How to Enhance the Impact of Your Virtual Training

According to a recent survey, 80% of employees said learning adds purpose to their work.

This sense of purpose leads to:

• More engagement on the job
• Deeper commitment to achieving goals
• Increased work productivity

This means there is a direct connection between the training you provide your employees and how productive they are.

Employee training could include training in sales, customer service, leadership, technical, or something else depending on your industry.

Whatever form it takes, if increased productivity is the result, then it’s worth investing in employee training.

In this article we’ll discuss how you can mitigate the challenges to virtual training and proactive steps you can take to improve the impact of your next training session.

The recent increase of remote workers combined with the ease and flexibility of online meetings has led to virtual training (rather than in-person) as the preferred training method for many companies.

But virtual training doesn’t come without its challenges. Virtual events of any form, including training, can make it tricky to:

• Keep the audience focused
• Handle technical difficulties
• Create a sense of personalization

But don’t worry. Your virtual training session isn’t doomed to failure.

You can do plenty of things before and during the training to tackle these challenges. We’ll take a look at 5 ways to improve your virtual training sessions which will result in a more enjoyable and impactful session.

Prepare your employees for the event by sending out information in advance. These pre-training resources will go a long way in improving the impact of your training.

How To Do It:

Share the following with employees before training day:

An agenda of what to expect during the training session.

Include the training objectives, key speakers, workshops, or any other audience participation sections.

Looking over this information in advance will build excitement and anticipation with your employees.

Base knowledge information of the topic to be discussed.

These could be articles and/or videos relevant to your training topic.

By sending out basic information about what will be covered, you ensure that all employees are on the same page. You know they all have at least a basic knowledge of the topic from which they can build on during your session.

One of the biggest challenges of virtual meetings is keeping the audience focused.

The best way to combat this is to get them involved. Your employees can’t be distracted (or asleep) if they are actively participating in the event.

How To Do It:

• Polls/Quizzes/Assessments
  Assess their understanding of the material, gather feedback on the topics covered, and gain insights into their views of the information.
• Gamification
  Trivia, bingo, contests, and other gamification techniques are great ways to add excitement to training and keep employees engaged.
• Workshops
  Give your employees the opportunity to practice what they’re learning. Workshops enhance the impact of training sessions and help attendees stay focused on the learning objectives.
• Q&As
  The Q&A is a classic audience participation section. And for good reason! Q&As give employees the chance to clear up misunderstandings, feel involved in the training, and provide feedback as to what areas may need some extra clarification.

Choose your virtual event platform wisely. They aren’t all created equally and just because you’re familiar with one doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for your training.

Decide which features you will want for your training before reviewing platform options. Potential features include:

• Whiteboards
• Breakout Rooms
• Waiting Rooms
• Recording
• Live Chats
• Closed Captioning

If a virtual event platform doesn’t offer a desired feature, you can easily check it off the list. From there, take a look at the cost, participant allowance, and ease of use.

Bonus tip: Use features to enhance personalization. Breakout rooms and chats provide a great opportunity to elevate your training. Use these features to communicate with each employee directly, combating the lack of personalization that can otherwise occur at virtual events.

The type of equipment you use will play a huge part in the success of your event. If you want high-quality training, you need high-quality equipment.

How To Do It:

• Internet
  Invest in high-speed internet. What does that mean? Basically, you are looking for high download and upload speeds.

For reference, Zoom recommends at least 3.8Mbps/3.0Mbps (up/down) for 1080p HD video.

• Audio
  Invest in a noise-canceling microphone. These help eliminate background noise so that your voice comes through loud and clear on the other end.

• Video
  Camera qualities vary and the one that comes automatically on your computer might not do the trick. There are plenty of inexpensive external camera options that will enhance your video exponentially.

Another thing to think about is your background. You’ve put a lot of work into holding your employees’ attention, don’t let that go to waste with a distracting background.

Bonus tip:
Don’t wait until training day to see how your equipment is running. Do a practice run in advance. Check internet speeds, audio and visual clarity, and your lighting and background. If you’re having guest speakers, do the same with them.

“This doesn’t apply to me”
“I’ll never use this”
“I’m already doing this”

You certainly don’t want your employees thinking that while attending your training session. How can you avoid this type of response? The key is tailoring your training to fit their needs.

Imagine this scenario: You’ve recently adopted a new CRM software system. All employees will use this new system and need training. What will you do?

A. Host one, company wide training for all employees, covering all features of the system.
B. Host several trainings tailored to each department.

Which option is best? Of course, B. Option B does mean you have to do more work but the results will be worth it. Why?

Ann, in sales, doesn’t need to know where to add customer phone numbers to the program. Meanwhile, James in HR won’t care how to create invoices in the new program.

Both Ann and James will likely zone out, lose interest, or become irritated sitting through training that simply doesn’t apply to them.

Tailoring your training, even though it means hosting more events, will result in employees who are more interested, more engaged, and more likely to recall and apply what’s discussed.

Training in the workplace isn’t an option; it’s essential to company success. By planning ahead you can create a training session that will make a lasting impact on your employees. But you might still be wondering:

• Which platform features do I really need?
• What’s the best way to incorporate gamification into my training?
• How will I handle unexpected technical issues on training day?

We’d be happy to give you a hand. With over 15 years in the virtual event space, we’ve seen just about everything there is to see. Let’s get together and discuss how to develop a virtual training event that makes a lasting impact.