Whether you’re onboarding new hires, providing sales reps with on-the-job product training, or educating leaders on the importance of soft skills in the workplace – you need employee online training tools. Because today, an employee’s learning experience is only as good as your training toolkit.
We know how important the success of your online employee training is to you. So we’ve picked out the top workforce training tools that companies are using across their various training methods and approaches. These are the learning and development tools you need to deliver successful online training.
The 26 online training tools that work every time
Some training tools are fun, but not effective. Others aren’t fun or effective. But these 26 online employee training tools are the ones that most teams prefer. Leveraging these online training tools is your first step to training success!
We’ve broken down these tools into nine categories based on their purpose and functionality:
1. Learning Management Systems
2. Learning Experience Platforms
3. Video Training Tools
4. Microlearning Platforms
5. Project Management and Planning Tools
6. Content Creation Tools
7. Content Management Tools
8. Communication Tools
9. Social Networks
Let’s look at them one by one and explore how you can use each tool to train your employees.
1. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
We’re kicking this list off with the most important of all corporate training tools. Because why try to create online courses without the help of a powerful LMS, anyway?
Your LMS is the dough to your pizza, the canvas to your painting, the… okay, you get the idea. It’s the first and easiest step when building online training programs!
The right LMS software provides the platform for organizing and combining all of your content into a sleek, intuitive learning path. It’s the virtual space where employees go to learn, collaborate, and test their knowledge.
But not all LMSs are the same, so it’s always best to choose carefully based on pricing, customer support, and features that meet your training needs.
You might want to start by deciding whether you need a cloud LMS or a private-hosting system. Here are our picks for each sub-category:
1. TalentLMS: OK, we might be slightly biased here, but we’re not the only ones who think that TalentLMS is the top cloud software for employee training. The independent business software review site, G2, has named TalentLMS a Leader in the corporate LMS category for 2020 and FinancesOnline ranked it #1 on the market. Note that it’s a free LMS, meaning that you can create an account for free and start building your training platform to explore TalentLMS features like automated actions, web conferencing tools, and customizable reports.
2. eFront: If you’d rather host your LMS on your organization’s servers or on a private cloud, check out eFront. With built-in enterprise features and native integrations, you can rest assured you have a system that’s both secure and aligned with your unique needs.
Build your online training courses in minutes with TalentLMS
The learning management system that’s easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to customize.
2. Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)
LX-what now? LXPs are similar to LMSs, but these employee training tools usually need to be used together (so don’t say goodbye to your trusty LMS just yet!). While LMSs are designed for training managers, LXPs are designed for learners. Think Netflix, YouTube, or any other tech that gives you the content you want, when you want it.
These personalized, interactive learning hubs place the learner at the center of their own learning experience. Plus, most of them integrate with gamification, collaboration, and social learning features that make content easy to find and consume.
LXPs are relatively new employee training tools, but there are a number of startups making waves in this space. We’ve listed two examples below.
3. Pathgather: One of the pioneers of LXPs, Pathgather uses modern social learning features to make enterprise training fun and engaging. It also integrates with various LMS and HR systems.
4. EdCast: If you’re wondering how to train employees, customers, and partners with engaging anytime, anywhere learning, this workplace training tool is for you. It’s an AI-driven knowledge cloud system that takes a strong focus on performance improvement.
3. Video Training Tools
As engaging and useful as your course content might be, some online courses will always benefit from live support from a subject matter expert. But this becomes difficult to achieve when employees work remotely, have different schedules, or are based in geographically dispersed offices.
So, what can you do? Fly everyone to a hired venue? Think again.
You can leverage video and audio conferencing tools. These training tools for employees will live stream the subject matter expert online via a platform that allows learners to connect, too. Not only can learners hear and sometimes even see (if it’s video conferencing) the instructor, but they can virtually raise their hands to ask questions and offer ideas and opinions.
Some of our favorites include:
5. GoToMeeting
6. Zoom
7. JoinMe
All of these tools offer screen sharing and recording functions – so if someone can’t make the scheduled time they don’t have to miss out on training completely.
Choose a training platform that works with the videoconferencing tools you love.
TalentLMS is easy to set up, easy to use, and a joy to customize.
4. Microlearning Platforms
Winston Churchill said, “I am always ready to learn; although I do not always like being taught.” Oh boy, would Winston have enjoyed microlearning tools! These interactive tools for training are extremely helpful when you need to onboard new hires, improve product or technical knowledge ‘just in time’, or train remote teams.
You see, the secret behind microlearning platforms is that they make content easy to create, quick to edit, and fun to consume. In today’s fast-paced, uncertain environment, this flexibility makes training a breeze for both companies and their employees.
You can choose from a number of microlearning training tools for new employees, dispersed teams, and any other staff who need to learn in their own time or on the job. Most offer off-the-shelf courses and customized solutions.
Here’s our top pick:
8. TalentCards: This affordable, innovative, and intuitive tool helps you quickly and easily create bites of content called “cards” that can be accessed by employees just when they need them most.
You can use an online training tool like TalentCards through your mobile device. With the rise of just-in-time (JIT) learning, mobile phones can be effective for bite-sized training. Also, mobile phones enable employees to learn on the go, like during commute or while they wait for their next client to arrive.
Bite-sized training courses can be easily viewed even on mobile devices. Keep in mind that having mobile phones as tools for training employees means that your content needs to be mobile compatible (for iOS and Android). You might also need to consider whether these tools are company-owned phones provided to employees, or whether a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) arrangement is best.
5. Project Management and Planning Tools
We usually think of project management tools as something that instructional designers would use. And sure, it’s true. But they can also be one of the training tools for employees to use in their training.
With project management tools, employees can keep their learning on track, and have a better collaboration during group projects and assessments.
The most popular project management tools are:
9. Trello: Neat visual boards, cards, and lists that help to organize and allocate tasks and deadlines. This tool also allows attachments so that documents and content are housed in the same place.
10. Asana: Asana is a comprehensive tool with a wide range of features including calendars, task allocation and due dates, project status updates, and Gantt chart views.
11. Basecamp: Besides the project management features, employees can have focused and casual discussions around the virtual campfire.
Most of these employee training tools integrate with Slack and Calendars, too. Even so, many still prefer Google calendar for keeping employees on top of their training schedule and assessment deadlines.
6. Content Creation Tools
Online content comes in all shapes and sizes – and so it should! Because the best online training for employees fits the content to the learning objectives and not the other way around. This means that most courses require a variety of written notes, graphics, slides, templates, and employee training videos.
The good news is, you can do it all! Here are a few of the most affordable, easy-to-use training development tools for creating effective online content:
12. Canva: Create tailored graphics and infographics for custom eLearning development, or use one of their many templates.
13. YouTube
14. Vimeo
Choose one of these tools to share and host your training videos.
15. Camtasia
16. Wistia
With these tools, you can record your screen for a more interactive training session, or even shoot and edit professional-quality podcasts and videos.
17. Prezi Video: With Prezi Video, you can present in real-time or record your presentation for future use. You can also repurpose one of your existing PowerPoint presentations and turn it into a video, or even use one of the platform’s templates.
18. G-Suite: Google sheets, docs, and slides for creating notes, summaries, presentations, worksheets and templates with the added benefit of being online and shared. This means that multiple team members can create and edit these documents without the worry of version control.
7. Content Management Tools
If you ever find yourself with a pile of quality content and other information, but nowhere to put it, you might be in need of one of these corporate online training tools:
19. Dropbox
20. Google Drive
These are super simple content dumping tools. You can upload content and organize it into specific folders and categories that are easy to find. When used as training tools for staff, Dropbox and Drive can work as a user-friendly library of training content.
21. WordPress
22. Drupal
Similar to a website, these are online platforms where content is uploaded in a professional-looking format, including content pages and forums.
8. Communication Tools
Communication is everywhere in the training process, and it’s also one of the most common examples of soft skills in the workplace.
Instructional design teams, project managers, and subject matter experts need clear communication to create high-quality content on time. Instructors need to communicate with learners to offer guidance and support, and answer questions. And, of course, learners need to communicate with each other to collaborate and share knowledge and experiences.
And you know what they say: great communication begins with connection. Well, at least Oprah Winfrey said it.
Here are the best online training tools that employees and instructors can use to connect and communicate with each other:
23. Email: The old-school (but still very effective) mode of communication. The good thing about email is that you already use it, so there’s no extra cost or training involved.
24. HubSpot: Now if you want to make your communication a bit fancier, or simply remove some of the admin work, you can use a tool like HubSpot to organize your emails. For example, you could schedule and send a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter with recaps of courses your employees are taking. You could also send automated emails to a group of employees to remind them to enroll in a course or leave feedback for an instructor.
9. Social Networks
Social media and communication platforms are where employees are already spending their time. Leveraging their preference for social media means that interaction among learners becomes timely and intuitive.
Here are two of the most popular platforms:
25. Slack: With over 8 million daily active users, Slack is a communication tool not to be ignored. Quick, simple, and targeted communication means that learning design teams, subject matter experts, and learners, all get to say what they need to when they need to. You can create different Slack groups for each course or each department, to give the feeling of a community.
26. Workplace from Facebook: Created by the popular social media platform, Workplace connects employees no matter where they are. For example, if you train salespeople who work in different locations, they can all reach out to each other to ask questions about their training or exchange training materials.
Start leveraging the best employee training tools today
They say that a good craftsman never blames their tools. But maybe they should! Because when it comes to training, the tools are everything.
There’s no time like right now! So start selecting the online training tools for employees and for your learning design team that will make the training process fun, creative, and effective.
