You must have often heard the saying that change is the only constant! This is the reason why it is important to think positively to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and keep your company running as smoothly as possible, despite some dramatic changes it has brought about. And for that, you need to make sure that your employees stay motivated, do their job efficiently and get used to the new normal gradually. This calls for remote onboarding and web-based training sessions for existing teams. While safety measures and social distancing guidelines have made it necessary to reduce face to face interactions and contact, you can still ensure optimal productivity and enthusiasm by opting for remote team training.
These days, companies are opting for at-home training modules that can upgrade employee skills before they join you or during their time off. The final goal? Creating consistent, confident and productive teams. Such modules can range from live seminars and practical project-based work to pre-recorded material that refreshes domain expertise.
As a management consulting firm, Iris can help design your remote team training sessions according to the needs of every department. There is no universal approach though, as every job role and every company calls for personalised attention. With a combination of internal surveys, reports and multi-stage performance analysis, Iris can create your roadmap to maximum productivity and employee satisfaction during COVID-19.
Generally speaking, a classroom training programme requires you to book a venue, arrange for transport, secure accommodation (depending on the duration of the session), and procure physical training material and stationery. Even if you partly use e-learning tools, this still racks up unnecessary costs. But, remote training sessions can save on these fronts easily.
Online courses call for expenditure on module development, but they are a one-time investment that you can use for a lifetime. A well-designed module will be timeless in terms of concepts, and have room for scaling up the training process as and when required.
Remote training is flexible and accessible. While you might have a deadline in mind by which your teams should complete training, there are no strict limitations due to a lack of hardware or infrastructure. Employees, thus, can learn on a trajectory that is comfortable for them, with ample time to forward questions to their trainer.
During times of crisis, emergencies can pop up at any time. But a remote team training course can accommodate such issues. If an employee has to accompany their family for medical treatment, they might be distracted—or even absent—during classroom sessions. Their priorities, naturally, will be elsewhere. Luckily, web-based training sessions are mindful of such pressures, and allow employees to do things at their own pace. And with this peace of mind, comes productivity.
Traditional training courses are often unsuccessful due to a one-size-fits-all approach. Everyone has their preferences when it comes to consuming content, and so their interest, willingness, level of understanding, and retention power will vary depending on the format used by trainers.
Some employees might be excellent listeners and prefer lectures for their face-to-face style. The human connect—albeit on a screen—will keep them engaged. Certain workers might prefer hands-on work instead of focusing on theoretical ideas. Others might be visual learners who want pictures and videos to remember concepts.
Remote training modules cater to all these learning styles, and more so, by using different formats like films, animation, webinars, podcasts, software practice, gaming and music to empower all kinds of learners.
Classroom training sessions are difficult to organize. If you’re a business owner lacking an HR department, then arranging for learning tools, getting all attendees together, booking avenues and finding a dependable instructor can be challenging.
Yes, you can designate these tasks to a senior employee, but remember how in-person modules can unnecessarily hike up costs? Then what is the logical solution? A remote training programme. All that you and your employees will need is a computer, good Internet, and an openness to new ideas.
Online tests, quizzes and at-home practice sheets can be timed and monitored, which will help you track your team’s performance.
If you’ve put together a training session, you ought to know whether it’s effective. Did your employees face any difficulties while learning? Is one particular module the right fit for your entire team? Is there a course you should drop for future onboarding?
Teams might often avoid giving honest feedback in classroom training sessions, or use dishonest means to complete tasks. While these are private and unexplained decisions, they ultimately affect your business’s growth, rendering training costs useless.
Digital mediums, with their transparency, offer an obvious edge in this regard. Online Learning Management Systems (LMS) help you track employee performance in great detail. You can pull out any data you need in the form of reports, and gain insights on course completion rates, forum engagement, the time taken to complete the module, and overall grades. Managers can then utilise these insights to:
So, training remote teams has long-term benefits that allow companies to reconfigure everyday work operations and meet business objectives. While technology makes the process easy, employees still expect engagement, clarity in problem areas, and convenient access and orientation. This is the reason why managers must stay attuned to web-based training and Organizational development training, know their scope, and be ready to coach team members in case of any snags in the learning process.
As an experienced business management consultant, Iris can show you where your team fits into the changing corporate sphere and how to build value every day. To book your free consultation, contact us at +971-528023399 or reach out to ankita@irismanagementconsultant.com.
