Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, training in the workplace has changed significantly. Temporarily gone are the days when employees could come together for in-person training sessions and workshops. Today, most training happens remotely as this eliminates the risk of workers spreading illness to one another. Navigating these changes has presented significant challenges to L&D teams across the globe.
With a few tips, learning and development professionals can successfully work through pandemic-related obstacles that keep them from creating training that ensures employees have the skills they need to thrive at work.
Here are a few ways your company’s L&D team can create and deliver effective remote employee training throughout the COVID-19 pandemic:
At this time, it’s especially important that L&D teams collaborate often and stay on the same page. Otherwise, it will be difficult for team members to assemble the training employees need. One of the best tips for L&D teams trying to succeed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic is to deploy a learning management system (LMS).
An online learning platform like an LMS is primarily used to train employees. However, it can also be used to foster innovation and promote a sense of community within the L&D department. An LMS can function like an internal corporate news center and can be used as a social platform for team building, sharing company news updates, and more. In this way, an eLearning system can strengthen an L&D team’s bond and create a greater sense of solidarity, both of which promote better content creation.
Adaptability is a skill that all L&D professionals need to have, especially as they navigate the coronavirus crisis. Employees’ training needs and the training objectives of organizations are changing rapidly, sometimes on a daily basis. Without the ability to adapt to changes, L&D team members won’t be able to create employee training programs that meets these needs and gets great results.
Targeted training should be used to help learning and development professionals gain adaptability skills. The same online learning platform that promotes team collaboration also gives company administrators the tools they need to create adaptability training, distribute it to L&D team members, and track and report on learners’ progress. Alternatively, your organization may opt to purchase adaptability training for L&D employees from a third-party vendor.
Related Reading: 3 LMS Features That Help Small L&D Teams Train Large Learner Bases
Another tip for L&D teams struggling to create helpful online employee training in the midst of COVID-19 is to move all training online so that it can be accessed remotely. Due to the current state of the virus, we may see company lockdowns reinstated. If this happens, it will be critical that remote learners have online access to training.
During past lockdowns, various companies experienced firsthand the benefits of having a remote or semi-remote workforce. Fortune stated, “Remote workers report better job satisfaction, reduced burnout, and an improved sense of work/life balance. We know that remote work increases employee productivity by as much as 50%.”1
With these benefits in mind, companies may decide to keep a percentage of employees at home long-term, even if they choose not to go back into lockdown mode as COVID-19 cases surge. In either scenario, giving L&D teams the eLearning tools they need to create remote employee training programs online will be beneficial.
Your organization’s L&D team members need employee training software that will enable them to create remote training programs for employees across all departments, collaborate effectively, and become more adaptable during this challenging time.
TOPYX includes a comprehensive set of LMS features that help learning and development professionals assemble impactful remote employee training programs, even in the face of a global health crisis.
Ready to launch an online learning system now? Check out our Quick Start Program.
Sources:
1. https://fortune.com/2020/07/05/remote-work-office-culture-coronavirus/