Remote work has grown 44 percent over the past five years and for good reasons. The benefits of a remote workforce extend not just to the employees but to the organization as well.
Benefits of Remote Work for Employees
- Flexible Schedules: Being able to plan around life's events and personal needs makes remote work appealing for those who have children or need odd schedules to accommodate their lives.
- No Commute: The average commute to work in the U.S. is just over 26 minutes, one-way which amounts to nearly nine days in the year.
- Work-Life Balance: Since remote workers can work at their own pace from wherever they are, it allows them to establish a better work-life balance which is important to today's workforce.
Benefits of Remote Work for Employers
- Larger Recruiting Pool: Being able to recruit top talent from all over the globe creates dynamic teams that results in more creativity and innovation.
- Less Overhead: From less office space to less absenteeism, remote workers cut down on costs for organizations in many ways.
- Increased Productivity: According to research, 77 percent of remote workers feel more productive than in-house teams.
Training and Development for Remote Workers
Clearly remote work isn't going anywhere and neither is the need for learning and development (L&D). This might explain last year's dramatic decrease in training expenditures for travel, facilities, and equipment from $44.5 billion to $29.6 billion. Remote workers are able to train from home with the right programs implemented, removing the need for such expenses.
Organizations who want to invest in L&D cited "employees' lack of time" as one of the top L&D challenges. Since remote work allows for flexible scheduling, eLearning for remote workers is an ideal way to make sure your employees are on top of their game and provided real-time access to the company's newest policies and procedures.
Tips for eLearning for Remote Workers
Whether you're implementing a new policy, adopting new technology, or just want to refresh employees' memories on a specific topic, eLearning allows organizations to save time and resources while also reaching everyone organization-wide, regardless of their geographic location. There are many ways to incorporate eLearning into your company culture, such as:
Utilizing Microlearning
Research shows that microlearning - brief training modules - increases information retention by up to 20 percent. Whether it's a video or a short quiz, implementing microlearning can be beneficial without being time-consuming, allowing remote workers to get back to their tasks.
Offering Videos
Videos are becoming increasingly popular for training employees. Short videos followed by applicable quizzes can save time and money while also helping with knowledge retention and application.
Incorporating Elements of Entertainment
L&D can be dull. Incorporating entertainment or elements of team competition are great ways to keep employees engaged in their training.
Staying Consistent
eLearning is a convenient way to share information and update employees on changing policies and procedures but it needs to be consistent. The right content authoring and content delivery tools help you not only provide consistent content, but to provide it via multiple channels. You can also use these tools to keep track of your employees' training and development progress.
Providing Cross-Device Content
Remote workers enjoy the freedom of being able to access their work across devices, whether on their tablet, smartphone, or desktop. Make sure your learning material is accessible across all of these device types.
When it comes to eLearning, tools aren't the only thing that enable a world-class training program - you need to have proper planning. Our team here at GT is very passionate about helping companies learn the latest best practices when developing engaging content that increases employee retention. Download our guide, the 6 Must-Haves For Creating An Engaging Employee Training Program Your Employees Will Love.
Already have a training game-plan, but need help implementing it? Contact us today and let's discuss how GT can help.
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