WAYNE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Learning space is reinventing itself as formal training for the workforce moves toward collaborative, social-learning based solutions, according to a recent Bersin & Associates research report. Kenexa (NYSE: KNXA), a global provider of business solutions for human resources, today released the first and only Learning Suite that incorporates an enterprise-grade Social Learning Management System (LMS).
The LMS’s social features include complete networking, collaboration and knowledge sharing capabilities, as well as interactive elements that allow users to rate learning content and share their experiences with other users. Other components of the suite include a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) and Mobile Learning capabilities.
“Social Learning has been touted as contributing to as much as 80 percent of learning that takes place within an organization. Until now, organizations have not been able to initiate, leverage or participate in this component of learning,” said, Rudy Karsan, CEO and co-founder of Kenexa. “Our new Kenexa Learning Suite with a Social LMS fuses social capabilities with the formal learning process, adding networking, collaboration and knowledge sharing to the online formal learning process. This fusion helps employees perform better in their roles, and provides greater job satisfaction as well as better overall performance for the company.”
Kenexa LMS’s Social capabilities enhance the company’s overall Learning Suite, which was ranked as the best in the market by industry analyst Brandon Hall in December 2011. Brandon Hall conducted an unbiased evaluation of all the major Learning Suites on the market, ranking each on 57 unique criteria. Kenexa’s Learning Suite received the overall top score.
The Kenexa Learning Suite, with a Social LMS, includes several new features, including:
- A student User Interface (UI) that manages all curriculum needs, both formal and informal.
- A home page that provides a quick view of all courses, assignments, groups, workspaces and transcripts for the student and a search box for easy access to all learning content.
- A Learn and Schedule page that provide access to all formal learning with a more detailed view of assignments, Instructor Lead Training (ILT), curricula, quick links to transcripts and access to course catalogues.
- An Ask an Expert feature that allows users to ask questions and then automatically routes these to subject matter experts.
- An Explore tab to provide access to all documents, files, expertise exchanges, postings, courses and training videos for both formal and informal learning content.
- A Managers Only function that allows managers to get feedback and access to HR systems, and will automatically connect to other Kenexa-based solutions.
“Having looked at the way our employees learn on a daily basis—referring to existing materials and job-aids; relying on colleagues for answers; searching for a document online; providing feedback through discussions or email; and collaborating with peers,” said David Stachura, manager of global sales enablement at AMD, “we see a real advantage to the Kenexa Learning Suite 3.0. The new social features of the LMS will contribute to the overall learning process of our organization. It will allow our employees to benefit from both their formal learning experiences as well as the social aspect of networking, sharing knowledge and collaborating. This fusion of formal and social learning will benefit our organization by making answers more readily available to employees, allowing them to collaborate in a way that has become very familiar to them and allowing them to share knowledge, and have that knowledge captured for future learning. These advantages will help our teams leverage our shared organization knowledge and expertise to increase our overall productivity and enable us to be more responsive to our customers and partners.”
As an enterprise-grade solution, Kenexa’s Learning Suite 3.0 can now be used by organizations that are Fortune 1,000-sized companies (at least 10,000 employees). With this solution, organizations can fully customize their learning solutions, set up multiple levels of review and approvals, support virtual classrooms through Adobe Connect Integration, enhance curriculum that is capable of including “super curriculums,” which are courses within curriculums, and improve access to various reports. This allows organizations to quickly educate their workforce in a cost-effective way that reduces time of delivery and time of completion.
“Today’s corporate learning organization is no longer just the source of training for the organization,” said David Mallon, vice president of research at Bersin & Associates. “It is also facilitator and enabler, connecting employees to the best content, expert or even peer to meet the learning need. Forward-thinking learning organizations, therefore, are rethinking their entire perspectives, processes and approaches to best support the natural flow of organizational knowledge—and they are looking for technology solutions that support a holistic approach to learning. Unfortunately, so far, most buyers have struggled to find what they need. There remains significant skepticism as to whether the LMS, often unpopular for its typically learner-unfriendly experience with traditional learning, is the right answer. And, while most LMS providers realize that their continued relevancy demands support for management of both formal and informal learning in all of their forms, few have delivered on the promise of true continuous learning support.”
To learn more about what the analysts are saying about the new Social LMS and to hear Stachura of AMD speak about his implementation of the Kenexa Learning Suite, including the Social LMS, sign up for one of the below webinars:
Date: Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. EDT
Title: Why we Needed a
Social LMS: The AMD Story
Speakers: Rachel Ashkin, Chief
Operations Officer, Brandon Hall Group, and David Stachura, manager of
global sales enablement, AMD
Abstract and Registration: http://go.brandonhall.com/AMD_social_LMS
Date: Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. EDT
Title: The Social LMS –
Fusing Informal and Formal Learning
Speaker: David Mallon,
Vice President of Research at Bersin & Associates
Abstract
and Registration: http://marketing.bersin.com/09_25_12_TheSocialLMS.html
About Kenexa
Kenexa (NYSE: KNXA) helps drive HR and business outcomes through its unique combination of technology, content and services. Enabling organizations to optimize their workforces since 1987, Kenexa’s integrated talent acquisition and talent management solutions have touched the lives of more than 110 million people. Additional information about Kenexa and its global products and services can be accessed at www.kenexa.com. Follow Kenexa on Twitter: @kenexa