Training Your Employees Online: 10 Best Practices for Virtual Training Success

As businesses worldwide shift to remote operations, they’re finding new ways to provide goods and services to customers. As a result, employees must take on new tasks and acquire fresh skills to keep pace. Leaders must also adjust their management styles to promote team engagement and collaboration in this changing environment.

Consider implementing a virtual training program to enhance employee unity, engagement, and readiness for new tasks. Initially, you might not see the value in adding more tasks, such as training courses. However, virtual training offers numerous advantages that can boost motivation and productivity for everyone involved.

Employee training has a significant impact on engagement levels. Providing employees with tools and resources to advance their careers or feel more confident in their roles fosters a sense of engagement. Research indicates that engaged employees demonstrate higher productivity and lower turnover rates.

If you’re considering starting a training program or have one in place but are unsure how to optimize it for your company, here are ten virtual training best practices to get your employees excited to learn.

1. Look at long-term value, not short-term compliance

When evaluating employee training, prioritize long-term value over short-term compliance. Many companies treat training as a checkbox to meet annual requirements, but it’s essential to recognize its broader impact across the organization.
Effective training boosts team performance, driving productivity and revenue growth. Additionally, it reduces costs by retaining employees and building knowledge and skills across the workforce.

2. Commit to training

For a successful online employee training program, leadership must grasp its long-term value, endorse it, and actively promote it. If leaders lack enthusiasm or neglect communication about its rollout, employees may fail to recognize its benefits and view it merely as another task to complete. Team leaders and managers, who wield significant influence over their teams, must also fully commit to its implementation.

3. Train for a remote world

Because many teams work remotely, on-site group training is often no longer practical.. Having an online hub of courses offers many advantages over on-site training, including on-demand access, less of a time commitment, and greater variety.

4. Find training that fits your workplace

If you’ve found that your training programs haven’t been resonating with your team, check to see if it’s the right training for your workplace. Does it address your employees’ training needs and concerns? Does it show scenarios and situations that your employees can relate to? Not every training program is alike, so be sure to pick one that has relevant, applicable, and enjoyable content.

5. Utilize employee time wisely

Avoid implementing lengthy training sessions that consume employees’ time and divert them from essential work tasks. Seek training programs offering concise courses and videos that employees can finish in under 30 minutes. This approach makes training less overwhelming, preserves productivity, and provides employees with a sense of achievement upon completion.

6. Create engagement around training

Although employees may be undertaking their virtual training individually, it doesn’t have to be a solitary endeavor. Managers can encourage employees to discuss the courses they’ve completed during weekly team meetings. Additionally, managers can assign a course for all team members to complete and then facilitate a group discussion to debrief together. This approach boosts engagement, promotes completion, reinforces learned concepts, and fosters a sense of community among team members while working remotely.

7. Measure success with tracking

There’s no point in implementing a training program without tracking how it improves employees’ engagement and skills. Be sure to put measurements in place to gauge completion. A good employee training program will have tracking and reporting. Also, measure key performance indicators that show the effects training has on productivity and engagement.

8. Offer professional development courses

You may be focused on offering employee training to improve relevant work skills and knowledge, but offering employees access to a library of courses that will help them in their professional development is also an advantage. Whether a company offers learning and development opportunities is a consideration for job searchers.

9. Stay current and relevant

Stay ahead of evolving job requirements and gain a competitive edge by selecting a virtual training program that stays up-to-date with emerging skills, software, and compliance regulations. Seek training software that enables the upload of company or industry-specific courses or materials, providing employees with access to specialized skills and compliance training.

10. Don’t be afraid of employee training

Some companies hesitate to implement employee training, fearing that employees will use the courses to enhance their skills and then leave for better opportunities. However, this outcome only occurs if you allow for it. Employee training boosts retention rates, enhances engagement, and improves productivity. Moreover, highly skilled employees create a strong internal pipeline for promotions within the company.

Creating a Better Workplace

One of the best and easiest ways to increase employee engagement, productivity, and team connection is to implement an employee training program. While it may take a bit of thought and time to get it up and running, the benefits will impact your company and your employees for the better.

Book a free demo from KnowledgeCity today to learn more.