What is a learning management system (LMS)

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application or online platform designed to help organizations with employee training and learning. While an LMS used to be initially associated with educational institutions only, a corporate LMS soon became a central hub where organizations can create, store, distribute, and track learning content and resources.

Using an LMS in the workplace empowers organizations to efficiently manage their training programs, enhance employee skills, and promote continuous learning.

What is the primary purpose of a learning management system?

The primary purpose of a learning management system is to manage and deliver online learning. It is used by both educational institutions and businesses for conducting training.

LMS helps organizations to streamline and optimize the processes of onboarding, learning, and development. It provides a centralized digital environment where employees can access training materials, such as courses, modules, videos, quizzes, and other learning resources.

What are the different types of learning management systems?

The types of LMS mainly depend on how it’s hosted (cloud or on-premises), who it caters to (small or mid-market businesses, enterprises, or educational institutions), and its licensing model (open-source or proprietary).

Breaking down each of these types of LMS:

• Cloud-based LMS: A cloud-based LMS is an online learning management system hosted on the cloud, offering the advantage of easy accessibility, scalability, and reduced infrastructure costs for organizations.

• On-premises LMS: On-premises LMS is hosted locally on the organization's own servers and managed by its internal IT team.

• SMB to enterprise LMS: An SMB to enterprise LMS is a specialized LMS that promises to handle certain use cases or scale depending on the scale of business (small, mid-sized, or enterprise).

• Open-source LMS: An open-source LMS is a learning management system built on open-source software, allowing users to access, modify, and distribute its source code freely.

• Proprietary LMS: A proprietary LMS is a learning management system developed and owned by a specific company, providing a comprehensive and integrated solution with dedicated support and advanced features tailored to meet the specific needs of organizations.

Companies are also shifting from traditional LMS to advanced learning experience platforms (LXP). These platforms use AI to deliver personalized learning experiences and recommendations to employees.

Who are the users of an LMS?

The primary uses of LMS are learners (employees), trainers (L&D, HR), admin (HR, L&D, IT), and managers (team leads, leaders). Each of them uses LMS to do their part:

• Learners: Complete training or self-enroll in any based on their interests.

• Trainers: Create training content to support learners.

• Admin: Manage LMS by organizing content, creating content, and managing access.

• Managers: Assign training to learners based on their role expectation and interests.

What are the benefits of LMS for its various users?

An LMS benefits users by building a learning culture, centralizing learning, reducing admin time, and improving employee engagement. For the HR and L&D team, it simplifies training delivery and compliance tracking. For employees, it helps to learn/upskill at their own pace. For organizations, it builds a culture of growth and continuous learning.

How do learning management systems work​?

An LMS works by providing a centralized platform for creating content, assigning training, tracking progress, and reporting completion rates.

Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how a typical LMS works:

• Create and manage content: HR/L&D teams create training content (courses, videos, quizzes, etc) and upload it to the LMS. They can also get external courses if the LMS allows integration with it.

• Assign training: Managers or HR can assign training to employees based on the requirement. They can also create learning paths for employees to have all the courses required for a role listed in one place. Many LMS allow employees to self-enroll in any training.

• Track progress and reporting: ​LMS also allows HR/L&D teams to track training progress and engagement rates to measure training effectiveness. This helps them shape up L&D strategy for better ROI.

What makes a good learning management system?

A good learning management system is customizable for your organization, user-friendly for both learners/creators, and allows easy content creation/management.

The must-have features of a LMS are:

• Course management and authoring tools: The LMS should support migration of your old system to their platform (possibly as SCORM export and simple upload). Apart from the old content, authoring new content must also be easy.

• Gamification and engagement features: Organizations now also want the LMS with gamification and social learning features that make learning interactive.

• Learning paths and certifications: The LMS must allow the creation of custom learning paths and certifications to provide structure for learning for specific skills/roles.

• Mobile access for remote learning: With growing hybrid work, an LMS with mobile apps makes it easy for learning to be more accessible.

• Reporting and analytics dashboard: You need an LMS that tracks important KPIs like completion rates, learner satisfaction, and more

• Integration with HR systems: The LMS must be able to integrate with existing HR systems so the worker data is always synced.

Newer LMSs also come with AI features that support course creation and content recommendations.

What is an AI-powered learning management system

An AI-powered learning management system is a digital platform that makes use of AI to create training content and improve learning experiences. Unlike the traditional LMS, an AI-based LMS comes with intelligent features to:

• Create entire training with just a few prompts.

• Recommend the right content to learners.

• Gather data-driven insights about training engagement.

"Through the AI incorporated in the learning development module, I am able to build fantastic courses in half an hour. Deel Engage has everything. We went from cobbling forms together to running reviews, learning, and surveys in one click." — Lucía Rodriguez, Head of HR, Ladonware, on using the LMS module within Engage.

What are examples of learning management systems?

Some top examples of LMS for businesses are Deel Engage, TalentLMS, Docebo, SAP Litmos, and EdApp.

Each of these LMS stands out for different reasons:

• Engage: Engage offers AI-powered LMS that helps you manage development, performance, and training programs in one place. It’s not limited to training but more of a complete HR solution that helps you at every stage of the employee journey.

• Talent LMS: Talent LMS is a popular cloud-based learning management system that helps businesses of all sizes deliver online training.

• Docebo: Docebo is an AI-based LMS helping businesses to provide online training at scale. It’s known for its 400+ integrations, making it easy to connect with your existing tech stack.

• SAP Litmos: SAP Litmos is another cloud-based LMS provided by SAP. It’s good for businesses already using the SAP platform.

• EdApp: EdApp is an AI-powered LMS known for creating excellent bite-sized micro learning.

How do I implement an LMS in my company?

Implementing LMS in an organization requires understanding your training goals, defining training budget, identifying an LMS platform, migrating old content, creating new content, and rolling out the platform phase-wise.

Follow these key implementation steps for a successful LMS rollout:

• Understanding your training needs: Define the learning goals, what type of training, and user features you need before even looking for an LMS.

• Defining training budget: Define a training budget that includes the cost to create training and the software charges to host it.

• Identify an LMS platform: Evaluate different LMS options that support the type of content you need, provide the features you require, integrate easily with your current tech stack, and fit in your budget.

• Migrating old content: Move your existing content to the new LMS platform.

• Customize new content: Develop training programs to facilitate the execution of the training goals and create custom learning paths.

• Launch LMS platform phase-wise: Roll out the LMS to different teams in phases to address/handle any issues and make appropriate changes before the complete launch.

How long does an LMS set-up take?

The implementation of LMS can take weeks to months, depending on how user-friendly the platform is and what your training needs are. For example, implementing the Deel LMS module can take up to 4 weeks, depending on the existing learning content load, the number of team members onboarded, and training requirements.

How does an LMS integrate into a company’s HR tech stack and goals?

An LMS integrates with existing HR tech stack via built-in connections or APIs. You must check the available integrations before taking a subscription to any LMS.

The primary reason why this integration is necessary is that you can connect employee development to different HR workflows. For example, as soon as a new employee onboards in HRIS, you can assign them an onboarding training. You can also link learning outcomes to performance reviews and career growth.

Read more: Discover how to Integrate Learning and Performance Management for Driving Business Results

How do I choose the right LMS for my organization?

To choose the right LMS for your organization, you must understand your training goals, current tech stack, and expected growth of your organization. After you understand these details, you can follow this checklist to identify the LMS that suits your organization:

• Does it support all content types you need?

• Can your existing content be easily migrated to it?

• Does it have a tie-up with any third-party learning providers you may require?

• Does it offer advanced AI features to scale and personalize content?

• Is it user-friendly and engaging with gamification features?

• Can it be customized as per your requirement?

• Can it handle the scale at which your organization is expected to grow?

• Can it be integrated into your current tech stack?

• Does the pricing fit your budget?

What are the top ways to customize learning management software?

The top ways to customize an LMS are the ability to:

• Include your company branding on all screens.

• Create personalized learning paths for different roles and skills.

• Implement gamification features that align with your learning strategy.

• Build custom reports with KPIs you want to track.

What are common challenges in LMS set-up?

The common challenges in LMS setup are low technical compatibility, limited content support, poor user adoption, and high data privacy/security risks. You can solve each of these challenges by taking the following steps:

• Low technical compatibility: Verify if the LMS can be integrated with your current tech stack in advance.

• Limited content support: Check all content types supported by LMS in their documentation, and also take a demo/trial of the product.

• Poor user adoption: Choose an LMS with an intuitive user interface to reduce friction in adoption.

• High data privacy/security risks: Read the data privacy and security practices of the LMS and check if it’s compliant with all industry standards.

What LMS metrics should I track to prove ROI?

The primary metrics to track in LMS are active logins, time spent on the platform, course completion rate, and learner satisfaction score. Another key metric to track (which will not be directly available in the LMS) is the cost and time savings for the L&D team in creating and conducting training.

How much does an LMS cost?

LMS costs range from $5 to $50 per month per user based on features, user count, and the vendor’s pricing model. Costs increase depending on the number of features or the organization’s size. Additionally, there might be one-time set-up fees or additional costs for customization, support, and training.

Manage learning on a global scale with Engage

Deel is a complete HR and payroll solution that helps you handle onboarding, payroll, training, performance management, and offboarding—all in one place.

Engage, our talent management system, converts your traditional, isolated learning programs to data-driven and interconnected experiences. From a single interface, you can:

• Link training to automated onboarding workflows

• Launch learning programs with multimedia content

• Leverage AI to accelerate learning content creation

• Measure learning satisfaction with survey steps within learning courses

• Add quizzes for improved engagement and knowledge retention

• Track training progress

• Create development plans based on feedback from performance reviews and link training courses as concrete action items

Request a free demo today to create meaningful learning experiences for your employees.