Employee training software for small business: what you need and what you can skip

Training a small team is hard for a practical reason: nobody has the job of doing it. The owner or a manager fits it in around everything else, using a folder of PDFs and a spreadsheet of who has seen what. Most training software is built for large companies with a learning department, so it arrives with features you will never open. This guide sets out what a small business needs, what it can skip, and the questions to ask before you buy.

Key takeaways

• Start from the documents you already have. Your policies and handbooks are the raw material.
• You need four things: easy creation, easy access, proof of completion and easy updates.
• Most small teams can skip a full LMS at the start, and add one later if a client asks.
• One topic per module, with questions along the way, beats one long course.
• Keep a record per person: the module, the date, the score and the certificate.

The four jobs training software has to do

1. Make courses without a production team

If a course takes a week to build, it will not get built. Good software should take the PDF, slide deck or Word file you already have and turn it into a module you can edit. You then add questions and fix the wording, instead of starting from a blank page.

Look for a way to update a module without rebuilding it. Policies change, and a course that is hard to change quickly goes out of date.

2. Reach staff without a complicated set-up

Your team should be able to open a course on a phone or a shared computer without an IT project. A link, or a simple sign-in code, is usually enough. Check what happens when someone stops halfway. They should be able to come back and carry on where they left off.

3. Prove who passed

This is what separates training software from a video on a shared drive. You want a record for each person: which module, when, what score, and a certificate where it matters. It should export to a spreadsheet, so you can hand it to an auditor, an insurer or a client.

4. Keep it up to date

Reminders matter more than most buyers expect. Certificates lapse and new people start. Software that flags overdue training saves you from checking a spreadsheet by hand.

What you can usually skip

Large-company training platforms come with a lot that small teams rarely use.

• A full learning management system on day one. See below for when you need one.
• Course marketplaces. Large libraries of generic courses look good but rarely match your own procedures.
• Skills matrices and career paths. These help at scale, but a small team usually knows who can do what.
• Social learning features. Forums and badges often sit empty in a team of twenty.

Do you need an LMS?

An LMS, or learning management system, stores courses and tracks learners. It is useful, but it is one more system to run. Our guide to training without an LMS covers this in full. As a rule of thumb:

If you do adopt an LMS later, you do not have to start again, as long as your course tool exports a standard format. We compare the two common ones in SCORM vs xAPI for small teams.

Start with the training you legally need

Before you build a library, deal with what you must do. Most employers have some required training, and it varies by country and sector, so check the rules that apply to you. For UK employers, our guide to mandatory staff training in the UK is a useful starting list, and we have separate guides on health and safety inductions and GDPR training for staff.

A software tool does not make your content compliant. You remain responsible for what the course says, so have someone who knows the subject check each module before it goes out.

How to build your first module in an afternoon

1. Pick one real need. The induction is usually the best first course, because every new starter takes it.
2. Take the document you already use. Do not write anything new yet.
3. Cut it down to what people must do. Remove the history and the background.
4. Add a question after each key point. Ask about a situation, not a definition.
5. Set a pass mark, and decide what a wrong answer does. Sending people to a short recap teaches more than a red cross.
6. Test it on one person. Watch where they get stuck, then fix it.
7. Send it to the team, and check the results a week later.

Our guide to turning PowerPoint into a training video goes through this in more detail.

Questions to ask before you buy

• Can I build a course from my own PDF or slides, and edit it afterwards?
• Do learners need an account and a password, or is there something simpler?
• Can I export results and certificates, and do the certificates carry my name or the vendor's?
• What is the price with my team size, and is there a minimum contract?
• If I leave, can I take my courses with me in a standard format?
• Can it train people in the languages my staff speak?

Where Reigniter fits

Reigniter's training platform is built so your own team makes the training.

• Import a PDF, PowerPoint or Word file, or up to 100 at once, and each becomes its own module.
• Presenter-led slides with questions on the slide. A right answer moves on, and a wrong one goes to a recap.
• Timers, one attempt and a pass mark per module, for training that has to be taken seriously.
• Deliver it your way: by link, on your own website, at your own address, or as a SCORM 1.2 package.
• Your certificate, not ours, with your logo, an expiry date and a public verify link.
• A dashboard for every person and module, with a CSV export of results.
• Every language, rendered with native voices rather than subtitles.

These features are on the Interactive and Agency plans, and prices are on the pricing page. You can start free to see how it works before you decide.