Is Your LMS Creating Buyer’s Remorse for New Hires?

When I was in high school (a little less than 30 years ago), I remember seeing a commercial from Head & Shoulders that said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Of course, they were trying to sell shampoo to people with dandruff, but that line never left me. It’s puzzling to me why so many companies don’t put more effort into making sure that they create a string of positive and memorable first impressions when a new hire starts — including their Learning Management System (LMS).

I was talking with senior HR leader back in the fall of 2022 and I remarked to her that when new hires start at a company, they are consistently scanning the environment for evidence that they made a good decision to join. One of my favorite authors of the past few years, Michael Bungay Stanier, says it this way (and I’m paraphrasing here): People want to know are they safe. They want to know that where they are is where they belong. That means that the first week on the job is critical to putting a new hire’s mind at ease and assuring them that they made a good decision to join your company.

According to a study by BambooHR, 70% of new hires decide whether a job is the right fit within the first month — including 29% who know within the first week. My experience tells me those numbers are a little low, but I’m a focus group of one so Bamboo HR could be right. Not only that, but the study also said that 44% of employees say they’ve had second thoughts about their new job within the first week. Yikes!

Now, a good LMS can help contribute to a positive onboarding and learning journey, but it should support the initial employee experience you’re trying to create; it shouldn’t be the experience. Too many companies think that as long as they have an LMS and some courses for new hires to take, they have onboarding covered. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

An LMS is simply a platform that helps guide a new hire’s learning journey. It’s one link in the chain of evidence that a new hire uses to evaluate their decision to join your company.

LMS New Employee Experience

Think about it this way: When your employees encounter your LMS, do they say or think things like:

• “That was easy to access.”
• “That online course was insightful,” and
• “That curriculum was well thought out and makes me excited to be here.”

Or, do they say or think something like:

• “It was really difficult to log in and find my way around.”
• “I’m glad that’s over. That compliance training is exhausting and that system sucks,” or
• “I don’t really know how that training relates to my job.”

An LMS That’s Just Right

If your new hires are saying more of the latter and less of the former, your LMS and learning content may be creating “buyer’s remorse” instead of “buyer’s delight.” (By the way, what did you say to yourself, or to others, when you first experienced the LMS at your current company?)

I’ve seen a lot of Learning Management Systems in my career — some with so many bells and whistles that you need extensive learning just to use them. And I’ve also seen Learning Management Systems that are so simple that they’re not much use beyond the first day of employment.

What every company needs is an LMS that guides the new hire on a journey of discovery that helps bring them up to speed at the company quickly. The system should support and enhance the onboarding process and be carefully woven into the employee’s initial experiences, and not the other way around.

So, when it comes to selecting an LMS to guide the learner’s experience, the first key to making a good selection is to consider the LMS from the new hire’s perspective and ask yourself these questions:

• Is it easy to log into and find my course assignments?
• Is it easy to find courses that I may want to take for career or professional development?
• Is it easy to navigate from one course to the next?
• Does it gently remind me when I have a course assigned, and when the due date is approaching or has passed?
• Does it let me know when new content has been added to the course library?

Those last two questions are related to more advanced LMS platforms, but the first three are essential. Your LMS should create a positive and straightforward way for your new hire to learn key information about your company.

But don’t focus only on the new hire experience. Be sure that it’s user-friendly for your Learning & Development (L&D) team, especially if it’s a department of one. You want to make sure that the system is simple and straightforward to create courses, assign courses, update courses and manage users. You need ease-of-use for both groups of users.

Is the LMS in My HRIS Enough?

Now you might be wondering, “Why shouldn’t I just use the LMS that’s provided by my HRIS provider? After all, it’s included in my subscription.”

If the LMS provided by your HRIS provider satisfactorily addresses the questions above, and your L&D department finds it easy (or easy enough) to use, then go with it. It can certainly make it easier for your new hires and employees to access learning.

However, if the LMS that’s built into the HRIS doesn’t meet the requirements above, find one that does. There’s nothing worse than saving a few bucks on an LMS only to find that your new hires are experiencing buyer’s remorse and making an internal decision to shorten their stay.

Your LMS should create a learning experience that creates a sense of belonging with the organization and buyer’s delight for your new hires. It should be a pearl in a string that leads your new hire to say, “I’m thrilled that I joined this company. I’m excited for the journey ahead.”