Training Remote Employees – Best Practices in Training Work from Home Employees
Organizations have been disrupted by the uncertainties brought about by COVID-19, forcing employees to work from home. Training remote employees has to be a well-thought-out strategy during this time of transition to ensure business continuity and productivity. Organizations can’t push the pause button on training their employees and thus, remote training is the way forward.
A Gartner survey report states that about 88% of organizations had to adjust to remote working regardless of whether or not their employees showed any COVID-19 related symptoms and nearly 97% of organizations have canceled work-related travel.
Another report by Buffer declared that 99% of the employees have always wanted to work remotely at least for some time in their career. A Blueface survey backs the fact that remote working culture is on the rise.
This data is sufficient to claim that remote working is not just a passing trend, but it’s here to stay. Thus, having effective strategies for training remote employees will boost employee productivity.
Through this post, let us talk about the best practices that organizations should follow for effectively training remote employees after a quick glance at some benefits of remote training.
Suggested Read: Remote Training for WFH Employees – Benefits and Best Practices
Benefits of Remote Training
1. Reduces Learning Time
Just as training work from home employees can be cost-effective, it can also be time-efficient. Remote training reduces employees’ learning time by about 60% compared to traditional learning. In traditional training, a lot of time is spent in teaching a group, but remote training focuses on the individual. It also saves time wasted in starting and wrapping up training sessions.
Also Read: Online Training Platform Vs Traditional Training Platform
2. Budget-Friendly Training
Online training lets you cut down on travel expenses, catering, venue rents, the instructor’s fees, and spends on physical training materials. Remote training allows you to host your training modules on a could-based LMS for your employees to access from any location.
3. Improves Retention & Productivity
Remote training offers you a scope to develop highly interactive training modules using gamification, videos, and other multimedia elements. This greatly increases employee engagement and paves a path for high levels of retention. Interactive learning has always been proven to boost employee productivity.
4. Works for Different Learning Styles
The greatest advantage of remote training is that the employees can learn at their own pace, in their own style. Individuals don’t have to worry about catching up or slowing down to match the learning speed of their peers. Thus, remote training ensures that each employee absorbs the information efficiently as they can revisit any module they want.
5. Comfortable Learning Environment
Employees are free to access the training modules anywhere they wish to. This develops a sense of control and comfort. Organizations can provide personalized training by creating training programs that are engaging, relevant, and practical. A comfortable environment will only help them gain more information, retain it for a longer duration of time, and increase their productivity.
Here is a list of 21 proven benefits of corporate training from SnackNation.
Best Practices for Training Remote Employees
To cherish the extensive benefits of effectively training remote employees, delivering an effective remote training program is the key. Let’s look at some of the best practices that enterprises should follow to deliver remote training.
1. Create a Training Program that Resonates with Employees
A training program is considered successful if it establishes a meaningful connection with the employees. Relatable stories and real-world examples can be applied in training remote employees. The use of interactive multimedia elements will help them resonate with the training program more.
2. Use of Bite-Size Learning
Breaking down your training content into bite-sized chunks of information can be quite effective for training remote employees. They respond well to chunks of information and find it easy to grasp and retain for a longer duration of time. This is a more effective way of learning in the modern age.
3. Make your Training Hassle-Free & Easy to Access
Accessing the training program should be the last thing an employee needs to worry about. Hassle-free access is very important for a smooth training experience. Instead of having to remember multiple passwords, the single sign-on (SSO) method should be accepted. SSO allows employees to access all their cloud-based applications with the same login and start, pause, and resume their training with a single click.
4. Encourage Application-Based Learning
Your training program should offer real-world experience. Encouraging them to apply their knowledge and skills acquired through the program through scenario-based learning, role-playing, online training simulations, and case studies will help them build practical knowledge and be all ready for the real world. This also drives their satisfaction and enthusiasm to learn more, which is important for training remote employees.
5. Leverage Technology
Making technology your friend can help you to be more efficient while training remote employees. The latest technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) help set up virtual spaces for employees to collaborate and learn together. You can create dynamic training by leveraging VR and AR to virtually transport employees to different spaces and make the training experience quite real.
6. Promote Continuous Learning
By using an online learning platform as your remote training tool, you can promote on-the-go learning. This will help employees access the training programs whenever they want and wherever they want. Continuous learning culture enhances employee performance and productivity. It is quite easy to update and deliver new training programs to meet the latest business needs and empower employees to learn new skills and upgrade, continuously.
7. Create an Effective Support Environment
Making employees aware of their strengths and weaknesses will help them grow. A reliable support environment encourages them to interact with peers and supervisors remotely and address the areas to improve before the performance and skill gaps widen. Your employees should have access to any kind of help whenever they need it.
8. Respect your Employees’ Time
Being empathetic towards your employees’ family life is the silent gesture you can make to boost their morale. Working remotely is as much about work as it is about their family members. Your training programs should respect their time and plan the sessions accordingly without creating any mental fatigue due to extensive hours of training. Let your employees understand that you want them to work efficiently but also spend quality time with their families.
9. Monitor your Training Programs
Keeping track of your employees’ progress will help you understand how well they are responding to the training programs. LMS provides various quizzes and assessment tools for employees to test themselves and get quick feedback about their progress. Training tools like Kitaboo Insight help managers and employees keep track of their progress through real-time assessment and analytical tools.
10. Inculcate Post-Training Practices
Training work from home employees should not stop with the end of training programs. Post their training, employees should be educated with more insights to enhance their skills further. Informing them about new resources from where they can keep learning on their own is a good practice. Lastly, understanding their thoughts and feedback about the training program will help you improve and deliver a more cherished experience while training remote employees.
Conclusion
In the modern workplace, implementing the best practices for effectively training work from home employees is important to deliver a long-lasting learning experience. Making your employees emotionally invested in your training programs will help you increase their productivity in multiple folds. Training remote employees is all about adapting to their unique strengths and preferences and empowering them by providing great content through training modules.
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