ann-torry

Ann Torry 

Most LMS administrators don’t expect their learning platform to help create training content. And that’s the problem.While video has become the dominant format for delivering training, from onboarding to compliance to customer education, most learning teams are still stitching together external tools to get content uploaded, formatted, and assigned. The ongoing challenges? Wasted time, frustrated admins and content creators, and a disjointed learner experience.In 2025 and beyond, it’s time for a better way.Built-in video authoring tools are no longer a “nice to have.” They’re essential for streamlining workflows, reducing tool sprawl, and giving training teams the centralized control and functionality they need to move faster and deliver better results.Why Video-First Training Isn’t Optional AnymoreTraining has shifted dramatically in recent years. According to the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), demand for asynchronous, flexible learning has grown by more than 60 percent since 2020. Today’s learners expect training to be:Self-paced Video-based Accessible on demand And it’s not just what learners want; numerous studies demonstrate that video training works. A 2023 survey by Synthesia found that 97 percent of L&D professionals believe video is more effective than text-based documents for training purposes.Video brings training to life, especially in environments and industries where visual context matters most including:Manufacturing: Demonstrate machinery use, safety protocols, or PPE requirements. Construction: Standardize equipment handling and jobsite procedures across teams. Continuing education: Break down certification topics in fields including healthcare or real estate through high-quality video modules. The Hidden Cost of a Disconnected Training Ecosystem Here’s the workflow that many LMS admins are up against:Build content in a separate tool. Export and package it (often in SCORM). Upload it to the LMS. Test it to make sure it works. Fix any issues and re-upload if needed. This process repeats every time you update a course. Every time a slide changes. Every time a video needs a new voiceover.And that’s just the admin side. Learners often deal with mismatched layouts, buffering videos, and inconsistent UI experiences depending on where the content came from.This lack of continuity and complexity drains time and energy from teams that are already stretched thin.Built-In Video Authoring = Faster Workflows, Better ResultsWhen your LMS has native video tools, everything changes.No more jumping between platforms No more downloading, uploading, and re-uploading No more tech support tickets to fix broken SCORM files With some LMSs, you can record, edit, caption, and launch video training directly inside the LMS. Whether you’re creating an onboarding module, a safety briefing, or a product demo, the workflow is seamless and owned entirely by the training team.Built-in tools allow you to:Create both asynchronous (on-demand) and synchronous (live-recorded) content. Add chapters, closed captions, and learner checkpoints. Customize views based on role, department, or location. Update content instantly, without redoing entire courses. Use Cases That Benefit MostAdmins in high-complexity environments feel this pain the most and benefit the most from simplification:Manufacturing: Video-based SOPs and safety training can be created and updated as equipment evolves. Construction: Toolbox talks, project walkthroughs and site-specific instructions can be standardized across crews. Continuing education: Instructors can record certification lessons directly in the LMS and update them regularly to meet changing regulations and compliance standards. In all three industries and many others, having video tools built into the LMS drastically reduces turnaround time, enabling learning teams to operate with more agility.On-Demand, Multi-Format Learning Without the HassleA modern LMS should let you serve learners on their terms whether they’re on a factory floor, at a jobsite, or completing CE credits at home.With video-first LMS tools, you can:Record updates and deploy them instantly. Reuse live sessions as on-demand modules. Offer training that’s mobile-ready and always accessible. Eliminate the silos and software sprawl that slow down delivery. This leads to faster launches, lower training costs, and broader learner reach without the need to bounce between tools.Rethink What Your LMS Should Do to Support Your Video Training RequirementsYour LMS shouldn’t just be where training lives. It should be where training comes to life.If you’re tired of patching together systems, chasing down SCORM errors, or waiting on content updates to go live, look for a platform that does more than host videos. Choose one that helps you create, customize, and deliver training the way your learners expect it: seamless, self-paced, and easy to access.When your tools work together, you gain more time to focus on learner success.

Stop Stitching Tools Together: Create Video Training Directly in Your LMS

Mid-sized companies are in a unique spot: big enough to need structure and scale, but often short on resources. You might support hundreds or thousands of employees across roles, regions, and business units—but your L&D team? Probably still small, juggling endless requests on a tight budget.Still, training doesn’t have to stall when things get busy. With the right strategy and tools, mid-market L&D leaders can drive real impact—without extra headcount or dollars.Here are five common challenges—and how to tackle them:1. The Bandwidth BottleneckL&D is rarely overstaffed. Requests pour in, but the team stays lean—sometimes even a team of one.Smart leaders don’t build everything alone. They tap internal champions to help with content and delivery, then centralize materials like Zoom recordings and job aids into a simple LMS.You don’t need 300 courses. You need the right courses that are organized, accessible, and easy to update.2. Budget PressuresAs your company grows, expectations rise—but your budget may not.Good news: you already have what you need. Record subject-matter experts walking through tasks or answering FAQs. Use short videos, screen shares, or walkthroughs that can be reused.Blended learning helps, too. Combine asynchronous content with live sessions to stretch your budget. Prioritize content that works across teams—from onboarding to ongoing development—for maximum ROI.3. Proving ROIIn a mid-sized company, every investment has to earn its place. That means training can’t be a black box.Go beyond completion rates. Are new hires getting productive faster? Are sales reps closing more deals? Are support tickets dropping?Soft metrics matter, too—like promotion rates and manager satisfaction. Visual dashboards and charts can turn your wins into stories that leadership can see and support.4. Outgrowing Legacy ToolsSpreadsheets and shared drives may have worked at 200 employees—but not at 1,000. A modern LMS changes that. It simplifies delivery, automates busywork (like reminders and tracking), and ensures consistency—especially in high-impact roles like managers or frontline staff. Scaling training doesn’t require complexity. It just requires smarter systems.5. Keeping Top Talent EngagedOne of the costliest challenges? Losing high-potential employees who don’t see a path forward.A clear training and development strategy helps retain them. When people see growth opportunities, they’re more likely to stay—and contribute more. You don’t need bureaucracy to build career paths. With the right culture and tools, you can offer meaningful development without overpromising promotions. That agility is your advantage.Where to Start: Make Onboarding Your LaunchpadIf you improve one thing this quarter, make it onboarding. It’s high visibility and high impact, influencing everything from productivity to retention.Use a simple 30-60-90 framework:Days 1–30: Orientation, culture, early wins Days 31–60: Role clarity, key tools, and systems Days 61–90: Independence, goal setting, and growth planning A good LMS can automate much of this and give you clear data on effectiveness and time-to-productivity.Looking Ahead: Train for AgilityMid-market L&D wins don’t come from formality—they come from flexibility. That means mapping skills (not just roles), running short upskilling sprints, and embedding learning into the flow of work.You don’t need to mimic enterprise strategies. You need to stay focused, fast, and aligned with your business goals. When training becomes a growth engine—not just a support function—you turn every challenge into an opportunity.

How Training Leaders Can Solve Their 5 Biggest Challenges—Without Adding Headcount or Blowing the Budget

The main reason training fails is because it isn’t training that is needed. If you want improvement, it is easy to assume the first thing your employee needs is more training. But in many cases, you would be wrong. And when you are wrong, the training you provide will likely be a complete waste. Even when you are right, there are myriad reasons why training has no apparent effect. Training develops skills. While skills are obviously important, skill alone does not enable an employee to succeed.It’s tough to succeed if you don’t know what you are supposed to do When a client complained that a supervisor was showing no progress in making improvements in her department, I asked the employee to describe her job responsibilities. She produced a well-organized list of tasks needed to keep things moving day to day. There was nothing on her list to indicate that improving the way her department operated was something she needed to think about. A new understanding of the scope of her job was a prerequisite for any change. As long as her focus was simply on getting through the day, improvements were unlikely. This may seem an extreme or unusual example, but it is not. One of the biggest complaints in most companies is a lack of communication and that often translates into people not knowing who is supposed to do what when. Only after employees are aware of what is expected of them can you tell whether they have the skills to execute. Ya gotta wanna If an employee has no interest in doing what you ask, the clearest expectations and best skills in the world are of little consequence. This happens more often than you might think and it is not just among the punch in, punch out, get paid crowd.  I’ve heard countless managers say that they know exactly what their boss wants, but they have no intention of complying. The reasons include anger and disagreement, more often than inability. They go on their merry way and the boss could easily assume they need training. It takes three to tango The diagram below shows the three components that govern individual behavior: awareness, skill, and attitude. In region 1, an employee is aware that something needs doing and has the skill to do so but not the desire. In region 2, an employee is aware and would like to contribute but doesn’t have the skill to do so. In region 3, an employee would like to help and is able but is unaware of the need. All three are necessary if an employee is to behave as desired. When looking for a change in behavior, start with awareness. This is often the fastest fix. A simple conversation may do the trick—and listening needs to be a big part of the conversation. “Oh, you mean now!” is emblematic of the kind of revelation that can unlock doors. However, a consistent lack of clarity and communication across people and time can point toward more significant organizational problems and not just issues involving individual awareness. Assess skill second. While inadequate skills take time to address, it should be pretty easy to distinguish capabilities from awareness and attitude. Could the employee do the task if his life depended on it? I don’t recommend you use threats, but thinking about it this way can help eliminate confusing inadequate skills with problems involving expectations and motivation. If skills are lacking, then training is certainly needed, assuming you have the right person for the job otherwise. Attitude is the last thing you should worry about. Once an employee knows what is expected and has the appropriate capabilities, a lot of “attitude” problems evaporate. No man’s an island, especially in the workplace But if attitude still seems to be a problem after ensuring appropriate information and skills, there is still a good chance attitude is not the problem. This is because employees don’t operate in a vacuum. The environment around them provides everything from conflicting priorities and mixed messages to inadequate resources and contradictory reward systems. Most employees come to work eager to do their best and bad attitudes are frequently the result of feeling unable to do their best for any number of reasons. Some of those reasons are shown in the diagram below.If there are too many priorities, there are no priorities. You can’t just keep adding to an employee’s to-do list. If you want an employee to do something that they aren’t doing, you may need to help them identify things they can stop doing or do more quickly. Mixed messages are also common. An employee hears one thing, but witnesses contradictory evidence. A classic example involves management harping about quality and then authorizing the shipment of products with known defects. Such action can undo countless efforts to improve quality. If you talk to employees about their challenges you will often hear them explain that they would like to do things differently and they know their managers want the same thing they do, but current standard practices have them hand-cuffed. A little change here affects the guy next door, the form used, the order of operations, signatures, interfaces between groups, and the next thing you know, the IT department is involved. In short, few processes fall within the control of a single person or even a single group. And few people have the authority, time, or skill set to work though the details and decisions needed to prevent wreaking havoc in redefining the process. Wishful thinking just doesn’t cut itOld habits, squeaky wheels, and the path of least resistance have a way of winning. If you expect employees to change their behavior you need to set expectations, ensure they have the skill and support they need, and then hold them accountable.  Are we doing what we said we would do? If not, why not? What must we change? Too often, the management piece of this is ignored. No one is responsible for results. Wishful thinking is not a substitute for management follow-up. “Employees hate change” is a management cover-up Something I see frequently at many companies is the employee with lots of ideas for improvement but no authority or access to a mechanism to initiate change. Many would be thrilled if someone would ask their opinions about how things could be improved. Some of these employees manage to push in the right places and get some results; others are eternally frustrated despite their best efforts.  I remember personally attending many meetings where fundamental problems were unearthed, wonderful ideas were formed, and then the conversation and the energy dropped off a cliff while the group struggled to identify a next step—someone to turn to who could make things happen, someone even interested in the problem and the ideas. After a time, those who push for change leave the company or go dormant until something happens to renew their hope and efforts. Encourage desired behaviors Resource limitations are related to conflicting priorities. You must support desired behaviors with time, information, tools, equipment, experts, space, agreed methods, etc. You would never expect someone to paint your house with a two-inch brush but the equivalent happens in companies all the time. “Just do it” is often followed by declined investment requests. While obviously you can’t give everyone everything they want to make their jobs easier, you also need to provide essential support and avoid creating a counter-productive us-versus-them dynamic with your resource allocation process. Contradictory reward systems can include both official and unofficial reward systems, the former being the compensation system, the latter being the informal recognition. Sometimes both are in conflict with the desired behaviors.  A classic example involves management’s desire to complete projects on time and on budget. They stress planning ahead, meeting deadlines, and anticipating and preventing problems. One project with a dedicated team quietly puts in the long hours, meets their deadlines, and does a great job of meeting expectations. No fuss, no muss, no fanfare. A second project falls behind and gets into hot water.  But then the hero arrives on a white horse and saves the day. Never mind that the hero was part of the team that failed to stay on the straight and narrow in the first place. Who gets all the attention? The acclaim? The bigger raise? If it is the guy in the shining armor, you’ve got a problem. A culture that celebrates fire-fighting produces fire-fighters. Don’t shoot arrows in the dark If you want an employee to do his job well, not only must you be sure he has clear expectations, the right skills, and a willingness to do well, you must also be sure the many forces around him are encouraging the desired behaviors and discouraging the undesired behaviors. It may sound overwhelming and financially impossible to get this right. It isn’t. No one gets it “right.” There is no perfect organization. Success lies in properly diagnosing the hurdles to improved performance in your particular situation. If priorities aren’t really priorities, step back and reassess who you are, where you are going, and how you intend to get there. If your reward system is encouraging the wrong behaviors, change your reward system. If training is needed, train. If you “fix” the wrong things, you waste money and time. If you “fix” things randomly, the odds are against fixing the right thing. Determine specifically what is preventing the individual and group behaviors that would make a difference in your company. And then remove those obstacles to better performance. Note: This post is reprinted from the white paper, “Why Training Fails,” © Ann Latham. All rights reserved.

Ann Torry

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