The latest statistics show that employment of Hispanic speaking individuals is on the rise and grows at 36 times the rate of any other ethnic minority that is employed today. Employers are faced with the challenges of providing the Hispanic speaking community the proper safety training in Spanish to recognize, avoid, and prevent safety and health hazards in their workplaces.

Companies’ safety teams and divisions that have revised and implemented newer safety programs to better communicate with Spanish-speaking applicants and employees have had a substantial decrease in injuries and illnesses. One particular company’s overall injury and illness incident rate was 6.6 (compared to 12.7 in the general industry) and DART (Days Away Restricted or Transferred) was 5.5 compared to 8.5 in the general industry. Among vastly improved safety records the company has also seen improved employee relations with its Spanish-speaking employees and a significant increase in productivity and product quality.

How can LMXonline help your small to mid-sized business overcome language and cultural barriers and compliment your instructor led safety training? We have a Spanish Safety & Health Library that offers a variety of OSHA standardized courses completely in the Spanish Language! Some sample courses from the LMXonline library are, Seguridad de la espalda (Back Security) Soldadura, corte y soldadura fuerte (Weld, cuts and brazing), Investigación y reporte de accidentes (Investigation and accident reports), Patógenos transmitidos por la sangre (Blood borne Pathogens, Preparación para desastre de emergencia (Preparation for emergency disaster). To view more of the Spanish course library, visit us at: http://www.lmxonline.com/lmxonline/CourseCatalog.aspx?cat=127

I would like to share a story with you about a local “hot shot” company that took advantage LMXonline’s  web-based defensive driving course.

After looking at the LMXonline website they decided to give LMXonline a try. They purchased 30 courses, made the assignments to 15 employees as a trial and waited to see what would happen. LMXonline provides a “free” built in learning management platform or an Express Learning Management System. This allowed the company to make the assignment of the course purchased, keep track of who took the course, when they completed it, and what there score was.

Well much to their surprise the employees loved the idea of being able to train from home or anywhere they could get online. The office manager could see when the employee took the course, what the score was and how long it took to complete. This allowed the company to compensate the employee for their time used while taking the course. To the companies surprise all 15 employees completed the course assignment within one week. The company’s office manager went in and viewed the recorded progress of the employee and promptly let the owner know how successful everyone was. Each employee printed out a completion certificate and sent it or brought it in to the office.

Just for grins and giggles, the following week the office manager sent the employees’ certificates to their auto insurance company to see if they were eligible for a discount. It was sheer delight when they found out that they were now going to receive an additional 15% discount per year on their auto insurance premiums. Not only did they manage to save money annually but they also saved money by not having to purchase expensive hardware for the web-based online training courses. They only purchased courses from LMXonline.

Nice Surprise! Not only did purchasing courses from LMXonline allow the employer to save money on premiums but it also provided the employer a way to give the employee an added benefit. Each employee that took the course was given the option of presenting the certificate of completion to their personal auto insurance company to see if they too would qualify a discount.

Wow!, now the online training just turned into a double edged benefit for both the employer and the employee. Another win, win training solution delivered via LMXonline.

Here is a funny safety ad running in Malaysia. Hope you guys enjoy it:

We’ve all become way too familiar with the need to adapt to rising gas prices: We’re driving less and staying home more. We’re also using the Internet more to get things done.  Studies show that there has been an increase of 20%-30% in online training, ranging from colleges across the country to companies that need to provide quarterly training to employees.

Online training is a win-win option. College campuses are saving money by offering classes online because they can avoid depleting their budget on land and building improvements. Companies that have “shrinkage” in their training budgets are now able to meet their budget goals and also provide more training to employees at a much lower rate. Not to mention the environmental benefits: “Green” is in folks; the more we take advantage of online training the better it is for the environment.

So skyrocketing gas prices and shrinking budgets shouldn’t keep your company from providing employees with vital skills training. You can get them the courses they need in a quick and easy fashion – with an online provider like LMX Online.

When you purchase courses via LMX Online there’s no more commuting expense, or plane tickets and car rentals to take you to the classroom. It’s all done online with convenient 24 /7 access with your own computer.  So training online becomes a great way to avoid pain in the pocketbook. You can improve your career prospects without paying for it at the pump. 

For the amount of online courses that one can find online, it was hard to find a website that would offer companies the online courses that they need, along with a management portal which can be used to assign courses to employees, and track progress all at one place. All my queries in this direction always led me to the direction of enterprise level learning management systems which are great, but are too expensive to implement for a small/medium sized business. Moreover, even after you do implement such a learning management system, you are not done. You have just solved a part of the puzzle. You still have to buy online courses from wherever. If you are an individual, things are a little better off since you can find sites where you can take courses, but if you want to implement an e-learning initiative for your company, without breaking the bank, you have nowhere to go.

This led to the development of LMXonline by Portico Learning Solutions. LMXonline boasts of a course catalog comprising of more than 2,500 courses in a range of subjects from safety & health, HR, business certifications to IT skills. Customers get to use their learning management platform for free to assign courses to the employees, track their progress, run reports, and get online certificates. Another plus for an LMXonline user is the ease of use. Having all the needed courses on a variety of different subjects from IT to HR to sales and business skills at one central place, and also the ability to manage the training with the light-weight learning portal designed for companies definitely helps a lot of small and medium sized businesses implement online training without huge implementation costs.