By Allan Alveyra 
Corporate training is something companies simply cannot delay – even amidst a pandemic. That’s why many businesses have resorted to digital learning. In this blog post, we’re discussing five important online corporate training programs your employees can take online.
According to McKinsey Accelerate, one-half of in-person programs through June 30, 2020, have been postponed or cancelled in North America, in parts of Asia, and Europe.
New Hire Orientation
Most of the time, employee orientation and employee onboarding are used interchangeably. However, both terms have significant differences, one of which is their duration.
An onboarding program usually lasts longer than new employee orientation, which can be a one-time event. Nonetheless, you can conduct both corporate training programs online, specifically using a Learning Management System or simply LMS.
An online orientation is one of the most flexible and cost-effective ways of introducing new employees. Generally, new employee orientation involves presenting facts about company culture, objectives, and structure. With companies slowly turning more and more digital, these topics are now transformed into short video presentations or e-books. The fantastic thing about these online materials is that they are easily digested and more immersive.
Onboarding Program
Companies should have a solid onboarding program that ensures employees get proper integration and culture adjustment. Knowing that the onboarding process can be the most fragile stage in building good relationships it must not be taken for granted.
For decades, organizations have relied on a series of traditional procedures to onboard newly hired employees. When the pandemic entered the scene, it caused a seismic shift in human resource management. Due to COVID-19 protocols onboarding became more challenging.
When the work-from-home set up emerged as the best option, remote onboarding turned out to be the best onboarding model as well. Companies started investing in corporate training solutions to make up for their long onboarding hiatus.
Just like other onboarding processes, onboarding employees remotely also has its challenges. Nonetheless, if you have the right online training plan your digital onboarding program should help you meet your objectives.
To ensure a successful remote training program, here are five helpful tips:
Product Knowledge Training
Keeping employees updated with the latest product information and services used to involve certain complexities. Aside from being time-consuming, product training could also be a costly endeavor. Thanks to e-learning, these challenges now belong to the past.
Not only is online product knowledge training standard in modern workplaces, it’s also the best way to interact with younger employees. Some of the most prominent benefits include:
- Accessibility
- Cost-effectiveness
- Easy and convenient customization
- Increased engagement
- Improved knowledge retention
We all know that knowledgeable and skilled sales associates are catalysts to a better customer experience. When your employees understand your products and services, they’re more likely to utilize all its features and benefits and eventually attract more customers. Thus, creating an online product training system can help you build a solid foundation for your marketing initiatives.
Soft Skills Training
Nowadays, more organizations are prioritizing soft skills when choosing between two seemingly equal candidates. As a matter of fact, a study by Wonderlic found that 93 % of hiring leaders stated that soft skills are an “essential” element when making hiring decisions. But what are soft skills?
Soft skills are the abilities that hold importance for professional success, for they enable employees to communicate and cooperate productively within the organization.
While soft skills are becoming increasingly popular with companies, there are still unanswered questions on whether they can be developed or taught online. To touch on this matter, Stephen Meyer, CEO of the Rapid Learning Institute, outlines two key design approaches for soft skills training that can be advantageous during online delivery:
Rapid learning
Meyer suggests that short and focused learning modules can be transformative in training soft skills. The principle here is that versatile and easy-to-digest information modules can cater to persons with short attention spans. Actually, companies have expressed that a learning approach designed according to this model is far easier to deliver.
Single concept learning
Since the human brain is wired to draw conclusions based on narrow windows of experiences, a single concept learning can be well suited for online soft skills training. Based on the psychological concept of ‘thin-slicing’, single concept learning delivers small learning insights through focused learning modules. And according to Meyer, these, too, can have a powerful impact.
Compliance Training
COVID-19 had a significant impact on companies’ safety and compliance training protocols. But while infection control practices limited face-to-face training, compliance officers explored all possible options to comply with applicable standards. One of these options included the use of blended learning, especially exploiting e-learning platforms such as Cursum’s.
According to Elucidat’s research, only 12 % of organizations plan to revert to pre-pandemic levels of face-to-face training. This is a direct result of an increasing number of organizations having experienced the benefits of e-learning solutions such as an LMS. Again, short, bitesize e-learning modules are popular because they make compliance training more personalized and relevant to people’s roles and context.
Start Your Online Corporate Training Program with Cursum
To take full advantage of online corporate training programs, you must employ a scalable digital platform that will increase user engagement and guarantee a positive impact on your organization’s KPIs. And if you’re currently searching for the best corporate training solution, you can end your search here!
With Cursum, you get a smart and immersive LMS platform that lets you tailor your e-learning or corporate training objectives as you wish.
