Thanks to the pandemic, most of us have shifted our work online. Training in a traditional setting is expensive and impractical, especially when taking place in diverse locations. On the contrary, training a scattered workforce has become much simpler through eLearning tools. Sadly, just because something is simple doesn’t mean it will necessarily be effective. While remote working can be substantially advantageous in terms of prices, efficiency, and data security, distance has numerous drawbacks when it comes to staff training.
Here are five best practices to consider for bridging skill gaps even across geographic differences so that your business and your employees get the most out of your online learning and development program.
- Use different mediums of learning
Publishing a collection of videos on a shared drive does not constitute high-quality eLearning. Not everyone can learn new things or develop new talents solely by viewing videos. Self-paced videos are convenient, but they frequently fail to capture the viewer’s attention for a prolonged time. Additionally, studies have demonstrated that different individuals learn differently.
While live virtual classroom instructions might work for some, online forums that encourage interactions might work with others. Using a mixed learning methodology to deliver training is the best way to handle these discrepancies. With the help of blended learning, training may be made more effective no matter the distance. Employees can receive training in the way, at the speed (and location), that works best for them.
- Have clear learning goals
It’s crucial to determine and establish clear goals for the training, for both executives and employees, before you start designing your learning program. This is particularly crucial when extending training on a global basis. Here are some questions to think about when creating your goals:
- What are the unique training topics requested by employees in different locations?
- What technology setup and tools are necessary for the training program, and can your various office locations provide them?
- What is your budget for remote training?
- Which specific technology or competencies are only required for employees in particular locations?
- Keep a check on employee progress
Tracking a remote employee’s engagement and growth is much more important because you can’t physically see how they’re doing. By preserving all outcomes and actions, an LMS reduces this task. Results can be filtered by grade, date of completion, and certificate status. Each person’s response to each question is recorded in the exam results, showing areas where they need to spend more time. These may all be saved to Excel so you can further analyze the data. For instance, you may easily see a list of the workers who successfully finished their compliance training online, export the information to Excel, and provide it to regulatory authorities.
- Use an easy and effective LMS
A learning management system (LMS) is a dashboard that local and headquarters management might use to administer and monitor the training of the employees. With the aid of text, video, photos, audio, documents, and web pages, you can easily build interesting and interactive courses and exams containing quizzes, leaderboards, and polls. These can be taken whenever your staff wants. But that is not it. You need to evaluate how well your program is doing in actually bringing learning. Software like Tovuti LMS provides you with the right kind of tools you need to create, deliver and check the effectiveness of your eLearning program.
- Need-based training
One of the major benefits of eLearning is that it eliminates the need to hold the classroom training until you have a sufficient number of employees. Employees can begin training as soon as they are employed, whether they are local or remote, or whenever they or their superiors want them to pick up a new skill.
By “chunking” training material into manageable chunks, you can enable employees working in some remote locations to avoid technical or bandwidth problems while also improving comprehension and retention. Additionally, it allows for “just-in-time” learning, which is useful for finishing last-minute projects or resolving urgent issues that call for a particular body of knowledge.
Conclusion
When you have the right practices and goals set in place, your employees are likely to stay at the top of your training program, learning and improving their skills to ultimately benefit the business as a team.
