The challenge of multi-site business, particularly those that have international offices is training the team in every office to the same standard and along the same procedures. Often the failure of a remote office is down to them not upholding the standards set at the head office. So being able to train the employees at remote offices is essential to international success. This is where virtual classroom software comes to the fore.
Using Virtual Classroom Software
Sending your best trainers to each site can be expensive and time consuming, especially if you’re a company that has hundreds of retail sites, or international offices. But virtual classroom software does away with the need for face to face training and allows your best trainers to train large groups in diverse locations at one time, or if necessary, mentor single individuals on the other side of the world every week.
Scheduling conflicts and the inability to communicate effectively in writing or over the phone are often barriers to working collaboratively with remote offices. By introducing virtual classroom software you have the ability to schedule in a training session with numerous individuals at once, inviting them to a dedicated training session. Using video conferencing technology everyone involved in the training session can see the trainer in real time, and if you wish can see each other. It promotes interactive training, allowing every individual to ask questions as soon as they have one, rather than wait until the end of the training session. It facilities collaboration through working together on a test case or example, with documents able to be shared through the software and everyone work on them together.
The benefits are numerous. First of all it reduces costs of sending people to one location for training. One training session alone which includes flights, meals, accommodation and time away from normal business activity can cost a company tens of thousands of dollars. Include on that the cost of renting a training center or conference center for larger groups of people.
Due to the reduced cost and time wasted around getting people to training sessions, you can train more often, so your training schedule can be filled through out the year to help train everyone in the company to a high standard. Your trainers will become more familiar with their subjects and better at presenting them and developing training resources. Should your trainers leave, you can also keep recordings of training sessions so you can replay them in the future, or have a new trainer learn from the previous trainer before delivering their own content.
Team building is improved through regular collaboration of remotely dispersed teams, as they become more familiar with each other through regular training sessions, and they work hard together to implement the changes across the sites, ensuring compliance with head office. The whole team benefits as they will see your efforts to build a company where everyone is valued, has the latest training and you have invested in technology to facilitate this.
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