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“I keep getting emails about basic training questions” How to Make my LMS Implementation Idiot-Proof

Rebecca Carter[1] had inherited her company’s Learning Management System (LMS) the same way she had inherited her office plant—left behind by her predecessor without much instruction and even less enthusiasm. As the new Training Program Coordinator for a manufacturing company, Rebecca knew she was expected to make the best of what was there, but the LMS felt like a constant source of headaches and emails.

From day one, her inbox was full of messages – most from her colleagues that weren’t about course content or excitement over new learning opportunities – instead, they were simple, repetitive questions about how to use the LMS. “How do I log in?” “Where’s my training?” “Why can’t I do this on my phone?” These questions were coming in every day, mainly from the field employees who weren’t always at a desk and didn’t have much patience for clunky processes when they were on the move. Rebecca knew these workers needed straightforward training to stay compliant and safe on the job, but the LMS seemed to be more of a barrier than a bridge.

Rebecca felt increasingly frustrated, not with her colleagues, but with the tool itself. She wasn’t the one who picked the LMS, but she was now responsible for making sure it worked for everyone. Instead of being a resource to help her company grow, the system had become an obstacle that left employees confused and Rebecca feeling more like a tech support rep than a training coordinator. She had big plans for what learning could look like in her company—ideas about career development, upskilling, and even fostering a culture of learning—but she was stuck answering the same basic questions again and again.

She knew something had to change. If she could make this LMS truly “idiot-proof”—not because her colleagues weren’t capable, but because they were busy and needed a tool that met them where they were—it could make all the difference. Rebecca was ready to make the LMS work for her people, not the other way around, and to finally turn it into the training hub it was supposed to be. No more endless emails. No more confusion. Just simple, effective training that worked for everyone—even the workers out in the field, with barely a moment to spare.

The Cost of Re-Answering the Same Questions

Rebecca could feel the toll that constant troubleshooting was taking on her productivity. Every time she sat down to work on something meaningful—a plan for the next safety training session or a new onboarding module—she was interrupted by another email or call from a confused employee. Most of these were simple, easily solvable questions, but answering them over and over again drained her time, energy, and focus.

The real cost wasn’t just her frustration. Every minute Rebecca spent clarifying how to log in or showing someone how to reset their password was a minute not spent making training more impactful for the company. These interruptions added up, eating away at her workday, turning her into an LMS help desk rather than a strategic coordinator of employee development.

And she’s not alone in this. According to McKinsey,

“employees spend 1.8 hours every day—9.3 hours per week, on average—searching and gathering information. Put another way, businesses hire 5 employees but only 4 show up to work; the fifth is off searching for answers, but not contributing any value.”

Worse still, the more time her employees spent confused about how to navigate the LMS, the less engaged they were with the training itself. Instead of seeing it as a tool to help them grow and succeed, the LMS became a source of frustration—just another task on their to-do list, and an annoying one at that.

Even her colleagues out in the field—who weren’t spending all day in front of a computer—found themselves increasingly frustrated. They didn’t have time to fiddle with login screens when they were trying to complete mandatory safety training in between shifts. Field employees wanted to do their jobs, not waste precious minutes struggling with a system that should be making their lives easier, not harder. The LMS was meant to simplify things, but in practice, it was complicating their lives, not providing value to it.

For Rebecca, the bottom line was clear: this wasn’t sustainable. The more time employees spent struggling with basic LMS functions, the less they were learning, and the more their training became a source of annoyance rather than empowerment. It was a vicious cycle—one that was costing the company not just time and efficiency, but also employee morale. If the LMS was ever going to fulfill its promise, it had to be easier for everyone to use. It was time for a new approach—one that prioritized intuitive access and effortless engagement over constant troubleshooting.

Why Basic Questions Keep Coming Up: Key Obstacles

Rebecca knew she couldn’t keep putting out fires every time someone asked about the LMS. She needed to understand why these basic questions kept popping up, so she took a step back to assess the obstacles her team faced. What she found was that there were a few significant barriers that made the LMS feel almost unusable to her workforce.

Digital Literacy Gap

One major challenge was the digital literacy gap among her field employees. These workers were skilled at their jobs—assembling products, handling machinery, fixing equipment—but the LMS presented an entirely different set of challenges. Many of her field employees lacked basic comfort with digital tools.

“According to the National Skills Coalition, about 1 in 6 manufacturing employees have no digital skills. This includes the ability to use a mouse, highlight text on screen, and complete other basic tasks.

This statistic hit home for Rebecca because it was reflected in the struggles of her own workforce. Simple things like logging in or navigating the interface were overwhelming for some of her employees, who were used to hands-on work rather than digital platforms. For them, even straightforward LMS tasks could feel daunting.

Limited Screen Time

Another key issue was the nature of her employees’ roles. Rebecca’s workforce was primarily made up of field employees who didn’t spend their time sitting at desks—they were out in the field, boots on the ground, getting the work done. Most of their interaction with technology was through mobile devices, and it was limited. This meant that any friction—whether it was logging in, navigating complex menus, or trying to view desktop-designed content on a phone—was going to be a major barrier.

Yet, Rebecca had inherited a system that wasn’t fully mobile-friendly, and her field employees found accessing content a cumbersome, frustrating process. It was no wonder they kept coming to her with questions—they simply didn’t have the time to spend on figuring it out for themselves.

Insufficient Initial Training

Rebecca also had to face another truth: the initial training provided during the LMS rollout wasn’t adequate for the workforce’s needs. When the LMS was first implemented by her predecessor, it came with a one-time training session that overwhelmed employees with a barrage of features and functions, most of which weren’t relevant to their day-to-day tasks. The result? A lot of confusion and very little retention.

According to Training Industry, “70% of employees forget what they learned in training within just one week.”

Without ongoing management and more tailored support, Rebecca’s employees were left feeling lost. They had simply been given too much information without a clear, focused way to retain and use it.

Reaching Out to LMS Vendors for Support

Rebecca knew that if she wanted to stop being the de facto help desk, she had to figure out a way to make the LMS simpler and more intuitive for her employees. So, she went back to the source: the LMS vendors. She realized that while the original implementation had been rushed, there might be additional resources or training that could help her understand the product better and in turn simplify it for her employees. Rebecca reached out to the LMS provider, scheduling additional sessions to really dig into how the system worked, what features could be utilized to make navigation easier, and if there were any customizations available that could better fit her company’s unique needs.

The experience was mixed—while she gained a deeper understanding of some useful features and improved some areas of navigation, she also discovered that there were limitations she couldn’t fix on her own. The LMS interface was simply not designed with her workforce in mind—it lacked the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) considerations needed for employees who had limited time and digital skills. This led Rebecca to an important realization: if her LMS couldn’t adapt to meet the needs of her people, then maybe it wasn’t the right fit after all.

Ultimately, Rebecca understood that it wasn’t just about training her employees better—it was also about having an LMS that was designed to work for everyone, not just those who sat behind a desk all day. She had to make the choice—invest time in making her current LMS work, or consider finding a platform that better supported her mobile, field-based team. With the support she got from the vendors, she managed to make some headway and reduce the number of support emails she was receiving, but it also opened her eyes to the necessity of tools that are truly built for the people using them.

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Strategies to Make LMS Implementation Self-Sustainable

After recognizing the challenges her employees faced, Rebecca knew she needed to make her LMS truly work for them—not just for compliance’s sake, but in a way that felt seamless and intuitive. She developed several strategies to turn her LMS from a daily pain point into an effective, self-sustaining training tool that would ultimately empower her employees to use it with confidence.

1. Create Clear Onboarding and LMS Navigation Guides

Rebecca realized that her employees needed clear, simple onboarding materials that weren’t daunting to follow. She worked on creating step-by-step onboarding guides that explained LMS usage in a straightforward manner, specifically tailored for her non-desk-bound workers. These guides featured a mix of visuals, short instructional videos, and infographics to accommodate different learning styles and avoid overwhelming text. Visual aids were particularly impactful—research shows that visuals can increase comprehension by up to 400% compared to plain text-only instructions . With bite-sized, easy-to-follow guides, her employees had a quick reference they could turn to without needing to send yet another email.

2. Implement LMS Chatbots and an Automated Help Center

Rebecca wanted to provide a way for her employees to get the help they needed without always reaching out directly. To solve this, she integrated an LMS chatbot capable of answering frequently asked questions, like “How do I access my course?” or “What do I do if I forget my password?” According to Gartner, chatbots can handle up to 69% of employee questions, which significantly reduces the burden on support staff . The chatbot was available around the clock, which was particularly helpful given that her field employees worked at varying hours.

Beyond chatbots, Rebecca also revamped the help center within the LMS. She curated and organized troubleshooting articles, FAQs, and video tutorials in an accessible way. This revamped help center became a hub of resources that enabled employees to find answers independently.

3. Provide Access to Training Tools on the Job

Rebecca knew that her employees’ time in front of screens was extremely limited. So, she arranged for dedicated computers to be available at each plant, allowing employees to have a dedicated place to complete their training when needed. She also worked with managers to bake time into their schedules for training sessions so employees weren’t trying to squeeze training into an already packed workday. This small but effective tweak not only helped boost training completion rates but also sent a clear message to her employees: training was important and it was something they could take the time to focus on properly.

4. Simplify User Access with Single Sign-On (SSO)

One of the biggest hurdles Rebecca’s employees faced was simply remembering how to log in. They had too many usernames and passwords to keep track of, and this became an even greater barrier when they didn’t access the LMS every day. Rebecca implemented Single Sign-On (SSO) so that users could access the LMS without needing additional usernames or passwords. This was a game-changer—Okta found that implementing SSO led to a reduction in login-related support tickets for its users, and Rebecca saw similar results almost immediately. The number of login-related emails she received was cut in half, and the ease of access helped get more employees into the system more regularly.

5. Training Cheat Sheets for Common LMS Actions

In addition to comprehensive guides, Rebecca developed quick cheat sheets that focused on common LMS actions. These covered simple, everyday tasks like accessing courses, navigating through lessons, finding specific training materials, or downloading certificates of completion. She kept these cheat sheets concise, and they were distributed digitally, as well as physically posted in common work areas like break rooms. The idea was to make the information as accessible as possible, even for employees who weren’t comfortable navigating digital help centers. “I put a copy of the cheat sheet next to the coffee machine, and I’ve seen people referencing it all the time,” Rebecca said.

Through these strategies, Rebecca was able to transform the LMS from an obstacle to a tool that empowered her field employees to take charge of their learning. These changes not only made training more accessible but also encouraged her workforce to engage independently without hesitation or frustration. By addressing their specific needs, she reduced her daily email clutter and was able to focus on more strategic initiatives for the company.

Conclusion

Rebecca’s journey in transforming her company’s LMS wasn’t about just minimizing her daily frustration—it was about making learning accessible for every member of her workforce. By understanding the unique needs of her field-based employees and taking actionable steps to meet those needs, she turned the LMS from a misunderstood, clunky tool into an asset for her company. Rebecca’s efforts in creating better guides, implementing a chatbot, enabling SSO, and setting up accessible training stations not only led to fewer repetitive questions in her inbox but also helped boost engagement and efficiency across her team.

It’s clear that a successful LMS is one that works for the people, not against them. If you’re facing similar challenges with your LMS or want to ensure your training program truly supports your team, why not see what a difference the right partner can make?

Try our LMS out for yourself or talk with a training expert for free. With over 25 years of experience in eLearning, Knowledge Anywhere will help you transform your program and give you the peace of mind to achieve your L&D goals.


[1] Please note that “Rebecca” is a stand-in name, and is a persona that reflects the experiences and challenges faced by numerous Training Program Coordinators we’ve engaged with at Knowledge Anywhere.