Even with the development of communication and project management technologies, it can still be challenging to oversee remote teams. Limited facetime and the inability to hold in-person meetings requires managers of hybrid or fully remote teams to think outside the box when it comes to effectively communicating with and perhaps even mentoring their teams. However, as the pandemic proved, we can all work productively at home and still deliver results – so long as we optimize our hybrid working habits to accommodate our skills.
And what if you’re working with remote team members who are still developing skills, or perhaps are in the process of being onboarded? Truth be told, there is no reason why you can’t facilitate skills-building across remote teams. This helpful article will share our top tips for facilitating employee skills-building across remote teams working together, so read on to learn more about this valuable topic.
Enable Self-Paced Learning
As remote teams are already expected to work autonomously, it stands to reason that one of the best methods for facilitating skills-building initiatives across remote or hybrid professional spaces is to allow your staff to learn at their own pace, providing learning materials or modules that they can engage with during periods in their own individual schedule where they’re more likely to have space for upskilling.
Developing a self-paced learning model for remote teams may require taking a multifaceted approach. For instance, you could use a learning management system (LMS) or another software platform to make remote team members’ training materials available in one digital space. Doing this means that employees can access all the relevant documents, videos, interactive content, and courses at their convenience when they have a spare moment and set their training schedules without having to stress about finding time on a busy day to attend specific scheduled webinars or presentations. Module materials can then also be supported by downloadable or printable reference materials. You can use a PDF maker to create these ‘course summary’ reference materials with minimal fuss. Making these reference materials .pdf format will also ensure that your staff members can access them across virtually all devices.
As long as you don’t ask remote team members to sacrifice their personal leisure time, allowing them to learn at their own, self-set pace means they can peruse the materials at their leisure. They can then retake quizzes, replay videos, and re-read documents until they grasp the required concepts and absorb the information to build their skill set.
Implement a Mentor Program
One traditional method of building skills that can easily transfer across remote teams is by pairing junior staff with an experienced or senior team member who can act as a mentor or coach. The idea is that the more experienced team member can offer valuable insights into business systems, processes, policies and other factors of the role to support the junior team member’s skills development and progression within the business.
While mentorship arrangements are usually done in person, you can easily achieve this online. They could schedule regular catch-ups one-on-one via Zoom or another video conferencing platform, stay in touch using chat messages and have phone calls to discuss work and skills development. You can do this for every new starter on each team and have a pool of available mentors composed of the senior staff members.
Book Team Members into Online Professional Development
Another tried and tested method you can use to facilitate skills development for remote team members is by booking them into remote or virtual professional development sessions, either through your business education and training team or via a remote training provider. There are a range of short courses available for staff to attend, such as change management, project management, leadership, practical skills or technical training. They can dial into these sessions from home, and often, resources are emailed out for use during the training or for reference afterwards. This is an excellent method to upskill remote team members who may not otherwise have access to in-person skills and professional development sessions.
Gamify Training and Skills Development
Motivating remote teams to complete training or invest in skills development is not always simple because they may not always be immediately interested in the topic, and managers have to contend with their already jam-packed schedules to encourage them to engage in learning and skills development. But gamification taps into people’s extrinsic motivation with reward systems such as points, prizes, or recognition.
Also, gamifying your education or skills development program doesn’t mean that you have to add another tool to your already chockers tech stack. It can be as simple as incorporating the following ideas:
- A points table — Use a simple spreadsheet or Google doc to give team members points for completed training modules. That way, team members can compare their progress, get inspired by everyone’s development efforts and even get a little competitive.
- A levels system — You can reward remote learners who reach certain training levels or complete several learning pathways with prizes such as gift vouchers, discount codes, or public recognition, especially if they demonstrate rapid progress.
- Game mechanics — For example, after delivering training or skills development materials in a presentation-style or webinar format, you could play a Jeopardy-style trivia game with the remote teams to reinforce the core concepts of the learning.
Reward Success
Finally, remember to take some time here and there to acknowledge developmental milestones for your employees. This ties into the above point, but let’s take it a step further. You should ensure that you reward successes in remote team skills development. If someone completes a module or short course, reward them with public recognition, such as an all-team email, or reward them with something they can enjoy, such as a book voucher or wine delivery. Yes, these incentives can aid in supporting staff engagement with your development and skills-building initiatives, but there’s also plenty of research to reflect that workplaces that offer staff incentives are also more likely to enjoy higher staff retention rates, which ultimately results in more experienced, capable human resources for your business.
Implementing a consistent reward system can also aid in your employees feeling some sense of progression and structure to their upskilling. In a similar vein to gamification, the more valuable their rewards become, the greater their incentive grows to continue on their path of self-improvement and professional development.
A Skills Development Summary
Today, we’ve shared our top tips for facilitating employee skills-building across remote teams, from mentorship to online learning and gamification. Be sure to implement any of the methods that are most suitable for your teams into your enterprise. With continuous investments, improvements, and engagement, you should have a skills-building process that’s perfectly optimized to the dynamic needs of your remote and hybrid professionals.
