Google intranet and you’ll get search results full of questions like “Is an intranet still a thing?” and “Is an intranet still relevant?”.
You might be surprised, then, to see we’re naming your intranet as a hidden door to frontline training: an access point you might not have thought about, but one that could transform your employee’s access to and engagement with your training program.
Intranets (private networks used by businesses to communicate with their employees) have been around since the 1990s. The name conjures up thoughts of an old-school, antiquated digital setup, rather than a modern training delivery method - even though today, modern intranets that are mobile-friendly, integrate with other tools, and provide personalized experiences are out there.
But the intranet’s age might be the very thing that gives it an advantage over new-to-your-business delivery channels. Many organizations have a well-established intranet as part of their communications strategy - in fact, intranet is the 2nd most-used employee communication channel after email. If your business is one of them, the ticket to higher frontline engagement with training could be sitting right under your nose.
The key to this door, so to speak, is your Learning Management System (LMS). Again, these platforms have a somewhat old-school reputation - but newer LMS’s come with modern-day features like microlearning, social and collaborative learning, and integrations with tools in similar ecosystems (like HR and productivity tools, for example). If your LMS integrates with your intranet, you can direct its traffic to your learning content to boost employee engagement and completion rates.
Today we’re going to dig into why you should consider integrating your LMS with your intranet, and the best practices for delivering training successfully through it:
- Why is frontline access to training a problem?
- Why do access issues happen?
- Who should integrate their LMS with their intranet?
- Integrating your LMS with your intranet: the benefits
- Embedding employee training into your intranet: marketing
- Embedding employee training into your intranet: access
- Embedding employee training into your intranet: visibility
- Embedding employee training into your intranet: complementary channels
- Embedding employee training into your intranet: tracking success
Let’s get into it.
Why is frontline access to training a problem?
Frontline employee access to training is a basic principle, but it’s something many businesses don’t get right.
Nearly 50% of frontline leaders say “complex” access is a primary barrier to tech use and, in turn, to effectiveness of training. Accessing training is the first step towards completion - and if this step isn’t taken, no others can follow.
Frontline leaders are clear on training’s impact on customer experience (93%), retention (89%) and workforce performance (91%). Training is also an important part of the relationship between the worker and the business they work for: 83% see training investment as important in a potential employer.
In essence, training access is key to a business’s performance and its relations with its staff. So, what are the barriers getting in the way?
Why do access issues happen?
Frontline workers are everywhere, all at once - and their activities are just as varied as their location. At any one time, a workforce could be made up of a delivery driver navigating their way to the next drop-off, a warehouse worker checking a SOP on a shared tablet, and a manufacturing worker operating a piece of machinery, for example.
The nature of a frontline workforce is that each employee has a different job and a different workflow. Integrating access to training that meets these different needs isn’t an easy task - and as a result, businesses usually find themselves in one of three situations:
A lack of training technology: some organizations have, according to CEO of scheduling app Skedulo Matt Fairhurst “an underlying lack of device technology strategy”. Instead of attempting to use tech to deliver workforce training, they rely solely on intermittent in-person training sessions.
Poor-fit training technology: more common is a situation where the tech the worker uses isn’t optimized for the organization’s way of working. 90% of frontline workers are “somewhat” or “very” reliant on technology to perform their daily tasks - but 84% say “better access to technology” would improve their productivity levels.
Let’s go back to our example of a workforce with a delivery driver, a warehouse worker, and a manufacturing worker. Their employer has a BYOD policy and delivers all company comms via SMS - but its LMS doesn’t support SMS delivery. This is a missed opportunity to integrate learning into the flow of work, which is more relevant and more likely to cause a behavior change. Instead, the business has to rely on workers seeking out training outside of their usual routine - on, say, a shared desktop computer next time they’re in the employee break room.
Unoptimized training technology: technology not being used to its full potential usually boils down to a lack of knowledge. Either the owner of the tech isn’t fully aware of its depth or range of functionality, or they’re lacking the information that would enable them to connect it to another process.
To take the example above, maybe the LMS does support SMS delivery, but the L&D manager responsible for it doesn’t know - or a different person owns SMS comms, and the two haven’t collaborated on a solution.
Frontline training access issues vary - the solution is choosing the optimal delivery channel for your business. And yours may well be your intranet.
Who should integrate their LMS with their intranet
First of all: is integrating your LMS with your intranet right for you?
Training should integrate seamlessly with the functions and workflows you already have - as Matt Fairhurst puts it, the “applications that are really important to the flow of work. Think about how you can complement those primary systems by incorporating adjacent ones that truly are integrated”.
If your intranet is already embedded into your workers’ day-to-day workflows, it’s a channel you should utilize. For example, your workers might have learned during onboarding that they need to check it weekly for, say, next week’s work schedules. If they follow through, and your intranet traffic has the numbers to prove it, you’re sitting on a learner engagement gold mine.
Matt emphasises “a really pragmatic view of the constraints and needs of your org and the workforce” is the key here. If your intranet isn’t well-used by your frontline workers - or you don’t have one at all - you’re better off directing your efforts elsewhere. For inspiration around other training delivery channels, your integrations can be a great place to start.
Note: we’re not saying your intranet should be your only traffic source (more on that in a moment!). That said, many business’s training programs do have a primary source of traffic, with other secondary supporting points of access.
Integrating your LMS with your intranet: the benefits
The less digital friction a worker experiences, the better - a digital barrier can lessen productivity by up to 40% and takes 31% of the frontline out of the flow of work.
In a working environment where employees are often paid by the speed at which they complete a task, too many barriers can be enough to prevent them from accessing training altogether.
Intranet learning solutions seamlessly integrate training into your existing employee workflows. By implementing an LMS intranet integration, you’re reducing digital barriers - like a login screen or a forgotten password - that slow your workers down. Each distraction takes up to 23 minutes of productive time away from a worker. Minimize these, and they’ll be able to learn and complete their tasks at the same time.
You also won’t have a behavior change to manage. 52% of frontline workers want software “bundled together in one app, or as few locations as possible”. An all-in-one intranet can meet this need by consolidating training, communications, and company updates in a single platform. If your employees have been trained to visit it to access company communications, half the battle is already won.
Embedding employee training into your intranet: best practices
If delivering company training through your intranet feels right for you, keep reading. High intranet traffic isn’t the only factor for success - you’ll also need to follow the best practices at each stage of the worker journey to access.
1. Raise awareness with marketing
Your employees might already visit your intranet, but you’ll still need to publicize its new use case: an avenue through which to reach training.
Contract beverage manufacturer DrinkPak did just this after launching PAK University on its Staffbase intranet. Justin Wallace, DrinkPak’s L&D Director tasked with “championing and growing the content” ran a competition to promote the new touchpoint and show workers “there’s somewhere for them to grow within the company”.
The PAK University launch challenge asked workers to complete 3 courses - a manufacturing course, a leadership course, and a choose your own adventure-style course. Upon completion, the workers were entered into a raffle for prizes like AirPods and a backpack.
This competition helped Justin to hit a target number of individuals completing the course - and promote the intranet as an access point for learning and growth.
2. Make it easy to access
To keep employees engaged, make sure the learning content is as easy to access as possible.
This looks like minimizing access points - ideally, to one-tap access. Choose an LMS that allows password-free access to training content (92% of frontline workers will give up entirely rather than retrieve a forgotten password) and enables seamless links.
For example, with one-tap access a warehouse worker taking a 5-minute break could quickly complete a training module on stock organization. Looking for a password, on the other hand, would probably take up the majority of that time window.
Best practice is to aim for an integration so invisible, employees don’t know they’re accessing a separate application. Josh Barrow, Learning Lead at DrinkPAK, describes an ideal software integration as “like pouring water into water. It comes in, does what it needs to do, then disappears”.
3. Make it visible
In the same vein, make sure your learning content is visible within your intranet. Learning content that’s hidden or nested somewhere, or low down in the hierarchy of content, is another digital barrier for employees to overcome.
Intranet-based learning is most successful when it’s visible - for example:
- Pinned to the top of pages with high traffic
- Sitting as a separate menu item
Tip: experiment. Don't limit yourself to one space—have several and see which gets the most attention.
Again, this comes back to not making the worker work to access the content.
4. Introduce complementary delivery methods
Focus on whichever medium has the highest chance of success - but keep in mind that having more than one access method is optimal. Frontline workers are busy people. The more times they’re exposed to your content, the higher your chances of success.
Holly Schroeder, VP of External Affairs at DrinkPak, describes “combining tools and approaches, and taking a holistic approach” as a cornerstone of the business’s approach to learning.
One drawback of an intranet is that it’s ultimately a self-serve method of access. Even a marketing or communications campaign around the channel still requires the employee to go in pursuit of learning content.
Implementing a ‘push’ to complement the ‘pull’ of intranet-embedded training works well here. For example, you might choose to push a new course to employees by SMS or push notification, with a seamless link taking them to the point of access within the intranet.
Traffic control services company Flagger Force did exactly that: hosting its training in a visible location (a tile on its intranet home page) and using push notifications to maximize chances of engagement.
98% of the company was already using the business’s intranet of choice - alongside the opportunity to tap into lessons independently, Flagger Force was able to point workers in the direction of specific learning material and keep engagement levels high.
5. Track your results
Tracking the results of integrating your LMS with your intranet can be time-consuming if it’s not well-set up. DrinkPak utilizes its training tool’s Workday integration to send data on training being completed via its intranet to its system of record.
Jason elaborates that “no matter where you access the content from, everything is tracked, logged, and reported within Workday”. An integration that keeps all data available in one place will make your activity - and that of your workers - far easier to track, without excess time investment on your part.
Integrating your LMS with your intranet: final thoughts
Frontline workers are everywhere, and your training needs to be too.
Rather than focussing on every delivery channel under the sun, or introducing a slick new technology, take a look at where your workers are already at. If your intranet is already a popular tool, an LMS intranet integration very well might be the channel that delivers you to training success.
We’re eduMe, a frontline training provider obsessed with the creation and delivery of great employee learning experiences. To learn more about how DrinkPak built, distributed, and measured the impact of its new training program with eduMe, watch the recording of their session at our frontline training conference.
