When you’re choosing employee training software, features matter. A lot. It’s the difference between ticking boxes and actually transforming how your people learn, grow, and perform.
From personalisation to gamification, social learning to seamless integrations—your training platform needs to do more than host content. It should actively drive engagement, boost retention, and support real, measurable development across your teams.
Whether you’re reviewing your current LMS or just beginning your search, here are 9 essential things employee training software should do—if it’s going to support learning that sticks and scales.
1. Personalise learning programmes
We experience personalised content every time we head to Netflix, Spotify or shop online – it’s become a subconscious expectation. The more tuned your training content is to an individual or group, the more employees will engage with and remember what they’re learning.
Not only that, but augmenting training programmes means the stuff an employee doesn’t need is bypassed for the stuff they do – it’s as much about spending time efficiently as it is about expectation.
The best employee training software should easily manage:
- Skills-based assessments to identify individual knowledge gaps
- Custom learning journeys based on role, department, and career aspirations
- Adaptive learning sequences that adjust based on performance and progress
- Personalised recommendations for supplementary learning content
2. Serve gamification, microlearning, and interactive content
Engagement is what we’re after if we’re going to sail the ship towards collective corporate progress. We want teams aboard, eager to explore new seas together. Switch out passive learning for active participation and look at employee development platforms that offer these:
- Gamification elements like badges, leaderboards, and achievement systems to boost motivation
- Microlearning modules that deliver focused learning in 5-10 minute segments for sharper retention
- Interactive scenarios and simulations that provide hands-on practice in risk-free environments
- Video-based learning with interactive elements like quizzes and discussion prompts
- Immersive digital experiences using interactive video and VR
HTML5 Package, or HP5, is an open-source javascript framework that makes creating, sharing and modifying interactive content easy. If your LMS is compatible, you’ll unlock versatile interactive capabilities with the ability to work in more browsers and devices.
3. Have social and collaborative learning features
Team-based engagement energises performance, while resource and idea sharing influence a culture of transparency. When colleagues work openly with each other and can see each other’s progression, they do better work.
Social learning features
Discussion forums – Employees can ask questions, share insights, and engage in peer discussions.
Messaging and chat – Built-in messaging for real-time communication between employees and teams.
Peer feedback and assessment – Learners provide feedback to each other, encouraging knowledge exchange.
Collaborative learning features
Group activities – Teams work together on assignments and projects within the platform.
Wikis and collaborative documents – Employees co-create and edit content together.
Workplace cohorts – Specific learning paths and group structures can be created for teams to learn together.
Community and network building
Learning pathways and shared progress – Employees track their progress and see how others are doing.
Team-based learning paths – Customisable learning plans for teams or departments encourage shared goals and accountability.
Social media-style engagement – Some platforms allow for “likes,” comments, and interaction around content.
4. Surface advanced reporting and compliance tracking
Advanced employee training software provides real-time dashboards and customisable reports to support deeper decisions about your learning programmes. You’ve got to love that, let’s take a look.
The best reporting features include:
- Customisable dashboards for different stakeholder needs
- Automated alerts and notifications
- Audit trails for regulatory requirements
- Exportable reports in multiple formats
- Learning impact analysis tools
- Integrations with the tech you use, or want to use
5. Be mobile ready and accessible
Today’s workforce expects training that is, at the very least:
- Fully responsive across all devices
- Available offline with progress syncing
- Accessible according to WCAG standards
- Designed for microlearning on the go
- Integrated with mobile notifications
If your training software has a mobile app, it means colleagues can access resources even when they’re offline. Moodle’s mobile app features help employees locate and contact colleagues on the same learning programmes, be notified about assignments and submissions, upload files from anywhere, track progress and complete activities.
6. Encourage a culture of continuous learning
Effective training isn’t done once, it’s ongoing. Can your training software work help establish a learning culture at your organisation?
Your training software should:
- Facilitate peer-to-peer knowledge sharing
- Integrate learning into daily workflows
- Recognise and reward continuous development
- Support formal and informal learning experiences
- Enable manager involvement in employee development
When learning is embedded in your work culture, innovation and adaptation can’t help inviting themselves in.
7. Tap into AI and automation
Artificial intelligence should be whisking up some magic behind your pretty dashboard. The better employee training software has essential AI features to make personalisation and scale possible.
If you can’t do any of the following with your platform, perhaps you’ve been sold short.
- Automate content curation from trusted sources
- Provide personalised recommendations based on learning patterns
- Identify skill gaps before they impact performance
- Streamline administrative tasks to free up L&D or HR resources
- Enable natural language processing for more intuitive search and navigation
8. Integrate with HR tools, performance management tools and CRMs
Your training platform should slip into your current stack, like silk. Can it integrate with these?
- HRIS systems for employee data synchronisation
- Performance management tools to align learning with goals
- Talent management systems for career development
- Collaboration platforms like Slack, Teams, Zoom, and BigBlueButton
- Content management tools such as Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox
- Productivity tools like Workday, SAP, Salesforce, and Hubspot
- Authentication and SSO tech, Okta, Azure AD, and LDAP
- Data handling platforms such as PowerBI, Tableau, and GA4
Does your employee development platform allow for custom integrations or bespoke connectors if a tool isn’t natively supported? You never know what the future holds.
9. Host multiple teams, departments or even organisations
This is a 100% must if you’re looking for long-term software. A true multi-tenant solution is where scale, resource sharing and cross-departmental collaboration is mastered. Moodle Workplace is a true multi-tenant solution (hey 👋), and we think it’s important you know what this means for your business.
Organisations, large or small, can:
- Create separate learning environments for different departments or business units
- Maintain consistent branding for multiple tenants
- Centralise administration while delegating specific controls
- Share content libraries across the organisation while restricting sensitive materials
Use the right employee training software to lift important across teams for all the good stuff: engagement, efficiency, cohesion and wellbeing,. Because these are the foundations of workplace productivity.
