If your organization, business, or company is expanding, one location may not be enough to manage all the operations. This means that you will have to open new offices and onboard new team members to manage multiple locations.
However, training multiple teams in different locations presents some challenges. For instance, the lack of face-to-face interaction may cause a low engagement rate. Also, technical challenges, such as unstable internet and software issues may interrupt your virtual training sessions.
With these challenges in mind, it’s important to plan and organize your training. So, how should you do it? Here are some effective strategies on how to train multiple teams with your virtual classroom software.
Create a Positive Training Environment
Creating a positive environment is vital to the success of your training program. As a virtual trainer, you need to create a supportive and safe environment, just as if you were leading the training in person.
Regardless of the teams you’re training, you need to be upbeat, consistent, and fair in order to create the best virtual learning environment. Also, you need to give every trainee an equal opportunity to speak and contribute during the sessions.
After the end of each training session, you should then allow the trainees to interact with each other. This makes the sessions livelier. When you create this type of environment, you will find it easier to get your points across, ensure the trainees listen to what you’re saying, and make the sessions more productive.
Choose the Right Delivery Method
When it comes to training multiple teams, you have three main delivery methods to consider: synchronous training, asynchronous training, and blended training. Each training method is designed for specific situations.
Synchronous training: As the name suggests, synchronous training is where all the trainees are participating simultaneously. It’s important to note that this type of training is highly time-dependent. You can only conduct it at a specific time of the day. So, as the trainer, you need to carefully plan your training sessions and ensure you announce them at a good time.
Asynchronous training: In asynchronous training, multiple teams can access the training content and resources with more flexibility. In short, they don’t need to be in the same virtual training space at the same time. Although trainees can set up their own schedules, this training type may not be the most interactive.
Blended training: Blended training incorporates features from both the synchronous and asynchronous training approaches, resulting in a custom solution. Blended training is generally the most effective training solution, especially when it comes to complex training situations.
Choose the Right Tools
As much as it’s possible to run a virtual training program for multiple teams using a combination of Skype, Excel, and PowerPoint, these tools may not deliver the best training experience. They have their own limitations, resulting in a below-par experience.
If you want to deliver a great training experience for multiple teams, you must be ready to invest in the right tools. You will need a conferencing and webinar platform, a learning management system, and an eLearning authoring tool.
For the conferencing and webinar platform, you should go for a tool that can enable you to share your screen, chat via text, remotely access other trainees’ desktops, and exchange files. Zoom, Webex, Zoho, and Bluejeans are among the conferencing and webinar platforms you can use.
The learning management system will help you to connect virtually with multiple teams. It will also help you to deploy, track, and manage your training efforts. This will make it easier for you to invite attendees for the training sessions and assign learning materials.
The eLearning tool can create interactive content that you can share with your trainees. Make sure you use a tool that can deliver your content with full accessibility on all devices. This will go a long way in ensuring that your training resources are available to everyone on your teams, regardless of the device or browser they are using.
If you don’t want to use multiple platforms simultaneously, you can simply opt for virtual classroom software. This software simply works like a classroom, which allows you to do all the things an instructor would normally do in a physical setup. It has advanced features that are efficient for conferencing, learning management, and eLearning.
Have a Versatile Approach
In today’s digital world, it’s easy to access a wide range of tools and technologies that you can use to create an effective virtual training environment.
So, instead of just using one tool or method every day, you should instead use a combination of styles and tools. This will make the training more engaging and interesting.
Your training sessions should include a mix of training materials, as well as hands-on exercises. Also, if you are sending resources to multiple teams, you should choose a style and delivery method that works for all of them.
Don’t waste too much time trying to create your own worksheets or slideshows. Instead, use available virtual classroom software features to create and design the training manuals and resources.
It’s also highly advisable to break down the training sessions, making them as short as possible. Long training sessions are extremely ineffective, especially when it comes to virtual training. Hours and hours of long video or pages of text will not hold anyone’s attention, regardless of how interesting the content is.
Instead, you should break it down into 10 to 15 minute lessons. Besides breaking down the sessions into shorter increments, you should also use a wide range of training methods. For instance, you can use a series of tests and quizzes to assess how your teams are progressing. On some days, you can play a game with the teams.
Don’t Micromanage Them
Some employers worry that their employees may not spend their entire day at the office working. But when it comes to training and managing remote workers, you shouldn’t be worrying about such things. Instead, you should focus on tasks and the milestones that are accomplished, instead of the number of hours.
According to a Global Workplace Analytics survey, remote workers tend to be more productive and economically viable to a business, compared to those working in a conventional office setting.
In short, when you empower and equip your teams with the right tools and resources, they will achieve their goals more efficiently, regardless of where they are working. So, during the training sessions, you just need to state the goals and milestones that they have to achieve within certain timelines, and then let your teams handle the rest.
Be Flexible
When it comes to training multiple teams, you need to understand that every person has their own schedule. You need to keep this in mind when creating your training timetable.
Trying to fit every member of your team into a single training schedule can become frustrating. It can cause low engagement and productivity rates. As a result, you will end up spending more resources.
Instead, you should use your virtual training software to come up with a flexible schedule. With this approach, you will allow every trainee to follow a speed that works best for them.
While you can still set deadlines for various tasks and milestones, you can allow them to learn through your software at their own pace.
Provide Room for Socialization
In a traditional office setting, teams have many opportunities to socialize and interact, whether it be sharing donuts in the office kitchen, or sharing stories in the hallway. Unfortunately, these moments are not available to remote workers.
So, when you train multiple teams in different locations, you will need to provide room for socialization. For instance, you can start a Slack channel, a Facebook group, or a hub on your virtual classroom software, where team members can casually interact, ask each other questions, and provide updates on their training progress.
Ask for Feedback
Most workers don’t speak their minds at work. They fear being laid off or criticized by their fellow employees. This isn’t a good trend, especially when you’re training multiple teams in different locations.
If your trainees don’t provide feedback, it’s impossible to tell whether your training methods are working or not. And without that information, you may keep making the same mistakes, rendering your training ineffective.
So, don’t expect your trainees to volunteer feedback willingly. You will need to ask for their honest input. This is possible by holding individual conversations, conducting group chats, and offering anonymous surveys. This approach will show your trainees that you value their suggestions, and allow you to use that information to continue to improve upon your training.
Final Thoughts
Training multiple teams in different locations is not as hard as it sounds. You simply need to choose the right virtual training software, allow trainees to learn at their own pace, provide room for social interaction, and ask for feedback. If you’re seeking other options, you should check out what ReadyTech has to offer. Our online training software has advanced, user-friendly features that can help your teams grow within the company. For more details, call us today to learn more!
