Behind the Valamis product vision

The data says 249 completions – so, who cares?

Putting all the content online and hoping for the best doesn’t cut it. Learning solutions need to become smarter in connecting the dots between L&D and business.

What is the purpose of a corporate learning platform?

If you are getting 249 completions on a learning module, is it good or not? Do you know how that impacted your core skills? Can you act upon those completions, steer the progress?

Can you see any connection between your learning data and your profit and loss (P&L) statement? Does learning make a difference?

Learning has transformed throughout the past decades. It has become digital, more personalized, easier to access.

But the real change companies seek from digital learning is hardly about transforming corporate learning from classrooms to digital spaces or making a “Netflix of learning”.

It’s ultimately about the health and growth of the business.

There’s an investment involved in an L&D initiative, and business leaders are increasingly curious how that investment impacts their bottom line.

Going digital and capturing those completions is a good start.

But learning platforms need to become smarter in serving the business goals to prove their worth.

Platforms must help L&D teams optimize their progress, while business leaders should see the return on their investment (which isn’t the mere technical cost, since learning also requires time away from something else.)

Corporate learning needs to contribute to the business results

Learning needs to have a business value. We went as far as building our new brand around the idea of connecting the dots between your business and L&D.

While learning does promote wellbeing and personal growth, and it can increase employee satisfaction and retention, organizations must ultimately consider what’s in it for them.

Why they’d pay thousands and use time for learning if it didn’t contribute to their business results?

Making those connections to business is obviously easier said than done. Platform vendors have buffed learning impact for years, but where are the results?

Supervisors and managers need to know what actions to take

L&D teams face unique challenges when it comes to managing learning and development.

There are still many organizations who struggle to gather accurate data from their LMS. And even when there’s data, there may not be know-how, process or tools to put that data into good use.

While reports are commonplace, basic metrics like attendance or login counts only provide a surface-level understanding.

Furthermore, many teams lack the time and resources to sift through data to find meaningful patterns and trends that can guide decision-making.

L&D teams need insights into what is or isn’t working. Supervisors and managers need to know what actions to take.

Illustration of how goals, insights and informed actions work together to develop results. Credit: Valamis.

Another major challenge is ensuring that L&D initiatives align with broader business goals.

Training programs must deliver value and help achieve organizational targets. A learning platform is not able to solve this alone.

Business leaders need to define the purpose of the L&D and give people permission to learn. L&D professionals and skill leaders must facilitate, monitor and steer this progress.

Without a shared goal in mind, a tool will not solve anything. At least not on the organizational level.

Putting action at the heart of our development

At Valamis, we have believed for a long time that successful L&D relies on data. We pioneered the use of xAPI standard and developed a native Learning Record Store when most competitors relied on limited SCORM packages.

We designed our platform to meet the changing needs of organizations, offering a mix of compliance management, required learning, and personalized skill development. But without data, none of this would be measurable. That’s why data capture is deeply embedded into our platform.

Now it’s time to start connecting the dots.

• How can we apply the data to promote greater understanding, efficiency and productivity of learning?
• How can we help L&D teams prove their impact for business leaders?
• How can we maximize the return on investment for our customers?

What we envision to do is to influence the behavior of the learners, managers, and admins in a purposeful way, so that they can accomplish their goals as quickly and effectively as possible. It’s not about maximizing the use time of the platform – quite the opposite.

The purpose of a corporate learning platform is to bring value, not spend your time.

The first step is to make it easy to do the right thing at the right time. That’s why we are putting “from insights to action” at the heart of our product development. We will transform data into insights and suggest relevant actions in relation to predefined goals.

We will be sharing more about the plans throughout the year. If you wish to learn more about the Valamis platform, please subscribe for a quick demo.

Disclaimer: This blog includes future-looking statements. Development is work-in-progress, but plans may change.