Independent Study Reveals Skillsoft Elearning is a Smart Answer to the Global Talent Crisis

NASHUA, N.H. --(Business Wire)--

Skillsoft today announced the results of an independent study that revealed that Skillsoft's elearning solutions build skills that impact job performance as well as or better than classroom training and in-house elearning. Because Skillsoft elearning is generally more cost-efficient than classroom training or building elearning internally, it can be readily scaled to more employees, helping organizations adapt with more agility. The study was conducted by KnowledgeAdvisors, the world's leading learning analytics company, and built on the results from Skillsoft's 2011 Moving the Needle: How Skillsoft Learning Impacts Performance of Individuals and Organizations report. This latest study compared the 2011 findings to two new benchmarks: classroom training and in-house developed elearning. The results revealed that Skillsoft elearning is better at reducing the time it takes to perform tasks, increasing sales and decreasing costs compared to classroom training and internally-developed elearning solutions. The study provides evidence that maximizing Skillsoft elearning is a sound way to respond to the worldwide skills shortage and the 'do more with less' paradox.

The analysis compared the responses of 7,800 Skillsoft learners from 465 organizations to benchmarks that contained millions of classroom training and internally-developed elearning data points. The analysis found that Skillsoft elearning solutions were as good as or better than in-house developed elearning and were as effective as classroom training in their ability to positively impact the job. Responses came from organizations of all sizes and industries across a wide geographic landscape with varying lengths of experience with elearning.

"Business leaders are most concerned with getting a return on their training investment and business impact. By selecting Skillsoft, they can reach their organizational development goals with a cost efficient and highly effective solution," said Kieran King, global director, loyalty strategy, Skillsoft. "The results of the study are significant in today's climate where organizations need to solve deep talent gaps with constrained budgets and staff. The results make a strong case for training and HR professionals to reduce unnecessary classroom investments and stop developing elearning solutions that can be purchased or outsourced more easily and less costly."

According to the study, some of the key areas in which learners experienced clear, measurable benefits using Skillsoft's elearning solutions include:

Positive impact on critical area of business performance - According to the ROI Institute, 96 percent of CEOs want to know the impact that training has on performance, but only 8 percent receive this information. KnowledgeAdvisors determined that there are significant benefits to be realized from the use of Skillsoft elearning related to job performance across a number of critical areas including:

8.1 percent improvement in the time it takes to perform a task. This is 47 percent higher than internally-developed elearning and 30 percent better than classroom training. Respondents cited easily-accessible reference materials and training programs as well as improvements in time management, more efficient reporting and process improvements as contributing factors.
8.2 percent decrease in costs with Skillsoft elearning, which is 38 percent and 33 percent better than in-house elearning and classroom training benchmarks, respectively. The decrease in costs was due to improved employee productivity and work efficiency and reduced training and travel costs.
8.2 percent increase in sales with Skillsoft elearning. This is a 48 percent and 40 percent improvement over the other benchmarks. Increased sales were a direct result of improved employee skills in understanding customer needs, negotiation, assertiveness, communication and business acumen.

Increased satisfaction - The results demonstrated that Skillsoft learners are 43 percent more satisfied than classroom learners and twice as satisfied as learners using in-house elearning.

Higher learning application rates - According to KnowledgeAdvisors, employees typically apply 20-50 percent of what they learn to the job. The 2011 study showed that Skillsoft content has a very high application rate with 86 percent of the content that employees reviewed being applied to the job within six weeks. The follow-up study found that Skillsoft content is applied at an 8 percent higher rate than classroom training and at a 12 percent higher rate than in-house developed learning.

Benefits of elearning demonstrated across industries - KnowledgeAdvisors collected sufficient responses from seven industries to produce market-specific results in business consulting, business services, education, telecommunications, computers, finance and government. Of note, Skillsoft's ability to increase sales was strongest in the telecommunications, business services and computer industries. Additionally, Skillsoft's learning application rate was highest in the business services industry at 93 percent.

"Organizations should feel compelled to explore how they can optimize their investments, scale learning to reach more employees and implement solutions that truly enable an agile enterprise," said Jeffrey Berk, Chief Operating Officer, KnowledgeAdvisors. "The study KnowledgeAdvisors conducted for Skillsoft leveraged millions of data points from real Skillsoft users which demonstrated that Skillsoft solutions are highly effective, cost efficient and contribute to improving individual and organizational performance across industries. This is particularly relevant now as organizations are faced with shrinking budgets and rising workforce training requirements."

The report is available at: http://www.skillsoft.com/infocenter/whitepapers/documents/whitepaper_challenge_the_status_quo.pdf. For more information about Skillsoft, please visit http://www.skillsoft.com/.

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About KnowledgeAdvisors
KnowledgeAdvisors is the world's largest provider of learning and talent measurement solutions. Our industry-leading learning analytics system Metrics That Matter^® helps businesses significantly improve the business impact of learning, and our consulting team provides learning measurement strategies to help optimize talent development programs. For more about KnowledgeAdvisors, visit: http://www.knowledgeadvisors.com.

About Skillsoft
Skillsoft is a pioneer in the field of learning with a long history of innovation. Skillsoft provides cloud based learning solutions for its customers worldwide, ranging from global enterprises, government, and education to mid-sized and small businesses. Skillsoft's customer support teams draw on a wealth of in-house experience and a comprehensive learning e-library to develop off-the-shelf and custom learning programs tailored to cost-effectively meet customer needs. Skillsoft's courses, books and videos have been developed by industry leading learning experts to ensure that they maximize business skills, performance, and talent development.

Skillsoft currently serves over 5,000 customers and more than 13,000,000 learners around the world. Skillsoft is on the web at www.Skillsoft.com.

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