7 Ways To Improve the Skills of Employees Remotely

Remote work has become a part of our present, and in the near future, it will attract almost all areas of our life into its comfortable environment. No one says that chefs will cook food for us in restaurants remotely, but the accountant, manager, managers, and some other employees can choose this path and take work outside the restaurant for a couple of days a week.

Much has to do with the surge in forced remote work popularity due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But some companies preferred this format long before the quarantine. All this time, both employees and managers choose remote work, because it brings them more pleasure from the process of performing even routine tasks. It also has fewer stress factors and saves time, which leads to a greater desire to work beyond the usual schedule, and also motivates me to learn something new.

Despite the benefits, it is important to learn how to properly manage employees and direct them towards continuous improvement in the quality of tasks performed and increased productivity. We will consider how to build it correctly in 7 tips for improving employees' skills remotely.

7 Tips for Improving Employee Skills Remotely

Improving employee skills remotely requires a thoughtful approach to ensure effective learning and development. Here are seven tips to help you enhance employee skills in a remote work environment:

1. Organize a good team building

Support is the key to productivity. If you organize good team building, your employees will be motivated. Globally, 2500% more organizations are investing in virtual team building in response to COVID-19, according to a TeamBuilding report.

You can independently set the trajectory for your team. For example, to support when performing project tasks or in the learning process. Team spirit, mutual assistance, and healthy communication in the team will help employees, even without your constant control, improve their skills and help each other. To achieve results, use:

• meetings in an informal setting - an online meeting with a cup of coffee and in pajamas will allow you to plan future learning tasks in a relaxed atmosphere and tune in to their implementation;
• online games - interesting joint online games will help you learn more about each other, get a boost of emotions, and turn on your brain for further fruitful learning;
• the spirit of competition - let employees compete a bit in obtaining new knowledge, motivate them with valuable prizes or a bonus for winning the race;
• joint discussions - everyone should have the right to speak out and offer their ideas on self-education.

The remote format is already devoid of office clichés and a purely business environment. Good team building online will help you get closer to each other and work towards your goals together.

2. Select goals

Always set goals for your employees and align them with the goals of the company. Training and development should be beneficial for all participants in the process, so it is important to prioritize. You, as a leader, must constantly motivate your employees with the correct setting of tasks. Due to the remote format of work, the threads of communication are not strong enough and require the constant presence of the leader in the lives of subordinates. When the latter sees you as a leader and a good mentor, the process of work and learning will bear fruit and meet the goals set.

3. Create a culture of learning

It is important to achieve control over the training of employees without a constant presence in their lives. This is where the culture of learning comes into play. It includes optimizing processes to achieve efficiency. Each employee needs to create his plan for a month, six months, or a year, using which he will be able to achieve his goals. It can take the form of a calendar, where a topic or a link to a resource will be written opposite each day, where the employee can learn new information. After passing, he can take the appropriate test and mark that the topic has been passed.

It will be a plus if you use motivating chips, for example, inscriptions or letters of gratitude that the employee has gone through the topic and received a new skill. It can also be progress tables.

You will be able to remotely evaluate and analyze the path traveled by each of your subordinates, and they will be motivated to undergo continuous training on their own without your constant monitoring and personal meetings.

4. Provide employees with a comfortable environment

Most employees prefer to study in a pleasant environment and do not like to be forced to stay after the work day for the next training session. In remote work, therefore, there is no place for office habits, but the training schedule should still be comfortable for subordinates. The latter want to learn at their own pace. For example, listen to an audio lesson while jogging in the morning or while preparing breakfast. Do not forbid them to do everything arbitrarily. In this case, only the result matters. 

5. Encourage Learning

The main goals of any on-the-job training are to improve the level of existing skills and grow up the career ladder. To achieve them, employees need constant support from management. Do not play on the trust of subordinates - offer real prospects and implement the promise. It will take a lot of time, resources, and effort to find something suitable and special for each of them, but it's worth it.

Every company must have qualified and engaged employees. But all this is achieved through constant action and the proper organization of the learning process. Due to the constant development of technology, the concept of work itself is also changing. Today, it is associated with endless self-development, which does not tolerate stopping. Otherwise, both employees and the company as a whole risk losing the thread of progress and remaining uncompetitive.

6. Use communication technology

You should not call employees 100 times a day to monitor the learning process and praise them for their work. Use convenient communication technologies for this. It can be regular messengers or social networks. Remote work allows you to do this because there are almost no usual office rules. Send motivating messages to each employee individually from time to time and only to keep the spirit up.

You can also create a community for the entire team using a team collaboration platform like Troop Messenger. There you can also send a training schedule, letters of gratitude, training materials, the results of the work of employees and just keep in touch. Do not forget to wish everyone happy holidays and send birthday cards, making the community a place for informal communication, but with a clear and streamlined structure. This will boost the morale of the team, each member of which will be able to ask for help in the chat and receive words of support.

7. Provide Learning Resources

Learning resources must be provided by the leader. If each employee spends time looking for them on their own, this will reduce productivity. In addition, subordinates may find inaccurate materials and not get the proper result.

Choose sites with training materials carefully. Use only those sources that are time-tested and help in learning, such as StuDocu. Search all available content in video, audio, and text format so that team members can explore it on any device, at any convenient time.

Conclusion

We have put together 7 simple tips that will help managers properly manage the process of learning and gaining new skills for employees working remotely. Use each of them in your practice to achieve optimal results. Remember, subordinates will never be ready for any kind of training without goals, a clear plan, rewards, career advancement, and the necessary resources.