7 Tips for Training Remote Employees

Telecommuters are no longer uncommon in the job market. Many companies find it more convenient to work with them than with office staff.  Employers use their resources and opportunities for the development of “remote workers”, actively train them, only the learning process itself is built a little differently.

Like any training, salesforce training for remote employees is based on the principles of business needs and employee KPIs. Therefore, when planning training, do not forget to link the result to the KPI.

What factors should be considered?

1. Having a plan that includes all the positions of the employees that the company plans to train. At the same time, HR must understand who and what the company will train.
2. Availability of development plans for employees. Most often, companies choose two paths at this stage. The first option is when each employee has his own development plan. The second option is when a development plan is available for a range of positions or, for example, a personnel reserve, and the rest are trained in general courses or in accordance with the standard of the position. It all depends on the strategic plan of the company, business needs and, of course, the budget.

What is important to do in advance?

1. Develop a ready-made training system for employees (Learning Management System) or choose an online platform for training. For example, if the company is small, it can buy a place on any site, create a personal account and record courses. There is a wide range of online learning sites on the market today. If the company is large, is growing steadily and has a budget, then it is better, of course, to implement LMS and connect employees to the system.
2. Consider what is possible to broadcast online. For example, product training, etc. In online training, it is paramount to understand that not everything that you do offline will work online and vice versa. This fact cannot be ignored.
3. Prepare content that is easy to read. Remember that the online format does not give the atmosphere that we can get with the face-to-face format. Online learning content should be simple, lightweight, but at the same time respond to the audience’s request.
4. Prepare a trainer. Online learning requires a special skill. It is necessary to be able to retain the audience, to understand it. E.g, if you are training employees for salesforce certification, then the trainer needs to prepare accordingly. It is quite difficult to speak for 1.5-2 hours and at the same time keep the participants’ attention. The coach must be prepared for this format.
5. Use different opportunities of online technologies. For example, virtual reality technologies (Virtual Reality). This is a fairly expensive product, but you shouldn’t exclude it from your list. Now the service market has a fairly large selection of contractors who offer such services. In my opinion, the main advantage of this technology is that a person, studying a particular course, not only looks, but also speaks out loud, which makes it possible to better remember the material.
6. Add gamification to the training. Elements of competition are needed to increase employee engagement.
7. Collect an electronic corporate library. This tool will allow HR to have full access to statistics and you can always track the dynamics of what is relevant for employees.

Conclusion

Make sure all these guidelines are followed by the professionals for online training of their remote employees. It’s necessary to maintain all things intact to ensure a prosperous learning experience. Happy learning!