As evolving technology continues to disrupt workplaces around the globe, its now more important than ever before to implement effective corporate training programs to ensure that your employees have the knowledge and skills that they need to be successful. Most forward-thinking organizations have realized this means that they have to improve their training and learning strategy to – taking special note of their mobile or remote employees.
The remote workforce is rapidly growing, and it’s only expected to continue. In fact, it was found that 73% of all teams will have remote workers by the year 2028 (1). In another survey it was found that 99% of respondents said they would like to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their careers.(2). Although there are many benefits of giving your employees the opportunity to work remotely, a significant number of remote workers are not reaching their full potential.
Much of this is caused by ineffective training. Human resources and L&D teams often struggle to provide their globally dispersed teams with engaging learning experiences. Traditional corporate training programs are not always effective when it comes to training remote workers. Even some of the best training programs that use a blended learning strategy have not worked well because they still rely heavily on training methods that create barriers for remote employees.
The good news is that there are several tried and tested training strategies that can help engage your remote teams. In this article, we are going to share with you some of the most effective strategies that can help your remote teams reach their full potential and empower them to perform better.
Make Accessing Training Content Simple and Easy
One of the simplest ways to boost employee engagement is to remove any barriers that would keep them from accessing learning content. Making training content available on multiple devices – whether it’s a tablet, phone, or a computer, allows employees to access learning content in whatever way is most comfortable to them. It also allows them to switch devices, as per their requirement, and start just where they left off!
In the past L&D professionals worked towards making all content mobile accessible, but what they found was that employees have different preferences when it comes to accessing content. This is especially true for the remote workforce.
Some members of globally dispersed teams may work from home, live in remote locations or may work while traveling. Using a learning management system that is not only mobile responsive but also multi-device compatible, removes training barriers through continual accessibility – boosting engagement in the long run.
Utilize Video-based Learning
Video-based learning has been growing in popularity in the training and development world due to its proven ability to increase employee engagement. This makes sense if you consider the fact that employees are 75% more likely to watch a video than they are to read documents, emails or articles online (3).
Video-based training content is particularly useful and engaging for remote workers. Employees who work outside of traditional office spaces often work flexible hours or even in different time zones. Video content gives employees the ability to watch content in a way that is both familiar and easy to access. Video content can be watched whenever and wherever it is most convenient for individual employees. It also opens an opportunity to learn just-in-time, to suit their on-the-job learning needs. This sums up to an increase in work efficiency and a definite increase in productivity.
Personalize Training Content
Improving learning experiences increases engagement for all employees and is especially impactful for remote teams. One of the best ways to improve learning experiences is to provide online training tailored to meet individual learner needs and preferences.
AI-enhanced training programs analyze employee responses and learning patterns to assess and create learning paths to meet each employees’ preferences. AI-enhanced training is also able to create recommendations and suggest which courses are most relevant for each individual employee.
Micro-learning
Micro-learning is another simple and effective way to train your remote employees. Micro-learning is a powerful training strategy where short training sessions – not more than 3-5 minutes can be utilized to train employees on a variety of pertinent topics. Many organizations integrate micro-learning into their instructional design to break down complex topics into segments that build upon each other and deliver short, effective learning nuggets.
Micro-learning also improves knowledge retention by providing information in bite-sized segments that are easier to understand and remember. This is especially helpful while learning complex topics. Whether it is used for customer service or compliance training, micro-learning helps mobile or remote employees fit in training into their busy schedules.
Conclusion
Removing training barriers for your remote teams is essential to increasing employee engagement. Your remote teams may have trouble accessing or understanding content, but adopting simple yet effective strategies can reduce training barriers and increase engagement. In addition to making learning content accessible on multiple platforms, new age learning strategies like personalized learning through AI-enhanced training can increase the scope and efficacy of training for your remote workforce. Video-based learning content and Microlearning can also provide the much-needed content variety as well as impact of training – all leading to a measurable increase in performance.
Providing training programs that are tailored to meet the needs of remote teams has become essential. Prepare for the future of work and read this case study to Learn how Infopro Learning helped a leading global media company develop training for their distributed sales force.
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