Archive for the ‘Tips and Tricks’ Category

Here is the text and below the article as it appeared in the E-learning and Training Magazine.

Embedding E-learning in Small Businesses:

Why they don’t, why they should and how they can.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics there are over 750,000 small businesses in Australia employing up to twenty people. How many of these businesses are getting on the web2.0 wave and taking advantage of the many benefits of e-learning? A report recently published by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLF)[1] has shown that barely a third are involved with e-learning for their staff and those that are, likely use a Registered Training Organisation to deliver the training for them. With some careful planning and some well placed mentoring, small businesses can take advantage of the flexibility that e-learning can offer their staff and take control of it like never before.

Why They Don’t

There is no doubt that training is a priority for small business owners but with pressure from the recent Global Financial Crisis and the current credit crunch in Australia, many business owners are reluctant to spend money on costly training programs. You don’t need to mention ROI if there is no “I” to discuss.

Knowledge of what is available and how to do it is undoubtedly a barrier for many small businesses. The survey commissioned by the AFLF ¹ found that 60% of the businesses surveyed felt their knowledge of e-learning was inadequate. On the bright side, this figure has improved markedly from the previous survey in 2007, but this low knowledge level of e-learning amongst small businesses is a problem.

As a small business owner myself (though not employing anyone…yet) and having worked in many small businesses, I know that time is of the essence. Training new staff is a task that needs to be slotted in amongst doing the accounts, selling the product, networking with clients …. and the list goes on. How are business owners supposed to fit in an e-learning plan for their staff amongst all these things?

Visualising how e-learning can have relevance in their business and industry is a stumbling block for many. For businesses in the traditional trades or other practical industries, making the connection between the computer they do their accounts on and a learning hub for their staff is a big challenge for many business owners.

This is all looking a bit grim so let’s take off the black hat for a while and consider why businesses need to embrace and embed e-learning.

Why They Should

Strategy: With e-learning and web2.0 strategies making ground in the corporate sector, the small business owner needs to join in the revolution to keep pace with their bigger opposition. Creating an e-learning strategy that aligns with the business’s web2.0 strategy will also make it easier for employees to wrap their head around the difficult concepts of digital footprints and how they can impact future employment.

People: Good employees are difficult to keep and they demand training and professional development to maintain high job satisfaction levels. High staff retention also means keeping knowledge in the organisation. With the use of tools such as wikis and blogs, small businesses can retain knowledge in a format that can be searched, shared, stored and built upon for the benefit of both current and future staff members.

For those businesses with a traditionally high staff turnover rate onboarding new staff is a necessary and costly evil. One proven way of reducing costs for businesses is setting up an online staff onboarding program for completion before a new staff member’s first day. This will save many hours of tedious form filling and tour guiding on the job bringing onboarding costs down through reduced wages time and productivity gain.

Skills: The Employer E-learning Benchmarking Survey 2009 also showed that over two thirds of businesses surveyed believed employees need good computer skills and 70% believe that e-learning improves these skills. 81% of those businesses surveyed said that they would encourage their staff to use e-learning. They want it, they like it, but they don’t know about it. So how can we, as learning professionals change the status quo and how can businesses embed e-learning in their organisation?

How They Can

Strategy: Small businesses are diverse in every way and there is no one size fits all strategy. Working out what the strategy should be will require a little bit of navel gazing, some research and some external and experienced eyes. There are plenty of case studies of previous projects and many free and inexpensive online and face to face workshops available to learn from the experiences of others and aid in strategic planning. Ning sites, Facebook groups and user forums abound where folks gather to discuss what their business or institution is doing that works or doesn’t work and what pitfalls and successes can be expected. Embrace the technology early on as part of the research and it will come more naturally when the same technology is being used as part of the learning.

People: Probably the biggest key to embedding e-learning into any organisation is a champion. The best scenario is for the organisation to have that champion in-house. In small businesses finding that person can be difficult. One tip is to look for any staff member who is interested in the internet and web tools. They need not necessarily be an e-learning leader (though that would help) but they definitely need to show enthusiasm for the online format. Often champions will emerge unaided but when they have been located they must be nurtured and supported.

Bringing in an external consultant to mentor the organisation and particularly to aid in nurturing the champion is a strategy that has proven to work quite effectively with many projects. The mentoring does not even need to occur face to face so organisations are not geographically tied to a particular pool of consultants from their city or even their own country (though I am an advocate for using local talent whenever possible). Mentors bring knowledge and experience that will prove to be the maker of success for an e-learning project. Find a mentor that fits the organisation culturally and the chances are the project will be a roaring success.

Tools: For small businesses looking at dipping their toe into the e-learning waters there are three things to remember about choosing tools for their early projects:

(1) Open Source

(2) free and

(3) Open Source

By trying out free and Open Source tools, small businesses can rest easy in the knowledge that they are not allocating vast chunks of the budget to software. If the tool has been tried and tested but does not fit the organisation’s needs, cut it out of the strategy quickly and move on, no capital has been injected into it. If the tool fits but you want something shinier, there will be plenty of proprietary tools ready to take its place. If a Learning Management System is required (and for small businesses that may not always be the case), Moodle is Open Source and can be installed and hosted for peanuts. Hosting packages can be found for as little as $3 a month with unlimited everything and a Moodle installation can be up and running in a matter of a couple of hours at the most.

Content: No e-learning chat is complete without mentioning content. Getting content into an e-learning project is easier all the time. Widgets, embed codes, RSS feeds, Creative Commons, Flexible Learning Toolboxes and user generated content are all making rapid e-learning development an achievable goal for every project. Everybody can unleash their inner instructional designer when they are no longer hindered by the need to know Flash. Changing, updating and growing the content is less of a burden when there is so much freely available content around.

The barriers for small business to embrace and embed e-learning are being conquered by more and more organisations. The costs are falling and the depth of knowledge amongst consultants is getting ever deeper. The tools are more accessible and user friendly every day. Small businesses can jump on the e-learning wave now and ride it all the way to success. All they need is a strategy, a champion and a mentor and they will inform the tools and the content. It is a basic recipe for success that is achievable by all employing small businesses.

Rhys Moult

Director and E-learning Consultant

We-Learn

Email rhys@we-learn.com.au

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¹ Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 2009 Employer E-learning Benchmarking Survey

My twitter mate Sarah Stewart has asked me for some tips for setting up a consultancy business and I have been asked the same question from a few of my colleagues. These are not the only or even the most important but for me they have meant I have been able to go it alone and still keep the family fed. So without any further ado, here are my 7 tips for starting a consultancy business in no particular order:

1. 

   Anyone For Coffee?

   Self Promote.

   Shameless self promotion is essential, especially in the early days. Do it online, do it at parties and do it as often as you can. Let’s face it, you need to get food on the table and if you don’t love your own work how can you expect your clients to.

2. Network Face to Face.

   Meet with everyone and their dog. Go to every event you get invited to and invite yourself to those that you don’t. Have coffees with everyone and pay for them whenever you can.

3. Network Online

   Use twitter. Use it wisely and use it often. Get onto Facebook and link to your site, who knows which of your friends may need your services. Join LinkedIn. Network network network (but be sensible, balance your networking and your self promotion…. you know what I am talking about)

4. Borrow Money

   It takes time to invoice and it takes time for clients to pay (thankfully mine have all been great, touch wood). This aint no salaried job. You need to have cash and you need an income. Bankroll your business however you can but make sure you have at least six months worth up your sleeve.

5. Ask for Help

   If you don’t ask you don’t get and you will be surprised at the sort of assistance available to new businesses. Go to seminars, learn new things, look for government funded business assistance. I went to the North West Business Development Centre to get some advice and now they are one of my clients! So this links in with point 2.

6. Update Your Website

   I say “update because” if you are reading this you have a website….right? If you don’t then you need one, NOW. Even if it is a static page with a phone number on it on a free hosted blog you need to have a website. It is dirt cheap to get your own domain and hosting. My hosting provider Just Host has been great and I recommend it to my clients because I have experienced value, ease and access. Potential clients will look for you online and if they don’t find a website there will be questions raised. But updating it regularly is essential too. You want people going back to it so they remember you and what you do.

7. Share

   Use YouTube, Slideshare, Scribd and Google Docs or whatever to share your knowledge. It gives you great traffic to your website, credibility to your brand and is good fun to boot. What’s more getting your brand on other people’s sites is hard to achieve but by sharing your knowledge using these social tools you might be surprised and find your knowledge and content turning up in all sorts of places.