Training Virtually- Tips from the Worxbee Team
An increasing number of businesses and organizations are having to make use of virtual training. Up-skilling and providing on-going training to employees is very important for long term success for any organization. Creating a virtual training session is something many businesses are facing in light of COVID-19. Today we are sharing best practices that we have learned and should be utilized when developing a virtual training strategy that will be successful for you, your employees, and ultimately your business.
Consider the needs of your audience. At Worxbee, we provide industry specific on-going training to our team of Executive Assistants. There are so many categories of training that would be useful to an Executive Assistant, but we like to let them be a part of the decision. An easy way is to make a list of your top five categories, and then let the team decide what they are most interested in. After the categories are chosen, we even divide it further to make sure that we are covering content specific to their needs. For example, we do social media training and our team picked LinkedIn Ads for the topic this month. By letting their voices be heard, they are more engaged and have a sense of ownership in the process.
Make the best use of Technology. First you need to pick a platform. Zoom, GoToWebinar, Google Hangouts, and Cisco Webex are all online conferencing platforms. You just have to decide which one makes the most sense for your virtual training. Next, you can send out an invitation to all of your attendees, which can easily be done through Google Calendar. It is also beneficial to record the training to send out in case anyone has to miss the scheduled training. Employees should know exactly how to log on to the system in order to attend the live training or webinar.
Encourage discussion and Q&A. We've found that it is best to make your training interactive and give attendees a chance to converse and ask questions. You can make a list discussion questions to be added to the training agenda or slideshow.You'll want to put some thought into your discussion questions to make them engaging and generate great discussion. It is also beneficial to leave time at the end of the training for live Q&A with the trainer.
Limit it to one hour to avoid information overload. The fact is, too much information can lead to overload and burn-out. An hour is what we stick to so we can avoid boredom or disengagement. If there is more information to cover, we make it a two part training offered at different times.
Make sure to send a re-cap. Sending out a re-cap of the information will help your team as they try to implement what they have learned. You can highlight important content and also include the recorded video for them to reference in the future.
By following these best practices, you will make sure your training session is engaging, informative, and practical to your employees and their overall development.
