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From Franchise TimesAsk the Expert: E-Learning is more than meets the eye on the travel budgets.
By Robert C. Neagle
While it is true that distance learning is going to be the future - estimates are that the market will grow from less that $1 billion in 1998 to more than $14 billion by 2004 - operators must be careful to employ this technology for the right reasons. It is also true that distance learning can eliminate a great expense (airline, hotel, meals). Some estimate that e-learning can reduce training cost by as much as 30 to 60 percent. The more significant cost savings, however, is in getting back the work hours lost while people are traveling to and from training in more traditional training programs.
Further, it is not a question of should you employ distance learning, but when will you, and will you do it well. Clearly distance learning is here to stay, but how can you benefit?
Before I address that question, let's have a word of caution: distance learning is not about transferring classroom work to the Web and moving on. To be successful you will want to consider the following whether you are a franchisee or a franchisor:
1. Know what e-learning or distance learning is - simply put, it is online learning (instruction) and knowledge management (information). It is both course work and information that puts an employee in a position to learn.
2. Have technology or a commitment to getting it, and using it. Technology, computers and Web-access, is the primary tool for execution of an e-learning strategy. You must be prepared to put your business on-line and reap all the benefits. You can't be afraid that people will waste time surfing the Web.
3. Have or create a learning culture. You need to be a company that values learning, and the fact that you value it must be clear to your employees. If you have a learning culture, where information is shared, you should be able to ask a couple of store managers if they know the specific corporate goals for this year, and the strategies and tactics to achieve them. They should know your top three competitors and why your value proposition positions you for success. They should know what they have to do to help you hit your goals. Learning is the process by which people acquire information or skills to the end of improving their performance and increasing business value.
A franchisor's training department can probably tell you which franchisees do the most training, and how they perform against others in the system. I would be willing to bet that these units are the top performers in sales, customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction and retention.
4. Believe that learning is a continuous process and not simply the work that goes into pre-opening. People are learning all the time - whether you provide instruction in some formal way or not. The question is are they learning what you want them to learn, or that they want to learn?
5. Require that e-learning addresses specific business needs. If learning is about using information to improve performance, then the collective performance of the team should improve the business performance in real and measurable places. It must be accountable to business needs: the reduction of turnover in the manager ranks, an increase in top line sales, an increase in server tips, an increase in customer loyalty, etc. You must be able to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship which is something that traditional training has struggled with.
E-learning won't, or shouldn't, replace all your classroom training. It can supplement it; it can replace 20 to 30 percent of it early on, and more later; it can allow you to do more training and at the learner's pace all the time, any where. E-learning can be an important business strategy for operators who want to control their destiny.
Distance learning may be here to stay, but it is farily complex and should be entered into with a comprehensive strategy and plan.
Bob Neagle is president of Restaurant E-cademy, a provider of e-learning solutions in the foodservice industry, based in RIver Edge, NJ.