The impact of COVID-19 on working environments cannot be understated. 88% of organisations across the globe have encouraged or required employees to work from home since the outbreak of coronavirus, and 41% of employees are likely to continue to work remotely at least part-time once the pandemic is over.
More and more businesses are adapting to remote working, with many fully embracing it. There are, however, unique challenges that companies have to face with their employees working from home. In today’s changing world, implementing eLearning has become one of the most effective ways to support remote workers.
Benefits of eLearning for Remote Workers
eLearning is the perfect solution for training remote workers and communicating new objectives to partners and franchisees. Learners can fulfil their learning and development goals in three major ways:
1. Flexibility
A key component of remote work is giving learners more control over when and where they can do training. They are not confined to a single office space with a set schedule or a full day of off-site training.
Research shows that offering flexibility in remote work results in a significant boost in engagement in workers who spend 60% to 80% of working hours off-site. eLearning complements that strength, as learners can choose to engage with a training programme at their own pace.
Flexibility is all the more necessary for people working from home during a pandemic. The stress from financial uncertainty and tough lockdown measures can hinder time management. . It can also be difficult for those with families, as they have to juggle work and parenting at home.
2. Accessibility
Training has to be fully digital for remote workers, so educational materials and courses must be easily accessible. eLearning provides that benefit through the very means it is executed. Employees can get the information they need and undergo assessment completely online with a learning management system (LMS).
The current situation for many people also pushes them to not be in front of their work computers all the time. They have to attend to other matters at home while simultaneously getting company tasks done. An eLearning setup lets employees undergo training from their mobile devices, so training can be accessed at any time.
3. Interactivity
The one obvious downside to working remotely is reduced face-to-face interaction between co-workers. People are isolated at home, removing the immediate dynamism of being able to freely communicate and collaborate with colleagues at a moment’s notice.
eLearning provides channels where workers can once again interact with and learn from one another, regardless of their locations. Learners can share their knowledge and experience with certain courses on LMS-enabled social platforms. Live sessions can also be conducted between instructors and learners, allowing live interaction between training and trainee.
6 Best Practices to Maximise eLearning for Remote Workers
While there are advantages to applying eLearning for remote work, they are not guaranteed if your eLearning programme is not implemented correctly. Here are six tactics you need to integrate into your remote work strategy to get the most out of eLearning:
1. Convert Existing Training Modules
Just because your company is transitioning to a work-from-home setup, it does not mean you have to throw away your entire in-person training programme. While instructor-led training material differs greatly from eLearning courses, it’s highly likely that the core information and learning objectives would still be the same. In this case, digitising your content is the first necessary step to take to begin the transition.
This is also the time to look at updating your modules, making sure you have content that is fresh, engaging and effective.
Alongside creating modules from existing training content, consider creating webinars both live and recorded to keep your learners engaged with live interaction.
2. Localise Content
Changing your business to allow for remote work opens up hiring and partnership opportunities as well. You don’t have as many restrictions on where your employees or partners are based in relation to your HQ. There is so much talent that you can welcome to your organisation with new perspectives and capabilities that you wouldn’t have been able to before.
New partners and employees can be well catered for as your online training can be offered anywhere in the world, at any time. Localisation covers basic translation as well as being mindful of different cultural contexts to fit varying workplace attitudes. An effective LMS also offers the opportunity to rapidly deploy courses on a global scale so learners’ needs can be met wherever they are based.
3. Conduct Virtual Training Sessions
The typical approach to eLearning is usually self-paced learning. . While this method is extremely effective, it shouldn’t be the only way for you to handle your eLearning programme. Complement it with virtual training sessions led by an instructor and with employees learning together.
Having live interactions between workers during virtual training sessions brings in the powerful dynamics of social learning. It also addresses the problem of remote work isolating employees from one another, as loneliness and collaboration rank as the top challenges for this kind of setup. Just make sure to schedule these in advance to get everybody on board and have the technical support ready for a smooth learning experience.
4. Launch a Mobile App
The convenience of eLearning can only be fully realised when work-at-home learners can access the learning platform on any device. They can’t always be in their home office to take their assigned courses. It’s much easier for them to engage with their training when they can do it anywhere.
A mobile app for your eLearning programme empowers your employees to initiate and continue their training even when they have to step away from their work computers. Use an LMS that has mobile functionality to boost the launch of your mobile eLearning programme.
5. Monitor Progress
Tracking your learners progress is crucial to any training programme. It’s doubly so for this transition period where your workers are still acclimating to the new working environment and a wholly digital learning system. Your chosen LMS’ data monitoring and reporting features have to be up to par to ensure goals are met and problems are identified.
You will likely have to make adjustments throughout this time, so don’t be disheartened if improvements don’t come immediately or at a rapid pace. Set your expectations to match what your learners can reasonably accomplish in the midst of a pandemic and a drastic shift in working conditions.
6. Gather Feedback
It’s good to remember that it’s ultimately your learners whose experiences matter most. However well-designed you may think your eLearning courses are, they won’t generate good results if they don’t resonate with your learners nor are they able to actually learn and retain anything.
Listen to what your learners have to say, and use that feedback to improve your training programme. Moving your entire training programme from a dedicated business establishment to home offices is likely to cause a lot of instability as well, so expect a lot of feedback regarding your courses’ content, design, and implementation.
Enable Remote Workers with eLearning
The paradigm shift in how we do work came unexpectedly, putting a lot of strain on managing and developing employees and partnerships. Thankfully, there are methodologies and technologies we can leverage to mitigate the struggles that come with transitioning from office spaces to remote work setups.
eLearning is the go-to solution for both internal and partner training at home due to its affordances for flexibility, accessibility, and interactivity that suit today’s working environment. Business leaders need to put in place and enact processes that take full advantage of eLearning’s unique properties.
Equip your business with the right tools to support remote workers in their training. Wahoo Learning’s bespoke managed LMS solution lets you run your learning and development programme smoothly with our help while you focus on navigating today’s uncertain economic times. Book a demo today.
