Navigating 'The New Normal': Effective Strategies for Remote Training and Development

Having worked as a Customer Training Manager at Microsoft for over three years, I led our EMEA end-user training team through creating, honing and delivering our customer success training programme.

We first created our team and programme during the COVID-19 pandemic to support businesses on their rapid switch to remote working, utilising the technology stack they had. Fast forward a few years and we found ourselves not only supporting customers in embracing hybrid work, but also simultaneously adjusting the way we worked to meet the everchanging needs of our customers.

Often when speaking to HR, L&D or IT roles within our customers, they were interested in our approach to digital learning whilst maintaining that human connection we all craved so much after years of working from home.

I would share that in today's hybrid world, humanised remote training has become more crucial than ever. It's not just about adapting to the change we have all become accustomed to, but about utilising technology to thrive in the change.

For my fellow L&D folks out there, here are some strategies I've found invaluable in ensuring remote training remains effective and impactful:

Interactive Virtual Workshops: Foster engagement through interactive elements in Microsoft Teams such as polls, breakout sessions, and live Q&A. This encourages participation and creates a collaborative learning environment, whilst maintaining human contact, no matter where in the world your attendees are based.

Virtual Attendee Information Overload: Information overload and virtual call burnout is real and can actually lead to people losing focus on your message. We navigated this by ensuring our trainings were no more than 90 minutes long (with most coming in at 60 mins). In a world where we are no longer trying to maximise the time booked on a room, or having everyone together for the day, break your sessions up into bite-sized chunks. We found that splitting what would have typically been a 3 hour session into 3x one hour sessions over the course of a week a far more effective way for our learners to retain information.

Pick The Right Technologies: Delivering a session where you can't see physical cues from your audience is a daunting task, so utilising features within Microsoft Teams, such as reactions allowed us to virtually check-in with learners throughout the session to get a pulse of how they were finding the session.

Clear Communication Channels: Ensure open lines of communication for questions and feedback - both from customer stakeholders, but also learners themselves. Tools such as Microsoft Forms are game-changers for gathering and analysing feedback from a remote training session.

Personalised Learning Paths: Just because the training may not take place face-to-face does not mean the sessions should be any less personalised. Spending time before the session to understand learners needs and challenges is key to ensuring the training effectively meets their objectives.

Leave Time For Q&A: The number of times I have been on a training session myself that just abruptly ends and I am sat there trying to absorb everything I had just heard... make sure you leave time at the end of your sessions to go over anything people may need more information on or just to re-show a demo.

Embrace a Team Growth Mindset: Encourage a culture of continuous learning, where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth. Spend time as a team sharing best practices and things you have learnt on your own journey, to help others in their own upskilling. The answer is almost always in the 'virtual' room, so utilise the experience of those around you to gain insights and diverse perspectives.

When Something Goes Wrong: We all know that the tech gods aren't always on our side. If something doesn't go as planned, be it a training session with an incorrect attendee link or a demo that just doesn't want to load, the first rule is, don't panic, the second rule is communication is key! Talk through what would be on the screen at that moment until it loads or ensure you have a way to keep your attendees posted through tools such as Microsoft Teams chat - 9 times out of 10 they will be empathetic and grateful that you are keeping them updated as you resolve the issue (just as you would in a physical room).

Remote training isn't just a temporary fix... it's a shift, reflective of the 'new normal' businesses find themselves in and a hugely valuable tool that allows you to scale your training across geographical borders and reach new learners.

Let's keep the conversation going!

What other strategies have you found effective in remote training and development? Share your insights below. ??

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