4 Ways to Create a Powerful Training Program for New Remote Recruits
Remote work has a lot of positives, but onboarding new employees can be difficult.
The first few months after joining a new company are filled with activities of all kinds. Either you’re in induction, participating in team-building exercises, or undergoing training to understand the processes followed in your department.
They’re often fun, aren’t they?
This onboarding phase is one of the most important experiences that a new employee goes through. It is not just pivotal to how well the new recruit fits in, but also to how long they stay with the organization.
As per recent stats by TinyPulse, 91% of employees tend to stay on with an enterprise for at least a year if their onboarding process was efficient. Also, at the same time, 69% of workers continued their stint with the firm for over 3 years when there was a well-structured onboarding program in place.
This means that the efficacy of your onboarding and training programs can make all the difference when it comes to achieving a high employee retention rate.
But remote working has now become mainstream and with about 74% of organizations deciding to permanently shift to the remote workforce model, it’s a key aspect to consider in your onboarding program.
To succeed, you need to up your remote recruitment and virtual onboarding game. Before we learn how to create a powerful training program for new remote recruits, let's take a look at some of the key challenges in training new remote workers.
Challenges To Training New Remote Workers
Any onboarding program is incomplete without proper induction and training. This includes familiarizing them with the company, their colleagues, work culture, as well as the workflow that is followed throughout the company as well as in their specific departments.
But when this step goes virtual, there are a few challenges that can make the HR department’s task a little more difficult. Some such key issues are as follows:
Limited Access to Information
In a physical office environment, it is easy for a new recruit to find all the answers he or she is looking for simply by consulting colleagues sitting nearby. But in an online environment, looking for the most elementary information can often become a task as they may not know who they can or cannot get in touch with regarding specific issues.
Difficult or limited access to information is detrimental to the employee experience.
Distractions
Amid the several benefits that work from home culture provides, there are also many disadvantages such as numerous potential distractions. Household chores, looking after the kids, family time, pets, etc. may all hinder your employees’ ability to focus and absorb training material effectively.
Lack of Supervision
One of the biggest worries of a trainer when providing training virtually is that their audience won’t effectively understand them without in-person face-to-face interaction. In-person supervision is considered essential by many, and trainers often feel video calls are inept to serve this purpose.
Technical Issues
Let’s face it — even if everything is going well, a single technical problem can ruin the entire experience of a session. And even though you can try your best to control any such glitch coming from your end, you cannot take care of every individual’s system. Even a slow wifi speed can be a major hurdle in remote training.
Creating An Effective Training Regime
Now that we’ve discussed the potential challenges to remote training, it’s time to take this conversation towards the central topic of the day, i.e. how to create an effective training regimen for those working remotely.
Here are four great ways to create an effective training program for your remote recruits.
Use Asynchronous Learning Model
An asynchronous learning model is much simpler than it sounds. It essentially means that you upload and make accessible all the learning material on your Learning Management System (LMS). This enables the employees to consult it and complete said lessons in their own time and at their own pace.
There are a lot of Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) like Appcues out there that can help you with the same, but be sure to check out the top Appcues alternatives as well. After all, choosing the application that best suits your requirements is crucial.
Ensure Regular Testing
Conducting timely assessments based on the study material provided is a good way to track the progress of each new recruit. This can also help you understand their pain points which you can then assist them with.
This breeds loyalty and trust in the team alongside creating a healthy relationship and rapport.
Make a Flexible Support Schedule
New employees may face various troubles or come up with several queries during their training process. But in the case of an asynchronous model where each recruit learns at their own pace, you can’t be available all the time to resolve their issues.
So in this case, you can set up an employee support team that convenes twice or thrice a day at different times to ask trainees if they need any help.
Encourage Social Interactions
Last but definitely not least, encouraging social interactions is a must. Remote work often leads to isolation and you don’t want your remote recruits feeling restricted to work-related conversations with a select few colleagues.
It is essential that team communication and collaboration are given a push, and your training program is the perfect means to develop these skills. This not only works in favor of the good mental health of the employees but also in creating a positive work environment where teams work synergistically.
Over to You
Onboarding is a continuous process and doesn’t end after the initial training. Regular bouts of activity to maintain the enthusiasm and rapport of teams are vital to its success.
Be it online or off, the tactics discussed above can help you ensure your training program is a success.
So what are you waiting for? Put these tactics into practice and share your experience in the comments below.