Training Management Systems – What Exactly Do They Do?

Keeping on top of your organisation's training requirements can be a demanding task – particularly if you operate in a highly regulated industry that calls for strict compliance from employees and operations.

Training management systems essentially simplify the process of training staff, whether for compliance purposes or simply for employee/business development.

These systems can allow you to automate your compliance training management processes to ensure that you, and your employees, never fall foul of regulatory requirements.

In the financial services industry, this could mean the provision of advanced testing and assessment engines to manage the competencies and proficiencies of staff, the production of security-validated audit trails for policy, SOP documents, and training events, and full record keeping/document management capabilities.

In the life-sciences and biotech industries, this could translate to centralised management and tracking of GxP, GMP, GCP, and GLP training, FDA compliant record-keeping capabilities, and the ability to manage training across the entire organisation – in all departments.

With user-friendly interfaces, training management systems often consist of a hosted or installed software package that allows employees and managers/supervisors to log in and view any upcoming training modules, the progress made on these modules, and also any previously completed modules.

Employees can easily see how many modules they have completed and, more importantly, how many modules they have remaining to achieve a particular certification or competency.

Managers/supervisors have access to a private administration area that enables them to edit learning materials, view reports on compliance, and manage the workflow of all training modules.

Some of the more advanced training management systems incorporate an E-signature function whereby employees and supervisors can confirm that training has been completed to an acceptable standard.

Audit trails, as aforementioned, can be an extremely important feature of training management systems – allowing organisations under strict regulatory requirements to prove that training has taken place as and when required of them, and that their organisation is therefore deemed competent to operate responsibly within the industry.

The productivity gains and competitive advantages to be had from using an effective training management system are just as important as the need to remain compliant with regulations.

With organisations in all industries looking for ways to edge ahead of the competition, there are fewer more effective competitive advantages than that of having fully trained and competent staff. Training management systems ensure that your staff force is readily equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to service your customers properly and efficiently.

In fact, the best training management systems can result in substantial, quantifiable business development and growth, allowing you to realise a highly positive ROI on the initial cost of the software.