How to keep your corporate learning content updated

Change is inevitable – in life and in business too. Change can affect all aspects of a company – processes, procedures, policies, technologies, market forces, and growth. 

To keep up with these changes, learning content needs to constantly adapt. Sometimes, a small update will do. But other times, you may need to do an entire revamp to an e-learning course. 

Outdated elearning content can have a serious impact on employee performance and productivity. Additionally, working with outdated content can have costly consequences for your employees, be it in performance, decision-making, or even morale. 

For example, if your company works in manufacturing and has constantly evolving machinery, it becomes crucial that you update your training content as soon as a feature is enhanced or a bug is fixed. Otherwise, your employees will be left confused and make mistakes because of outdated learning content, resulting in a waste of time and effort. This is even more relevant in highly regulated environments where compliance is a must to ensure safety and well-being. 

Why learning content becomes outdated 

Most companies agree on the importance of keeping learning content up to date. But what happens when you go from theory to practice? 

The truth is centralized L&D teams alone struggle to keep up with the numerous changes occurring across the business. Depending on the nature of the business, these changes can be annual, quarterly, or even monthly. In a fast-paced business, the sheer volume of updates can be daunting. Plus, on top of these updates, L&D teams are still being requested to create new training materials to meet skills gaps across the business. 

Many organizations look to external vendors to keep up with the pace of change. However, relying on third parties to update corporate learning content is also a time-consuming process that still requires input from L&D. 

So, how can organizations keep up? 

How Employee-generated Learning supports e-learning maintenance 

What if you didn’t have to rely on a centralized L&D team to update your content? 

Your employees are the ones working in the business, so they know when content is outdated. If your L&D team is overwhelmed, just leave the knowledge where it is—in the business. We call this Employee-generated Learning. 

In a nutshell, Employee-generated Learning is an L&D model that shifts the responsibility of content creation from L&D to your employees. They are the ones who hold all the expertise and the knowledge that you wish to share. 

And because your employees – or subject matter experts (SMEs) – are the ones creating the content, they’re also responsible for keeping that learning content up to date. This creates a more agile, reliable, and faster process to keep all content updated. 

See how Danone started learning at the speed of business by embracing Employee-generated Learning. 

10 tips for learning content management and updates 

Turn your SMEs into content creators

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: It’s time to give the business’s employees ownership over the content creation process. This way, they’ll also feel ownership over updating that content when a change takes place. 

Adding new examples or revising existing ones to reflect recent changes can make training materials more relatable and effective. Empowering SMEs to make these updates directly saves time and enhances relevance. 

Select easy-to-use tools

Your SMEs need a simple tech stack to maintain content easily and quickly on their own. This way, you’ll effectively remove the back-and-forth with a central L&D team or third-party vendor for any minor update. Now, it’s just easy and quick to make the update. 

Look for an authoring tool that provides templates or pre-built modules, allowing SMEs to focus on the content rather than learning complex systems. 

Establish clear ownership

Make it clear across your company who created each course. This way, learners who spot outdated content can easily flag it to the owner who can then update it. 

You can also maintain a content owner registry, which ensures there is no confusion about who is responsible for keeping each piece of learning content up to date. 

Create a review process

Always encourage authors to collaborate on learning content with their peers. This ensures that more than one person is responsible for updating learning content. Additionally, make sure to determine who will be responsible for the content if the main author is not available or leaves the organization. 

Having a second set of eyes also reduces errors and ensures content meets company standards. 

Plan regular review sessions

A key part of the training planning process is scheduling regular review sessions. Set aside time to review each training material to ensure that your training programs remain effective and relevant. 

You might also want to set reminders for content reviews quarterly or biannually, depending on the pace of change in your organization. 

Ask for feedback

Run a poll or survey your employees to address their knowledge gaps and enhance e-learning maintenance. This will help you identify key areas where they need help and which piece of learning content you need to update to address it. 

Feedback is also an opportunity to refine learning experiences by identifying which content works best, ensuring future materials are impactful. 

Use a modular content structure

Breaking training materials into smaller, independent modules allows for quicker updates. Instead of revising an entire course, SMEs can update only the relevant module, saving time and ensuring agility. For example, if a process changes, only the module covering that process needs revision.  

This approach also makes it easier to repurpose content for different teams or training needs, improving efficiency and flexibility. 

Use automated notifications

Implement automated notifications for SMEs and L&D teams to flag upcoming review deadlines or changes in content validity. For instance, setting an expiration date on compliance courses ensures that SMEs revisit and update them before they become outdated.  

Notifications can also be customized to alert authors about policy updates or industry changes that might impact training content, keeping everyone proactive. 

Maintain a centralized knowledge repository

Centralize all training materials in a single knowledge repository to optimize learning content management and streamline updates. Use tagging and metadata to help SMEs locate and update relevant content quickly.  

A well-organized repository improves accessibility and ensures consistency across all training materials, reducing the risk of redundancy or conflicting information. 

Integrate AI for content updates

Use AI tools to detect inconsistencies or outdated data in learning materials. For example, AI can scan for changes in terminology, dates, or industry standards and recommend updates to SMEs.  

Additionally, AI-driven analytics can identify which content is underperforming based on learner engagement metrics, helping you prioritize updates where they’re needed most. This tech-forward approach ensures your training stays relevant and impactful. 

Conclusion 

Keeping your learning content updated is not just about staying current; it’s about empowering employees with the tools they need to succeed. Outdated materials can create confusion and reduce productivity, while fresh, relevant content builds confidence and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. 

By leveraging Employee-generated Learning, organizations can distribute the responsibility of maintaining learning content across their workforce. This not only reduces the burden on centralized L&D teams but also ensures that updates are made by the people closest to the changes. SMEs play a vital role in bringing real-time insights and expertise to training materials, making them more impactful and timely. 

With clear ownership, accessible tools, and regular review processes in place, keeping learning content up-to-date becomes manageable and efficient. The result is a dynamic learning environment that supports both individual growth and organizational success, ensuring your business remains competitive in an ever-changing world.