Stop outsourcing your training every year

Build it. Own it. Use it

There's a common pattern we see with businesses of all sizes - even those in the training industry.

They invest in an LMS (learner management system)....then they upload a library of generic courses.

Staff engagement (and enthusiasm for them) is low and training gets forgotten until renewal time.

The issues usually isn't the LMS - its the content sitting inside of it. If digital staff training doesn't feel relevant to someone's day-to-day reality, people switch off. They skim, they click next, they complete it to tick a box, not to learn anything meaningful.

And the data backs this up:

• 75% of employees are more likely to engage with training that is tailored to their role (CIPD learning Report, 2023)

• 40% of LMS platforms become 'underused' in the first year (Fosway Group, 2023)

• Custom eLearning development improves knowledge retention by up to 60% compared to generic training (eLearning industry, 2023)

So if you already have an LMS, the most valuable thing you can do is fill it with content that feels like you business. And if you are a training provider who's lucky enough to have their own....stop outsourcing your content to a third party and losing money.

Every time you outsource, you lose ownership

Recently, I've had several conversations with small training companies who are delivering work they care deeply about. They are experts in their subject. Their delivery is strong. Their clients get value.

But because they don't create or own the eLearning training materials, they must license them - which means half of the income from every sale goes straight to a third-part provider. I don't blame them. If you think your only option is this....or spending tens of thousands of pounds on bespoke courses, I think I'd do the same.

But when you invest in custom eLearning development, the value stays in your business. (and it doesn't have to cost you the Earth)

You build:

• Reusable resources

• Repeatable training

• Scalable delivery

• A consistent experience.

  
  

That is long-term capability, not rented content.

If you have an LMS, make it work for you

Your LMS is not your training. It's the platform your training sits on.

A well-designed LMS filled with generic content is like a beautiful kitchen with cupboards filled with pot noodles.

Make you investment worthwhile. Your digital training needs to be built and checked by experts and feel like it belongs to your business. It should be branded, it should reflect your business, culture and tone. It should support new employees in developing the confidence to make decisions in real situations, not just recall information from a slide. And it should reinforce your standards and expectations clearly, so people know what “good” looks like here, not just anywhere.

Let me give you an example. A large care company, with multiple sites across the country, has an all singing all dancing LMS. It has secure logins for staff and managers, an easy to use dashboard, branded landing page....

Every member of staff has access to dozens of courses relevant to the industry.....BUT...

Those courses are off-the-shelf, generic courses that could be for any care company in the country. They don't reflect your values, they use imagery and animations you would never use, they aren't always correct - and staff don't enjoy completing them. You've either purchased them as SCORM packages (which don't suit your LMS and glitch constantly) or staff get directed to another platform every time they start a course, which often fails to track progress correctly. Sound familiar?

At Emblem, we design bespoke eLearning and custom eLearning development that you own.

We ensure what we build will slot seamlessly into your LMS system, whether it's only able to use SCORM 1.2 or can accommodate newer xAPI files. We will always design any content with your LMS capabilities in mind. Whether that's simply reducing file sizes to avoid buffering or crashes, or ensuring interactions don't interfere with tracking progress or completions.

We capture your tone of voice, use real scenarios, build interactive content and create training that is memorable.

Owning your content builds capability. It makes training easier to maintain, easier to update and more meaningful for your team.

If you’d like to explore what this could look like, we offer free no-obligation consultations. No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about what might work for your business.

Get in touch!