It’s more critical than ever for companies to take the initiative to develop their employees. Fifty percent of employers have put a freeze on hiring new workers to cut costs in response to the COVID-19 crisis, per FacilityExecutive.com.1 This statistic shows how important it is that companies make the most of the talent they already have. However, the coronavirus pandemic has created a challenge to developing employees as it has forced 88 percent of organizations to encourage or mandate that their employees make the switch from working from the office to working from home, according to a Gartner survey.2
When a workforce is suddenly dispersed, developing workers may prove hard to do for employers, especially if a company’s goal is to develop employees quickly. By deploying a learning management system (LMS) effectively, companies can develop employees in a short time, despite the current global health crisis.
1. Launch eLearning quickly
Although the vast majority of companies are now requiring or encouraging employees to work from home, employee training should not diminish. Instead, it should become more of a priority. “Social distancing need not be the downfall of learning,” claims eLearningIndustry.com.3 “This disruption, on the contrary, highlights the need for a flexible training strategy and presents L&D with the opportunity to expand its online learning approach of virtual classroom (VC) and eLearning.”
If you want to develop remote workers, you must have employee training software that makes remote training possible. An eLearning platform enables administrators to create, distribute, track, and report on employee training. In the past, most companies would dedicate several weeks to implementing a new online learning system. Today, organizations need to launch eLearning much more quickly so that they can upskill their remote workforce sooner rather than later. Check out the TOPYX Quick Start Program to discover how your organization can have eLearning up and running very quickly.
2. Create advanced online learning paths for employees
One of the best ways to promote fast employee development is to create individualized, advanced online learning paths using an LMS. Individualized learning paths can meet the unique needs of each of your employees and help them stay on track to complete advanced training in an organized way. With a learning path, more advanced courses become available to users only after they finish previous courses or materials.
Outlining the learning path is a key stage in the process. According to eLearningIndustry.com, outlining an online learning path helps to keep employees motivated and engaged with training.4 A contributor wrote, “Outlining the learning path not only sets the scene for the future, but it also motivates your learners to stay on track with pre-work and other self-paced learning tasks.” The contributor suggested including components such as learning objectives, assessments, deadlines, and deliverables in your learning path outline.
Related Reading: 4 Tips to Make Online Employee Training More Effective for Remote Workers
3. Make training focused, not broad
One way to quickly develop employees is to focus their training on their specific skills gaps as opposed to assembling a learning path that requires them to review skills they are already proficient in. COVID-19 has slowed down business for many companies, providing them with an opportunity to close any existing skills gaps and develop employees through targeted training delivered in an online format.
You can determine what skills your workers are lacking via survey and assessment, as well as by virtual interview. This would also give you a chance to check in with learners to get an idea of how well they are adopting to your company’s learning technologies and to answer any questions they may have. Also, skills management software like Skills DB Pro can make recognizing skills gaps easier.
Interested in launching an eLearning platform that will meet your company’s training needs, both during the coronavirus crisis and in the future? Learn more about the TOPYX Quick Start Program to learn how to deploy an LMS in a matter of days.
References:
[1] https://facilityexecutive.com/2020/03/most-employees-working-from-home-coronavirus-pandemic/leaves-healthcare-leaders-searching-for-help
[2] https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-03-19-gartner-hr-survey-reveals-88--of-organizations-have-e
[3] https://elearningindustry.com/guidelines-converting-classroom-training-remote
[4] https://elearningindustry.com/guidelines-converting-classroom-training-remote