of Scale

If I wanted to deliver a hyper-personalized learning program to a group of 20 people, all working on the same floor of the same building, it should be easy. But if I’m looking at 20,000 people spread out across the globe, it becomes an entirely different matter. That’s why organizations should also consider scale when thinking about modernizing and personalizing their learning programs.

Once we get north of 5,000 employees, things start to get a bit more challenging. Right off the bat, 60% of these larger enterprise organizations say that lack of the right technology is a massive challenge to delivering personalized learning. Among the many other challenges these companies face is the need for learning to be in multiple languages and dialects, cited by 59% as challenging or extremely challenging.

The Single Instance

The technology piece would be easier for many of these large companies if they had a single instance of learning technologies across the entire organization. 53% of respondents said it was either important or critical. This makes it much easier to connect the overall technology stack —which can be more complex the larger and more decentralized an organization becomes.

The top 5 learning technology needs for the large enterprise:

Here are the top five things large enterprise organizations seek in learning technology, according to Brandon Hall Group’s most recent Learning Technology Study:

• Ability to integrate with other systems
• Ease of use
• Reporting and analytics
• Mobile capabilities
• Personalization/Contextualization

Totara has a unique approach to learning technology with their Totara Learn LMS, part of their broader Talent Experience Platform.

What makes it a unique opportunity for large-scale enterprises is that it is an open-source platform. This allows companies to adjust the LMS to meet their specific needs, regardless of how large or globally dispersed they are. It also easily ticks off the items on the list above and more.

Totara is one of our Smartchoice Preferred Providers precisely for its ability to address the new personalization and contextualization needs at scale.

– David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group