Remote employment is on the rise. Indeed, over 60% of companies have some remote team members, and nearly half of all employees work remotely some or all of the time. While there are many benefits to hiring remote employees, there are a number of challenges associated with this strategy as well. One of them is remote-employee training. Just because a team member is located far away, it doesn’t mean that businesses can ignore them and fail to educate them about company culture, best practices, and behavioral policies. In fact, business owners may need to make training remote team members even more of a priority because of their physical distance from their office. With that in mind, today we’re going to highlight four tips for training remote employees. Check them out here:
Screen Shares & Videos
Telling an employee how to accomplish a task is one thing; showing them how it’s done, though, is often much more effective. Unfortunately, professionals can’t look over a remote employee’s shoulder and show them how to access a file or fix a content writing error. Because of this, it’s imperative for business leaders to use screen sharing and video resources –– like Skype –– to train new, remote employees. Consider pre-recording a few videos that can be used again for different hires.
Follow Up
If a new employee doesn’t understand a concept or an assignment, they may be tempted to be silent and try to work it out on their own. After all, it’s difficult to speak up when you don’t know where to get started with a task. But this is not an effective use of time. Business leaders can prevent this uncomfortable situation by following up with remote team members during their first few weeks on the job. Encourage them to ask questions and check in on their progress regularly.
Provide Quality Resources
Want to make sure that your team members have everything they need to succeed? Then you need to offer them quality educational material. E-books, elearning case studies, and training videos are all great tools that businesses can use to keep their remote employees informed on a wide array of topics.
Foster a Learning Culture
Ideally, an employee would continue to learn new things on the job well after their initiation period officially ends. The most progressive businesses empower their team members –– both local and remote –– to communicate with each other often. When employees feel free to share new information or tips to improve performance with each other, everyone benefits. Reward your team for learning new things and you’ll be amazed by the results!
