Marketing Director
The sudden retreat to homes made work difficult for employees, but it brought even more tough times to employers. Employees faced trouble getting used to the new mode of work, while employers faced difficulties in ensuring that their employees are dedicating enough time and attention. They faced difficulties in ensuring that their business regains its regular pace of work with employees and resources all dispersed.
But the aspect wherein employers faced the greatest difficulty is the recruitment of a newer workforce.
Working from home involves:
- Countless distractions
- Lack of immediate access to necessary equipment
- Lack of a dedicated work environment
With all these obstacles in the way, new individuals demand a greater and more intensive onboarding process. Thus, hiring and training are truly a challenge for recruiting authorities.
How to train your new employees when working remotely
Welcome them warmly
Perhaps, the first and essential step to the remote training of your new employees is welcoming them. Once you have your candidates finalised and the deal between you guys gets verified from both ends, it’s time to welcome them officially and consider them a part of your team.
And no, remote working does not mean you can opt for a lifeless PowerPoint presentation or a five-minute audio call. Instead, you’ve to prepare a thorough and all-embracing employee onboarding video. Introduce your company, team, business mission, and vision, along with the candidate’s new role and responsibilities. Ensure that your video has a friendly and appealing vibe and it delivers your company culture with clarity.
Along with work and technical expectations, make moral expectations of your company known to the new team member. It’s best if you conduct a live and custom session rather than a recorded one. In this way, you can rest assured that the employee pays due attention and has a clear grasp before beginning the work.
Choose a delivery module
The positive aspect of remote work is that it’s phenomenally flexible. So, when training your remote employees, we suggest making the best possible use of it.
You can opt between two methods of training:
- Synchronous
- Asynchronous
Synchronous training would mean that all your employees would receive their training at the same time. It could be in the form of an online meeting or scheduled access to training material. The benefits of this module are maximum engagement and participation. You’d know that your new employees are paying the due attention, and so, you can justly expect up-to-the-mark performance.
On the contrary, asynchronous training would mean you could make the learning material available to your workforce, and they could access and learn at their convenience. It works best if you and your employees reside in different time zones. When adopting this mode of training, always include an assessment sheet at the end of the module. So, you can analyse your candidate’s understanding.
Analyse & bridge the skill gaps
If you’ve to deliver the best remote training experience to your new employees, you’ve to get into their specifics. To help them better understand and grasp their work responsibilities, you’ve to know how well-equipped they are on their own.
For this, you can conduct a short introductory interview wherein you can ask them about their shortcomings. Assure them you’ll be offering them complete support for overcoming these, so they do not hesitate in being utterly honest with you.
To double-check verbally exchanged information, conduct quizzes with your new employees about their self-assessment. It will help you incorporate one of the coaching trends of current times, i.e., measurable results. So, you can have a more solid course of action rather than a hypothetical one.
Similarly, you can assess their work performance to analyse their skill gaps. If an employee is taking longer than the others to complete their work, you’ll know something is keeping them back. Help them overcome that obstacle and monitor their progress accordingly.
You can also highlight efficient performers of your team and set them up as an example. Motivate the lagging workers to strive to work like them.
Provide access to tools
At times, it’s the lack of appropriate tools that keep your team members behind. So, when training them for their new responsibilities, inquire and investigate if they are equipped properly. If not, be generous and understanding enough to help them upgrade and make necessary arrangements.
Other than this, there are a few digital tools that we recommend to all businesses and companies operating online:
- Learning Management System: These are apps or platforms wherein you can make all the learning and resource material available to your employees. It aids effective management of the learning process on the employee’s end and the teaching process on the trainer’s end.
- Video Training Tools: While LMS allows you to create a library of learning material, video training tools help bring about the best benefits of your library. You can create live or recorded tutorial sessions. And deliver your say more effectively. Plus, some video training tools like Apty provide complete analytics of your viewers, including their strengths and weaknesses relevant to the training module.
Track, assess, and improve results
Lastly, don’t forget to track the results. Observe & measure the effectiveness of your training by assessing employee performance. You can use project management and communication tools for this purpose.
If you are an employer who is looking for help with your next hiring process, contact us today and we’d love to help.
