If you’ve ever found yourself muttering “our LMS is… fine” while silently crying inside, you’re not alone.
In fact, recent surveys show that only 48% of employees feel their organization’s learning tools support their development, despite 83% wanting more skills training. That disconnect is at the heart of why so many teams outgrow their LMS.
Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 learning management system challenges we hear all the time—and some practical ways to solve them.
- It Feels Like a Time Capsule
- Reporting is a Slog
- No One Logs in Unless You Chase Them
- Admin Time is Out of Control
- You Can’t Customize Anything
- It Doesn’t Support Your Deskless Workforce
- Still Waiting on AI and Automation
- The Content is Rough
- It Doesn’t Integrate with Anything
- You Can’t Show Real ROI
What Happens After You Realize You Hate It?
What If You Want to Switch LMS Providers?
Why You Hate Your LMS – It’s Not Just You
1. It Feels Like a Time Capsule
Common LMS Issue: Outdated design, clunky navigation, and poor user experience.
If your LMS reminds you of the early internet—confusing buttons, endless clicks, and outdated aesthetics—you’re not imagining things.
Many learners today feel that they were ‘raised on the internet.’ If the platform feels like a chore to navigate, they’re going to bounce before they even start. That kind of friction kills engagement.
What to do instead:
Look for a platform with a modern, mobile-first interface. Bonus points for AI-powered search features that make finding the right content a breeze.
2. Reporting Is a Slog
LMS Reporting and Analytics Woes: You’re spending hours exporting CSVs, running VLOOKUPs, and still can’t get the insights you need.
Only 35% of HR professionals surveyed believed that their people management functions were using relevant digital technologies. Another report found that 88% of CHROs surveyed considered people data and analytics as critical to their HR strategy. The issue is that the data is hard to access – and even if it’s not, many HR professionals don’t have the data literacy skills necessary to make the connections between the raw data and its impact on the organization.
What to do instead:
Seek out platforms with built-in LMS reporting and analytics dashboards. Real-time data, scheduled exports, and audience-level filters should be baseline—not a wishlist. The goal? Insights that don’t require a data science degree to interpret.
3. No One Logs In Unless You Chase Them
Learner Engagement Problem: If your LMS is just another checkbox, learners won’t engage—meaning all that effort goes to waste.
Learner engagement is one of the most commonly reported headaches, especially with hybrid and remote workforces. And nearly 40% of L&D professionals say that skill gaps in 2025 are a top challenge, making engagement not just nice to have—but critical.
The Fix: Use LMS assessment tools, nudges, and gamified features to encourage interaction. Automated assignments and recommendation engines can help make learning proactive instead of reactive.
4. Admin Time Is Out of Control
Common LMS Issue: Basic tasks take forever and suck the life out of your team.
If assigning one course to multiple audiences feels like launching a rocket, it’s time to rethink. HR tech is supposed to give time back to your day – not take away from it. Lack of time to complete all of their tasks is often the most-cited challenge by HR professionals, so it’s essential that any tech implemented makes that challenge better, not worse.
What to do instead:
Modern LMS platforms offer admin automation for bulk assignments, templated learning paths, and dynamic rules that trigger enrollments based on role or location. The more work you can offload to the system, the more time your team has to focus on strategy instead of spreadsheets.
5. You Can’t Customize Anything
LMS Flexibility Challenge: Every company is unique—but your LMS acts like you’re one-size-fits-all.
If you can’t adjust learning paths, dashboards, or branding, you’re forcing your team into a box that doesn’t fit. And that limits relevance, which ultimately limits adoption.
What to do instead: Choose an LMS that allows for deep customization. Think: personalized dashboards, localized content rules, custom branding, and workflows tailored to departments or job roles. Flexibility is essential for scaling learning culture across diverse teams.
6. It Doesn’t Support Your Deskless Workforce
Accessibility Issue: If your LMS only works at a desktop, you might be ignoring a huge chunk of your team. With the rise of frontline, field, and hybrid roles, mobile accessibility is no longer optional.
What to do instead: Look for platforms that support microlearning, mobile access, and even offline availability. You want a training solution that’s bite-sized, regularly refreshed, and relevant—whether it’s consumed on a warehouse floor or a coffee break.
Bonus tip: Some tools even auto-refresh compliance modules and/ or use AI to create personalized skill-building courses to keep LMS content updated without manual oversight.
7. Still Waiting on AI and Automation
Learning Technology Gap: If your LMS isn’t helping you move faster, it’s holding you back.
Despite the constant headlines about AI in HR, only 39% of HR departments have implemented AI tools. Interestingly, the delay to implement AI tools may be connected to some of these other challenges such as data literacy and the lack of admin time. HR data is often some of the most sensitive data an organization possesses – so it’s crucial that any AI tools are secure. Additionally, any new technology purchase requires leadership support – which HR professionals have to research, curate, and present a case for. Who has time for all of that?
What to do instead: Embrace AI features that improve content discovery, suggest next steps, and automate admin flows. Look for platforms with built-in skills validation and behavior tracking that lets you build intelligent learning paths.
8. The Content Is… Rough
Keeping LMS Content Updated: Dated videos, dull voiceovers, and 45-minute lectures aren’t cutting it. Learners disengage when the content feels out of date or irrelevant.
72% of training administrators report that learner engagement is their top VILT challenge. VILT (Virtual Instructor Led Training) is often held live in a hybrid classroom-type software, as opposed to microlearning which are short asynchronous learning videos, or on-location training that is held live and in-person.
Organizations that have highly personalized employee experiences often increase a 30% in employee engagement and a 20% boost in overall productivity. That sounds great – but HR pros are stretched thin as it is. Who is going to create those individualized experiences for all these employees?
What to do instead:
Prioritize content libraries that offer modern, scenario-based videos and simulations. Even better: content that’s short-form, interactive, and regularly updated. Bonus points if you can supplement with your own materials or crowdsource knowledge from subject-matter experts internally.
9. It Doesn’t Integrate with Anything
LMS Integration Problems: A disconnected system creates duplicate work, inaccurate data, and big headaches.
If your LMS lives in a silo, your team probably spends too much time uploading rosters, cross-checking spreadsheets, and emailing IT.
This isn’t just a productivity issue—it’s a data security concern too. And it’s one of the most common LMS issues reported in large-scale HR tech surveys.
What to do instead:
Look for integrations with your HRIS, SSO, and communication tools out of the box. Platforms that play nicely with others not only save time—they also give you cleaner data and better reporting.
10. You Can’t Show Real ROI
The Biggest LMS Reporting Problem: If your data stops at “video completed,” how do you prove impact?
While we want to believe that a completed training video means that a learner has absorbed the information – completions don’t equal competency. And they definitely don’t prove business impact!
If the only analytics you have access to are completions, you’re missing a big chunk of data that you could use to defend your L&D budget – or grow it.
What to do instead:
Invest in a learning platform that helps tie learning to real outcomes: performance, retention, engagement, even behavior change. Strong LMS assessment tools should allow you to correlate learning with KPIs that matter.
But Wait—What Happens Now?
Recognizing these frustrations is step one. Now what? If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering how to actually move forward. Here’s your action plan.
Get Leadership Buy-In
Before anything else, bring leadership into the conversation. Speak their language: risk reduction, productivity, retention, and bottom-line impact. Use survey data (internal if you have it!) like:
- “Only 48% of employees feel supported by their current learning tools.”
- “Skill gaps and tech challenges are some of our top barriers to success.”
Tie your LMS struggles to strategic goals, not just admin pain.
Consider Negotiating with Your Current Provider
Sometimes, switching isn’t necessary— you just need a refresh of your contract, support model, or features. If your provider has evolved, they may offer packages or tools better suited to your current needs.
Ask about:
- Admin automation features
- Updated content libraries
- AI/analytics add-ons
- Data migration services
What If You Do Want to Switch?
Switching LMS providers might sound overwhelming—but it’s increasingly common. Most modern vendors offer data migration services, API integrations, and implementation support to get you back up and running faster than you’d expect.
You can usually carry over:
- Learner profiles
- Course completions
- Custom content
- Learning paths
- Compliance data
Just make sure you ask about it before you sign.
Making the Case to Leadership
To build a compelling business case:
- Quantify the pain: How much admin time is lost? How many learners disengage?
- Show potential ROI: What could you gain in productivity, retention, or engagement?
- Map costs to outcomes: Leadership doesn’t care about features—they care about value.
Need extra firepower? Use published survey stats to support your argument. The World Economic Forum, Gallup, and McKinsey are all powerhouse report publishers that often publish research on learning in the workplace and the impact it has on society as a whole. While we don’t recommend sourcing statistics from ChatGPT directly – it might be able to point you in the direction of statistics and studies that you’d find helpful (with links!)
How to Choose the Right LMS (This Time for the Win!)
No one wants to trade one clunky system for another with a new logo. Here’s your shortlist to avoid that:
- Does it have robust LMS reporting and analytics?
- Is the content library modern and regularly updated?
- Does it include LMS assessment tools for skill validation?
- Can it handle LMS integration problems gracefully?
- Does it address LMS data security concerns?
- Is it designed for mobile and hybrid workers?
If it checks those boxes—and your team feels supported—it’s probably worth serious consideration.
Why You Hate Your LMS – It’s Not You
You don’t hate your LMS because you’re impossible to please. You hate it because it isn’t meeting the moment—and neither are a lot of platforms on the market.
With the right lens (and some good questions), you can find a learning solution that feels less like a chore and more like the powerful performance engine it was meant to be.
