Nowadays we don’t need to meet face-to-face to provide training content to our team. If we’ve got a virtual platform, we have a choice. Do we deliver training at a specific time and day? Or do we keep the training smorgasbord-style, allowing our team to complete training whenever they wish? We all have 24 hours in our days, so as the trainer and the trained, we need to make the best use of our time. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons for both.
As the Leader – Set Time
We all tend to be too conscious of time nowadays. We’re aware that the day is furiously ticking away without regard to all that we want to stuff into it. Often we feel more comfortable with a checklist and appointments, giving us the sense that we are managing our time better. When you are one deep as the trainer, committing to a training session which starts and ends at a specific time and date can have its drawbacks. What if your schedule goes askew or your Internet connection becomes finicky at game time? Your team will wait politely for 5, maybe 10 minutes, and then vanish.
The benefit for you, though, is that the training session will land on your team members’ calendars, so that they make plans to be there. The real-time interaction can energize those who work remotely. People do have limited attention spans, though, and their enthusiasm may be short-lived if the training content and presentation style are not riveting. The worst nightmare for a trainer? That no one will show.
As the Team – Set Time
It’s all about motivation. Some team members will procrastinate if there’s not a set date and time for them to complete something. They’d rather have that training session in bold letters on their calendars with their phones prompting them with reminders to get ready for it. If they don’t have that trigger to attend the session, it may not happen that day . . . or that week. They need your encouragement to learn the training content.
These team members who want a set time for their training may also enjoy the ticker-tape chat among the participants, emphasizing this point or questioning another. Training this way is interactive. They may tell you that the training content springs into life that way and sinks in deeper for them.
As the Leader – No Set Time
What if your training sessions are all cued up, so that your team can work through the modules in smorgasbord style? You can create the training content whenever you work best – whether you are an early bird or a night owl. Once your work is done, you can disengage. You don’t need to keep checking your watch to make sure you are on time. The content will be there when your team arrives – asynchronously.
You’ll need a place to post your material so that your team can complete the training. Posting your videos doesn’t always work well on social media with this rule and that one changing at whim. You want consistency and availability so that your team can learn without any hiccups or inconvenience. Your aim is to make sure that your team can access what they need to learn in a seamless and streamlined way.
As the Team – No Set Time
Harried and hurried, often team members are nervous about scheduling anything specific. They have the same concerns that you do – that something will come up, making it impossible for them to be there. Unless the session is recorded, the opportunity is missed. Even getting there on time is not a guarantee that something won’t happen during the virtual session. It’s one thing for people to gather together at one location, because for that specified time, they are not part of their usual world of distractions. Attending virtual training is more open for interruption.
Often, team members prefer to have a more fluid schedule. Perhaps their calendars are chockful. When there’s an unexpected cancellation, they’ll have some “extra” time to get caught up with tasks. They can make a dash and click on a training they’d like to watch, and their time is not wasted. By having asynchronous training sessions, your team can work on learning more, any time they wish, 24/7.
How Can We Help?
Know your team well enough to determine the best “stage” for you and for them – asynchronous or in real time. Perhaps it’s a matter of preference, so it’s important to ask your team for feedback. Whatever decision you make about the timing of your training, what’s essential is that your team can access the training content whenever they have time to complete a session. By having a safe and secure place to post your sessions, your team can do just that.
We have an app for you that will not only give you a place to archive all of your training, but Business Glu also provides you with the ability to send notifications to your team. You can also monitor the success of each teammate and see how much of the training content has been completed. Should someone be struggling, you’ll know right away and can reach out to him or her. With the interactive Business Glu app, you can provide round the clock care for your team!
