Workplace training is an integral aspect of any organization, but, with remote work & hybrid workspaces now a trend that’s here to stay, how do you successfully train your team members while they work from different spaces?
With employees now fully working flexible hours in a variety of spaces, it’s crucial that your organization is able to create a virtual employee training program that promotes successful onboarding and upskilling for your team.
This is not only crucial for the success of your employees and the creation of a seamless (and enjoyable) employee experience, it’s also integral for the growth of your business.
With that in mind, this blog takes a closer look at the importance of employee training, the challenges associated with virtual training for your remote employees, along with a five-step guide on how your business can create a virtual training program that fosters both employee, and organizational, growth.
What is the importance of employee training?
Whether it’s focused on upskilling your existing employees or onboarding new team members, employee training is incredibly important. Virtual training is arguably even more important, since your company must take proactive measures to ensure your employees are constantly learning even from the comforts of their own home.
In fact, according to statistics from Gallup, companies that invest in employee training gain 21 percent more profit - while data from LinkedIn found that 94 percent of employees agree to stay longer at a company if it invests in their training.
It’s not just important for your business, it’s crucial for your employees too. 76 percent of employees look for opportunities to grow career-wise, according to HR Exchange Network, while 68 percent of employees want to learn or train in the workplace (Guide2Research).
What are some of the challenges associated with virtual training for employees?
As we can see from the benefits above, employee training is a staple of business growth for most organizations. Yet when the workforce has largely shifted to remote work, it becomes increasingly difficult to motivate and manage your employee training.
Some common challenges associated with virtual training include:
- Lack of access, or the increased difficulty of access, to training information.
- At-home distractions.
- Team members may feel socially isolated if training alone.
- Software/hardware technical issues that prevent them from connecting to the training session, or interrupt it.
- Lack of face-to face guidance from their managers.
How to successfully train your employees virtually
To prevent employee training simply becoming another checklist item on your team’s to-do list, it’s important that your business understands some of the challenges associated with virtual training and creates a plan to address them.
That’s why Genesis Integration has created this quick five-step guide to help your business build a successful virtual training program for your remote employees.
#1 - Set clear goals for your virtual training program
When training your employees, blindly teaching them skills that you hope will improve their performance at work will just lead to wasted time and resources for your business. Instead, you should set clear goals and objectives of what you aim to accomplish with each training session.
Common reasons behind employee training are to improve productivity, upskill you team members, new product/service launches, change in business operations or the onboarding of new workers. Once you know exactly why you are training your employees, you can then understand exactly what you need to do to achieve your objectives.
#2 - Choose how to deliver your virtual training
How you deliver virtual training is just as important as what the content actually entails. There’s a wide range of methods you can use to deliver virtual training to your remote employees, and a vast range of technologies to use.
Technologies you will need could include video conferencing tools for presentations, spreadsheets to track attendance, visuals to create interactive training sessions, screen sharing technology for demonstrations, video and microphones for better collaboration and much more.
#3 - Establish inter-team communication where possible
Communication is key when it comes to remote work, and your virtual training sessions are no different. Not only should your virtual training sessions set up clear communication between the teacher and your team members, it should also encourage peer-to-peer collaboration.
Creating dialogue between your team will have two benefits. Firstly it will improve employee engagement in your training sessions, and secondly it will improve how your employees communicate with each other - something they will learn to take back to their day-to-day roles, encouraging improved collaboration on projects and tasks.
#4 - Evaluate employee progress
Once you have completed a training session, it’s important that your business has a strategy to evaluate what your employees have learnt and how they’ve progressed since their participation. Fully understanding what your employees have gained from training sessions will help you better tweak your virtual training strategy moving forward.
#5 - Encourage feedback
While your employees are likely to want to learn and attend training sessions, they aren’t expecting your company to just suddenly transform into Harvard University. They know that you will need some time to completely nail down virtual training sessions for your team.
With that in mind, don’t be scared to ask your team members for feedback on training processes or sessions. This will open up communication between your business and your team, allowing you to improve your virtual training moving forward and help your employees to achieve better results.
Want to learn more about creating a virtual training strategy for remote employees and what technologies you need to make it a success? Contact Genesis Integration today. Our team of AV, communication and collaboration experts would love to answer your questions.
