An article by The Home Office Life stated that more than half of the working population only started working remotely since the pandemic.
For many of the younger generation, it’s all they’ve ever known. For most managers, however, this is still new and represents a small portion of their working life.
And yet we expect managers to be able to effectively train their team with little to no support or training on how to do it themselves. Even though training a remote team is wildly different to training one that’s coming into the office 5 days a week.
If that doesn’t quite sit right with you, then you’re in the same boat as us and that is precisely why we’ve pulled together this guide on how to effectively train remote employees.
In this post, we’ll provide managers with the tools they need to supervise employees effectively through their training while working remotely.
Common Challenges When Training Remote Employees
Lack Of Face-To-Face Contact
A lack of face-to-face contact when training leads employees to struggle. It is possible that without supervision, employees may not apply themselves as much or take in training as effectively.
Potential To Become Distracted
Remote working can be a minefield of distractions.
Even the most minor thing, like a knock at the door, can be the difference between someone remaining focused or not.
Often not having someone next to you throughout the day to monitor productivity can make employees more relaxed with their work or training leading to them becoming unmotivated.
Delayed Help And Support
Unfortunately, the process of asking for help when working remotely can be delayed for a number of reasons like new starters not wanting to be a burden and a lack of contact time. All of these can have a negative impact on an employee’s training experience and may prevent them from asking for help in future.
Feeling Isolated
It is easy when working remotely to get into your own bubble of work and forget about the social aspect of your job, but it is one of the most important parts.
Many employees report missing casual social interactions with their colleagues, with 67% of workers aged 18-34 saying they have found it hard to make friends and maintain relationships with work colleagues when working remotely.
The feeling of being isolated can have a hugely negative impact on their mental health and then begin to negatively impact their work.
Technical Issues
Despite the wonders of technology, employees can often struggle with technical issues that are out of their control.
When working remotely, these issues can be amplified, as they don’t have access to immediate help or guidance when things go wrong. This can dent productivity and cause frustration for the employee.
Not Having A Set Plan
Not having a set plan or schedule in place for training purposes can make it difficult for the employee to prioritise workload and training.
A well-thought-out training plan will mean employees can make sure they make time for the sessions, which will likely result in a more effective and impactful training session.
Finding Dedicated Time
When working remotely, finding times for checking in and development to suit everyone can be difficult, especially as you can’t just ask them face-to-face.
This can mean that employee training gets pushed back and forgotten about, which can cause employees to miss out on vital training that they will likely need in the future and thus will further impact the quality of their work.
Accessing The Right Materials
Having the right materials is essential to the success of a training program.
Without the right materials, employees may find it harder to engage with the training sessions and take on the information.
The Difference Between Supervision And Micromanagement
There is a very clear difference between supervising and micromanaging.
Supervising is about setting a direction, stating expectations and offering support when needed. When supervising, you are not there to do the work for them but more to mentor and offer guidance when it is asked for.
Micromanagement is when you begin taking over small tasks and projects based on your own ideas and does not allow employees to use their initiative to complete tasks.
It is important for employees to feel they have some element of independence and trust when completing tasks, but it is just as important for employers to make sure they are supervising their work effectively and professionally.
To read more about this topic, check out our post Remote Monitoring | How To Embrace Supervision Over Surveillance.
How To Effectively Train Remote Employees (Step-By-Step)
1. Choose The Right Training Method
Understanding how you can deliver training can be vital to the success of the training and the employee’s retention of the information.
It is important to know that every individual learns differently, and although you may not be able to please everyone, it is important to gather feedback from employees during training to understand which method works best for them and try to adapt where possible.
There are three types of training methods which will have varying degrees of effectiveness for individual employees, the three methods are,
- Synchronous learning is where an instructor or teacher will lead the class in real-time, whether virtually or in person.
- Asynchronous learning is when the employee is given training to complete it in their own time.
- Blended learning this is simply a combination of the two, otherwise known as hybrid learning. This can be great for giving employees time to learn independently and have regular contact time with instructors.
2. Have The Right Tools
As well as knowing what type of training you want to do, you should also ensure you have the right tools in your tool kit to effectively deliver those training sessions.
The right tools help you to get information across, which can also make it easier for you to implement training sessions and ensures the sessions are effective.
Some of the tools you might choose are,
- Video conferencing software (Teams etc.)
When working remotely, video conferencing tools are invaluable. It allows employees to receive face-to-face interaction even when not in the office. These tools also allow for more collaboration among teams which is even more beneficial during the training process as it encourages them to ask questions, discuss problems and find solutions.
- Learning management systems (LMS)
A learning management system is great for storing learning resources and tracking employee progress. Improving the accessibility of your training resources will help to improve the productivity and efficiency of training, helping your employees to get up to scratch with training much faster.
3. Create Your Training Materials
It’s important to create the right type of materials for your team.
It’s easy for most people to simply create a PowerPoint and then read off the information without considering who the training is for and how they might learn best.
The training materials you choose and how you create them can be the difference between your employees retaining the information you’re giving them or not – and if they’re unable to retain any of the information, then you’re wasting any effort put into the sessions.
The most common way people share training materials is via presentations or PDFs, but if you have the resource – videos or screen recordings can be incredibly helpful and far more engaging and impactful for the trainee.
4. Train Your Team
Once you’ve established what you’ll need and how you’re going to go about training your employees remotely.
You now just need to start.
Put time aside in both your and your employee’s calendar to complete these training sessions and begin working through the training program.
5. Monitor Their Progression And Offer Support Where Needed
One of the most important steps during any training program is monitoring progression.
What you decide to track may vary depending on the outcome goals of the training, but either way, tracking progression during their training is helpful because you’ll be able to see if they’re struggling or falling behind.
It is also important to have the facilities in place to offer further support and guidance where needed.
Support might look like:
- Extra training sessions
- Going over previous materials
- Short 1-2-1s catch ups
- Slowing down the training program
Our Top Tips For Training Remote Employees
Here are some of our top tips to help train your employees remotely and how you can use Analytics 365 to support their training.
Schedule Regular 1-2-1 Meetings
Regular 1-2-1s are a great and easy way to catch up and allow employees to ask any questions they might have.
It also provides managers with the opportunity to assess how the employee might be feeling and gauge if they are in need of extra support.
Track Employee Workload While Training
Even when training, employees may still find they are being handed their usual amount of work, which may pile up while training if not monitored regularly. They can also be expected to attend virtual meetings that can eat into their working day.
In this case, it is important for a manager to monitor their workload while training to ensure they are not being overworked and cannot complete the training, resulting in them working out of hours to complete other tasks – which is not to be encouraged.
You can use our Usage Analytics Tool to understand when your employees use Microsoft Teams. Meaning you can spot if your employees are working out of hours, which can often be a sign that they are struggling with their workload.
Analytics 365 also use metrics such as,
Meeting time,
Chat sentiment,
And team collaboration.
Which all help to gain a better understanding of how your employees are using Microsoft Teams and in what capacity.
Encourage Collaboration Where Possible
Sometimes when training remotely, employees can feel isolated.
It can benefit everyone by encouraging collaboration and offering support to new employees in their training. For employees in training, communicating with those in the same position can be great for helping them feel less isolated and more like they’re part of a team.
With our Chat and Call analytics, you can understand how often employees communicate using Microsoft Teams and understand if you need to push for more collaboration within your teams.
Here 3 steps to encourage and improve team collaboration:
- Use the ‘Collaboration Network Card’ to understand who your teams are collaborating with. Are there people you would expect them to spend more time with?‘
- Take a look at the ‘Collaboration Trends’ card to see how your teams work together over time. Peaks and troughs in activity might be expected for heavily project-based environments, but in other environments might be a cause for concern.
- Check out the ‘Collaboration Summary’ card to see how your people collaborate through calls, meetings and messages. If they’re spending more time than you expect in meetings, or less time talking with each other than you thought, perhaps some guidance is needed.
To get the most out of these insights, discuss them with your team. By exploring it together, you will increase your chances of making changes that are meaningful and manageable for the long term.
Remove Unnecessary Meetings
Along with their day-to-day work and training, new employees are often also asked to attend a number of onboarding meetings.
Unnecessary and unplanned meetings can be a big disruption for an employee’s day when they might have more high-priority tasks to do, so it is important to not just plan meetings but recognise if they are needed or if a simple email will suffice to ensure a productive day for everyone.
With meeting analytics, you can see how often your teams are in meetings and determine which ones could be condensed into emails to save time.
Analytics 365’s meeting analytics insights can help cut down on wasted time and improve team collaboration. Here are three simple steps to spot the use of unnecessary meetings
Step 1: Use the ‘Meeting Habits’ card in Analytics 365 to understand meeting discipline. If new employees are invited to meetings that are scheduled with little notice, or where they consistently overrun, it sets a poor example for them moving forward and can create a culture of poor discipline.
Step 2: Review meeting activity with the ‘Meeting Overview’ card to understand meeting habits, time spent in meetings, and the number of external meetings versus internal meetings. This information can be used to assess wellbeing and employee engagement.
Step 3: Cut down on unnecessary meetings by using Analytics 365 to highlight attendance, talk time, and frequency. Use the data to identify which meetings are important and which ones can be cancelled.
Using Analytics 365 to monitor meeting activity is an effective way to use data to improve collaboration and communication among your team.
Summary
To effectively train your employees can be a challenge, especially when working remotely.
Some things to remember before you start your training program include,
- What type of training method will you use, and is it right for the employee?
- What tools will you need to present the information?
- Have you created the right materials for your specific training program?
- And how are you going to monitor the success of the training?
Once you have established the foundations of the training program, you are ready to start teaching employees the ropes so that they can be the best at their job.
During a remote employee’s training, as a manager, it is still important to keep up to date with how they are dealing with training and ensure that they are able to still keep on top of tasks outside of training.
Some tips to help with this are,
- Regular 1-2-1s
- Track workload
- Monitor progression throughout the training with specific KPIs
- And make sure any extra meetings are planned and necessary.
