Global Learning Management System

Current trends reveal organizations are becoming more globally diverse. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that worldwide employment by U.S. multinational organizations increased 2.4 percent in 2019 to 43.9 million employees.

Although a global workforce offers many advantages like expanding your pool of knowledge, it can pose a big challenge for learning and development teams. Language barriers and time zone differences make it tough to create consistency — one study shows one-third of multilingual companies are struggling with language barriers, and 49% have issues collaborating across time zones. If that wasn’t enough to give you pause, the shift towards hybrid and remote work, the need to reskill workers, and the increasing desire to learn at work all add to the challenges of training a globalized workforce.

A Global Learning Management System (GLMS) is essential for any organization with an internationally distributed workforce, and it’s important to choose the right one based on the features your company needs.

What Makes a Learning Management System Global?

Most LMSs manage every aspect of learning, from housing and delivering courses to tracking learner progress and collecting data, but global learning management systems deliver extra features tailored to the needs of global organizations. For example, a global training system offers multilingual support and localization, allows for collaboration across teams regardless of time zone or physical location, and ensures the swift delivery of courses around the world.

Benefits of Global Learning Management Systems

Global LMSs are highly customizable, which can help combat issues such as language barriers and cultural obstacles. By busting through location and time zone limitations, a GLMS can help your employees learn more efficiently by letting them learn and collaborate anytime and anywhere. They also allow your L&D teams to create courses that meet the needs of small segments of your workforce and localize the language for each group within that segment to ensure consistency.

The alternative to implementing a GLMS is either creating separate eLearning courses for every language needed or providing traditional in-person training. Neither of these options is ideal because they require extensive time and can be prohibitively expensive.

A global LMS combines the best features of a traditional LMS with strategies for managing training programs for an international workforce. With a GLMS, you gain additional tools you need to customize your training while still benefiting from a robust LMS. These benefits include:

• Centralization gives your learning and development teams a single system to manage learning across your global workforce.
• Custom visual branding provides the opportunity to include your company’s logo and colors inside your training, so learners feel more connected regardless of their global location.
• Easier course authoring allows instructional designers and L&D teams to create training templates that can be deployed to global teams to edit and create versions that align with their local processes, culture, and language.
• Improved content management includes features like folder structuring and user permission management that give admins more control of course content.
• More robust employee onboarding keeps your employees happy — a Gallup study revealed when employees report their “onboarding process was exceptional,” they’re over two times more likely to say their job is better than they thought it would be.
• Better tracking and reporting eliminate the management of global employee data across multiple systems. Many LMSs can integrate with global HRIS or employee database systems to push employee data like locations or teams into WorkRamp and automatically update the information to ensure accuracy.
• Fast time-to-value is achieved thanks to a reduced need for complicated implementation processes and lower dependence on external administrators.

Essential Features of a Global Learning Management System

A global LMS includes specific capabilities designed to make delivering and managing multinational courses more efficient, and it also includes the features you expect from a traditional LMS.

• Localization and language support
• Enterprise-level security
• Content authoring and course management
• Testing and assessments
• Event registration and management
• Tracking and reporting
• SFDC integration
• Data visualizations
• Clear navigation and learning paths

When Does a Global LMS Make Sense for Your Company?

If you have a large number of geographically dispersed employees, a global learning management system can be an excellent option. A global training system makes sense for your company if:

• You have a need for language localization. The ability to localize courses can avoid cultural misunderstanding.
• Your employees have extreme differences in time zones. A true multinational learning management solution removes many of the logistical issues that make cross-cultural training problematic.
• You need to improve training consistency. A GLMS lets you use the same course content to train all of your employees regardless of their time zone.
• You want to save money and time on training. It can be very costly to create multiple courses and customized training sessions for employees.
• Your onboarding needs improvement. Great onboarding experiences can make all the difference for talent retention. Having an LMS makes it easy for employees to find information and ensure new hires are able to hit the ground running. With a global LMS, your entire workforce is covered.
• You need to reduce attrition. Talent is expensive. A global LMS helps employees learn necessary skills and develop their careers within your organization so they stay longer.
• Your sales enablement needs support. A global training system can speed up the time-to-first deal through sales and product training.
• You want more effective compliance training. Mandated training and recurring certification programs can be managed inside an LMS, which helps avoid potential compliance issues.
• You need to train customers and partners. A GLMS assists with onboarding customers and helps them find value in your product faster. It can also be used to train partners to give them an edge when selling your product or solution.

WorkRamp Delivers Best-in-Class Global Learning Experiences

WorkRamp unlocks the ability to create engaging learning experiences for employees, customers, and partners, regardless of their location across the world. Our global learning management system features advanced capabilities, including the ability to create localized training programs for multinational audiences and add additional languages as needed. Our GLMS also includes the highest standard of data security and system reliability.

Through our global training delivery network, you can produce international training content up to 75% faster through advanced caching and smart routing technology while managing the learning experiences of your employees and customers through one centralized platform.

WorkRamp has been recognized as the Top-Rated LMS Platform in the 2021 Best Learning Management System (LMS) Solutions list by The Blueprint, a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews software solutions. Our user-friendly interface gives you everything you need to create outstanding internal and external training programs, and our excellent support can help you tackle your biggest learning challenges.

Request a demo to learn how WorkRamp can help your organization deliver a superior global learning experience