Training programs have become crucial for the success of every organization. Experts have endorsed this, and data on the subject backs it up. By 2020, the total spending on training across all industries reached $82.5 billion, adding that half of the experts expect their training budget to increase, according to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report 2022.
Companies know that investing in training for their employees attracts, retains, and engages talent, ensuring improvements in competitiveness and productivity, explaining why many have chosen to develop well-defined training initiatives such as the Corporate University. This article will help you understand everything you need about this training strategy.
What is a corporate university?
A corporate university is a non-stop learning system understood as an internal educational entity in charge of staff training.
It acts as a virtual meeting point, sharing all knowledge through programs, courses, itineraries, and learning actions with different methodologies and modalities. It has become an excellent tool for internal knowledge management in a company.
This modality combines effective learning content and strategies to offer a training program that favors company results. It’s also an excellent way for employees to acquire knowledge and develop skills that help them grow professionally, increasing their satisfaction and strengthening the corporate culture.
What are the objectives of the corporate university?
Corporate universities have several objectives. Some of the most important are:
Improve professional development
A corporate university’s main objective is to boost employees’ capabilities to achieve the company’s goals. This improvement involves the knowledge of specific processes they develop in their role and other skills such as leadership, communication, and teamwork.
Increasing the value of the company
The corporate university is an element that increases the organization’s value. Training programs guarantee that employees’ actions align with business objectives, making the company more competitive. At the same time, this strategy increases the well-being of employees: when they feel cared for, they are 3.7 times more likely to recommend others to work there.
Transmitting corporate culture
A corporate university is designed for employees to develop skills and knowledge. At the same time, it’s the ideal model for integrating the company’s values and corporate culture into the training of professionals. It’s the perfect place to meet colleagues, share experiences or challenges and strengthen ties.
Homogenizing training
Another objective of the corporate university is to align all staff under the same standards and, in this way, homogenize training. In other words, it means to offer a training scheme that ensures all professionals are rowing in the same direction to achieve objectives and improve together. This goal is vital in organizations with different locations around the world.
#5 Benefits of the corporate university
1. Flexibility and resource savings
Managing the commuting, infrastructure, and maintenance of a group of employees to carry out training is a significant investment of time and resources. A corporate university eliminates these barriers, offering flexibility to professionals when accessing knowledge from any device and at any time.
2. Responds to the training needs of employees and talent development
The corporate university grants the design of customized training and development programs based on the training needs of employees. This guarantees adequate and relevant learning for their roles within the company and, at the same time, responds to the demand for professional development, growth, and progress in their careers.
3. Increases employee satisfaction
A survey conducted by LinkedIn Learning asked employees what would motivate them to spend time on training. The data demonstrates that employees under 35 are encouraged to grow professionally, while those over 35 find exciting training that helps them stay current in their field of expertise.
Corporate universities enable employees to acquire new skills, update their knowledge and boost their capabilities. They offer high-value learning experiences using collaborative learning 2.0 tools, through which employees can share resources and experiences, increasing their satisfaction and sense of connection with the company.
4. Align training with the company’s objectives.
For individual and organizational objectives, the corporate university aligns professionals with the company’s goals and needs while helping them develop skills and specific knowledge related to their roles within the organization.
5. Promotes innovation
Lastly, the corporate university is also the perfect way to keep everyone in an organization up to date on industry changes and trends. As a virtual meeting point for employee training, it becomes the ideal place to update skills and knowledge as work changes and evolves.
How to use technology to implement the corporate university in your company?
To implement the Corporate University in our company, we must have a technology capable of adapting to the strategic needs of our training project. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are the most effective tools since they provide a scalable, attractive, and complete learning environment. They also offer a series of functionalities that considerably facilitate internal knowledge management:
- It provides customized training, regardless of the profile of each faction and the processes in which it’s involved.
- Official announcements and enrollments are automatic, which eliminates workloads.
- All training activities can be scheduled. In addition, news and press releases can be created automatically.
- Users are dynamically assigned to training groups or schools. Itineraries can be segmented, ordered, and designed according to the profile, position, or business seniority.
- Diplomas and certificates are issued automatically.
- Suppliers, collaborators, and customers can be part of the Corporate University, allowing them to be certified and work according to the organization’s processes and methodologies, creating a comprehensive university.
- The documentation for teams and collaborators will always be updated thanks to a documentary and knowledge administration profiled by roles.
- Time and costs will be reduced as you can automate, schedule, scale, and simplify all your training processes and activities.
An LMS also helps you manage training from start to finish, analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of your training project. Thanks to its measurement and analytics systems, you can identify strengths and areas for improvement, considering your team’s training needs.
LMS, the corporate university environment
With an LMS, Corporate Universities have a unique and direct channel to all corporate knowledge, making available to the employee all the resources and methodologies necessary for effective learning:
- Formal itineraries: a complete, structured, and pedagogical training based on formal methodologies.
- Social learning: LMS platforms encourage informal learning, allowing a great deal of interaction among users, thanks to forums, chats, and other ways of interaction.
- OnDemand learning: it’s essential to have LMS platforms to integrate a knowledge library, in which the employee can access the necessary documentation, information, and files thanks to a powerful content management system.
Create a corporate university simply and effectively with isEazy LMS
Do you want to provide your employees with the necessary resources and tools to train and grow within your company? The corporate university is the perfect solution: it boosts employees’ development and continuous training. IsEazy LMS also offers technology capable of deploying corporate knowledge in an all-embracing way, providing homogeneous training, and aligning training with your company’s strategic objectives.
IsEazy LMS is the new concept of an online training platform that allows you to efficiently manage your training programs while offering a personalized experience to your employees. Ask for your free trial!
